Just wondering if anyone has made offers to online dealers for a coin they want? I like a coin at one of the dealers (actually two) and I was wondering if I made an offer how they might react. Or better yet maybe I should just ask what is the best he could do for me for the two coins together. I already bought a couple of cheapies just to get my hands on the coins to see how they graded out. Whats the worst that can happen - he loses my business. By the way I do trust the dealer - I did find them recommended on this site.
Interesting question. I'm afraid I know nothing about this but if you try it let us know what happens would you?
Be careful doing business with ShopAtHomeTV if this is the dealer you are talking about. The ShopAtHomeTV web site has not being working for the last few days, and it now appears Jewelry TV has taken over that network. I did hear some scuttle-butt that ShopAtHomeTV might be in receivership. They do not use the same employees on their network. I phoned Direct TV, but of course being July 4th holidays, no one could give me any information until tomorrow. Just be careful with your money. Jim
To answer your question I have tryed exactly that several times. A few dealers I found on these type of forums and a few dealers I met at coin shows. The results really are not good. Dealers I've contacted that I found on these forums that have web sites I checked out certain coins I would like to pruchase. I emailed them that I was interested in certain coins but the prices were a little above what I would like to spend. In all such cases I was told the prices are what they are. Only one dealer said that if I purchase over $100 dollars worth of coins he would reduce the prices by 5 %. Then there are the dealers I've met at coin shows and I recieved thier cards with their web sites on them. At the coin shows it was easy to bargain down at least 20% of the asking prices but when I contacted them via the internets email they told me thier web prices are firm. Nuts to them. Now when I go to a coin show and meet one of them I tell them about that stupid email remark of firm prices and even at times bring a print out of that, they apologize and try to tell me their web site prices are much lower than at the coin shows. I must look like an old dummy or something.
Yes, I have negotiated with on-line dealers who also needed or wanted a specific coin in my collection and were wiilling to include it in the trade. Most are fairly generous when it comes to upgradiing. As one member wrote, all you can do is ask - "Is this the absolute best price you an give?" Good Luck smb12321
The dealer agreed to knock off about 10%(actually if I used cash I could save another $15) for the coins. So it worked out for me - one coin is raw and one coin is graded. I could probably still save money if I was patient enough on the auction sites, but oh well. I think I only need another 10 IHC to have a complete collection VF or better. Then I can work on a few upgrades.
I never use anything like HSN or anything like that. It was one of the dealers listed in the first post. As a matter of fact everything I have so far has come from local coin shop or ebay. I spent about $40 bucks on coins from the dealer just see how close his grading was. I though the coins were only slightly over graded(as with most sellers) but decent prices. So then I checked a couple of more expensive coins out - and thus this thread.
It never hurts to ask for a better price. The coin business is one of the few places where price negotiating is practically expected every where you go. tradernick
