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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;RedTiger, post: 646777, member: 19098&quot;]There are plenty of skunks around, especially at brick and mortar shops, pawn shops, and hotel room buyers. There are even some on the local bourse, a few that may even wink at each other if a fish walks in to a local show, and then split the collection when both or several dealers all agree to low ball the novice seller. As a percentage that is hard to say. </p><p><br /></p><p>Unless the time was the early 1960s, buying Morgans and Walking Liberty halves at face value seems like a total ripoff. However, I don&#039;t know how true that is, or if there were any other strange circumstances behind your story. As I said, anyone can write anything on the Internet, and I have no way to verify anything anyone writes. If true as presented it was a total ripoff and a dealer that I would avoid, no matter how nice they were to me, but that is just me. Someone that rips people off that badly, is likely looking to rip me off just as bad, if they see the chance.</p><p><br /></p><p>So I agree there are also dealers that are nice to their regular customers, but will rip a novice when they see a chance to do so. Hard to say if the term &quot;honest&quot; applies. I guess, it depends on how big the rip is. As economic times get worse, the rips will likely get worse. Some dealers are hungry, and when someone is hungry, they will sometimes do anything they can get away with, even if it means offering 10 cents on the dollar, if that means their kids get to eat that week. I&#039;m not saying it is right or ethical, it just is.</p><p><br /></p><p>That said, some novices get upset when they have common coins for sale, and then see better dates in high grade being sold for 10x or 100x what the dealer offered for their common junk coins. It is easy enough to skew such stories, and then misplace a fact or two upon repetition, and make the dealer in the hypothetical story look like a skunk when he/she may be one of the good ones.</p><p><br /></p><p>Folks will have different definitions as to what a fair profit margin is. Many have that profit bar set so low, that very few dealers would qualify as honest. For ballpark numbers, 100% profit over cost is common on low cost slow moving common items such as common wheaties, buffalos and the like. 30% to 50% is common on moderately priced collector coins in the $20 to $60 range. 10% to 15% is more common on items over $100+, higher demand items. 3% to 5% might be common on high volume, high value bullion items. Obviously, some dealers might charge more, or less, or offer higher or lower, depending on their volume, their expenses, their profit expectations, their customer base, but these are ballpark numbers.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some dealers will clear things out at 5% or at cost, but usually only to their best customers. Wholesalers and bullion dealers tend to work on thinner margins, and move more merchandise, but not always (telemarketer bullion/investment dealers have some of the highest markups in the business).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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