The wife and I went to the flea market today at the expo center, advertised as "The Biggest and Best of the Year" with well over 1000 booths. Nothing changes much from one to another, even our shopping style remains the same, I wander from booth to booth glancing at everything only to stop at tools or coins, and she goes strait for the colored glass, vases, and jewelry. I spent about an hour or so at this one booth looking over the coins there. I could tell from the set up, that this was or had been a professional coin sales establishment. They had some nice coins, not that I agreed with most of the prices, but there was a great selection there. I talked to the guy a little but he was busy with other customers, so I mostly kept to myself, never buying anything. The wife came and got me because she found something that she really liked and I know from experience, I was going to have to pay for it, because more than likely, it was more than she would pay. When she does that thing with those pretty brown eyes, then I know she is in love with it. She will brag and show everyone what her husband bought her. She really thinks that I don't have a clue as to how she works me. So I pay for this ring, she is all happy, and I'm off again to find the next big discovery. A couple of booths down from the ring bandit, I see a case with no more than 10 silver dollars in it. I wait my turn and when I can get close to the case, I can see that there are 3 Peace dollars and the rest are Morgans. There were '21, '28, and '26 Peace dollars there, several '21 Morgans, and a couple more '80s common dates. That '28 Peace stood out from the crowd, lots of luster, clean fields and just a really nice coin on top of that, it was a P mint. I asked if I could see it and the lady said sure. I looked it over and asked what she would take for it, she said that she and her husband had bought an estate and all of theses coins were in it, she didn't know a lot about them but that they had a friend in the business that had looked at them and told them what they were worth, so she would have to have at least $350 bucks for it. This coin was easily worth $400. Then I asked to look at the '21. I wasn't near as nice as the '28 but was a solid AU coin, She said that she wanted $100 for it. I was standing there thinking, I don't have enough money on me for either, because I just let Brown Eyes swoon me out of it. So I told her that I would have to come back. She said that if I took both, she would let me have them for $400 even. I asked if she could hold them for me and she agreed that she would. I found an ATM and got the cash and headed back. When I got there, she had them in flips and in a cotton lined jewelry box. Something, experience mainly, kept telling me to examine those coins again. I picked up the '28, took it out of the flip and looked at it again through my loupe. It was so obvious that this was an altered mint coin. Not even close to the one I had agreed to buy. I looked up at her and said this coin is altered. She said that it couldn't be, she got it out of her aunt's safe. Totally different story than she told me not 30 minutes before. She picked up the '21 and handed it to me and said that this one came out of the same safe. As I looked down at it, I could see her swap the '28 for another one, she picked up a magnifying glass, looked at the coin and said that it looks fine to her, then handed it back to me. I looked at it again, totally different coin, a '28 P, but not near as nice as the first one I looked at. Needless to say I was pissed. I pushed the coins back across the counter and told her that I wasn't interested in either of them. When I turned to walk off, I heard her partner (a guy) say I told you if they have a magnifier, they were a true collector. I wandered around trying to find the wife after that and the more that I did, the more upset that made me. I walked over to the dealers table that I had only chatted with first, and asked him where I could report someone at that show. I told him the story and he was madder than I was. He and I went to the organizers table and I reported it. They said ( and I already knew it) that it would just be my word against theirs and there would be no way to prove it. They stated that this was the first show that that group had attended and that they would make sure that they wouldn't be allowed at any other. I can only hope they hold to their word. After I left the organizers table, I went back by the other dealer's table and thanked him. He pulled out a '21 Peace and said I'm going to make you a deal. I left there with that one. Nice coin and guy.
Don't you just hate the fact that they, (Women) being so and in their minds, exempts themselves from the rules of civilized conduct? And we 'cave' in every time.......
