Liars and Thieves

No I am not referring to eBay sellers, but COIN BUYERS!

Controversial as it may be (wot me??? ) but I wish to present the other side of the coin (sic) from a dealer's perspective.

Perhaps the most common lie we hear is "I've only got xxxxx can I have it for that please?" when in actual fact the customer has more money available.

Another great scam, which I fell for recently, involves children. To quote a dealer this morning who pointed it out to me "they train their children well!" Oh yes! We get young children approach us, clutching a 50p in their hot and sticky little hand, claiming ignorance of coins but stating that they are studying such and such at school. Feeling sorry for them the mug, er I mean dealer, sells a coin at far below the price he should, thinking he is doing an innocent youngster a favour. Ha! More fool the dealer! That innocent youngster just suckered him into parting with something for a damn good price which is now on another dealer's stall, or in the hands of an amateur eBayer.

Of course, then there is the distraction theft. Engage the dealer in conversation about a coin, while your associate pockets what he wants.

So, the next time a dealer eyes you with suspicion or is reluctant to stand and chat, it may not be the colour of your skin, your accent or your choice of attire that alert him, it may be that like me he has been cheated so many times he is now cynical.

Incidentally, we have to factor in losses from theft into our prices, so these activities push prices up for all customers - just like cash-for-crash car accidents push up insurance premiums for everyone.

Matt

It hurts the honest ones.  The honest buyers will pay the higher price for the coins.  The dishonest ones still get theirs for free with the 5 fingered discount.

But let's be honest, everyone wants to get the best price they can.  If dealers are buying coins, they will pay the minimum that they can get away with, and buyers will always try to get the best price when purchasing coins.  

When I buy for my collection I'll always try to talk down sellers on their price.  Never dishonestly like you've mentioned.  But if they're selling them above catalogue value I'll try to get them to drop their price to just below catalogue value.  Or I point out that someone is selling it elsewhere for less, and they're better to sell it to me for a discounted price than to not sell it at all.  Or if I'm buying a few higher value coins I'll ask if they can throw in couple of lower value items to sweeten the deal.  

Most of them are happy to do it, because they know that a happy customer will keep coming back.  You can get away with ripping someone off once, but then they won't come back, or you can treat them well and have them coming back for years.

Oh brother....The noise of hooves on the bridge is deafening tonight....

Stealing is wrong, but I'm not above a little negotiating. You'll find out in short order how firm the price is.

I used to do a bit of trading years back. These sort of people you speak about just see it as a game and you should too. Play it well and you should not lose out too much. When children come to your stall with little money asking for expensive coins tell them some worthless coins for free to start their collection and tell them to save their money.  This makes you look good to the parents of children who have a genuine interest and stops the dishonest from profiting from your kindness. Try to bring another person along with you to help keep an eye on things. It is impossible to keep an eye on everything on your own 100% of the time. I know it might be a bit hard to try to convince someone to come and help but it will make a huge difference.

Quote: Walder CoinsI used to do a bit of trading years back. These sort of people you speak about just see it as a game and you should too. Play it well and you should not lose out too much. When children come to your stall with little money asking for expensive coins tell them some worthless coins for free to start their collection and tell them to save their money.  This makes you look good to the parents of children who have a genuine interest and stops the dishonest from profiting from your kindness. Try to bring another person along with you to help keep an eye on things. It is impossible to keep an eye on everything on your own 100% of the time. I know it might be a bit hard to try to convince someone to come and help but it will make a huge difference.

Find someone relatively new to collecting who doesn't mind taking a few pretty cheap coins in exchange for a day of helping. I would TOTALLY do that, provided the coins were something I wanted.