Shave and a Haircut - Two Bits!

[Kamyu]

Hey all,

So I was dealing with a local merchant who had a small cache of silver coins. I was trying to buy them from him but he decided to visit the local coin shop to get a price. >.< Coin shop offered him $208 for the pile which was full on silver price for em. I told the guy I couldn't compete with that. I'm not paying full on silver price for junk silver.

However, I did manage to weasel out the oldest of the coins. An 1899 Barber Quarter. ^_^ He wanted $4 for it but I managed to get it for $3. I'm thinking I did ok with that price. Let me know.

Next oldest he had I tried for was a 1935 Washington but he wanted too much for it and it was incredibly worn. He had a couple from the 40's but most were 1950's and onward.

Anyways, below is pics of my newest find from the wild. My first Barber too! ^_^

[Bigheed]

I'd say you did well for $3

Coin shop probably told him its worth $208 and I'll buy it from you for $104.....you probably had more wiggle room than you thought....but who knows maybe with silver down in the low 30's coin guy can still pay almost melt and make a profit selling it at premium.

[Kamyu]

He told me what the coin shop guy said. Coin shop guy told him he's pay the guy $208 for the pile and that he would get $251 for them when he resells them. I even asked if he would take less than the $208 offered. But he wouldn't budge. The merchant was pretty hard to deal with and wanted full value for his $10.50 worth of coins. He paid face value for em. Frankly I think I was just lucky to get the Barber. He wanted $4 for it originally but I told him I can buy that same coin online for $3 so he said that ok, he'd sell it to me for $3. :P

[ArkieBassMan]

$3 for any silver quarter is a great deal, let alone a Barber. I'd happily pay 12x face for any and all 90% silver until I ran out of money.

He wanted more for the '35 Washington than the Barber?

[Kamyu]

He wanted $5 for the 35 Washington. And it was in alot worse shape than the Barber. The eagle on the reverse was almost all gone. Basically the coin shop guy was offering around 20x to 22x face for the pile. I'm not going to try to compete with that. I'll go buy a box of quarters before I'd pay that much.

[The_EE]

I would have paid him the $208 for it all day long. You still made $40+ in profit. You cant complain about that. That is still 20% ahead, not as good as CRHing but you cant look a gift horse in the mouth. As long as you are under spot with your collection, in my eyes you are doing good. I am averaging $18 an ounce with my small collection and I buy all the deals I can possibly find, garage sales, auctions. Hell, if I can buy a quarter worth $5.50 for $5 I will snatch it up because in the long run it will be worth much more than that.

[ArkieBassMan]

You kinda got unlucky twice in this situation. First, silver is up about $5/oz. from just a short while ago. Second, you were unlucky that he found a coin shop paying a decent price. My local coin shop might have offered $100 for the lot.