Ok, so I'm going to start with a little disclaimer before telling my story...I understand that coin shops are in business to make money. I agree that they should pay as little as they can and charge as much as possible on every transaction as to maximize their profits. I have only been a member of this forum for a short time, but I have seen many people get upset about a LCS "ripping" people off. I am not one of those people. So here is what just happened to my on my first visit ever to a LCS...
So I have many Silver Eagle coins that were given to me over the years. All of the ones that I have are in the box with the COA. I see them go on Ebay for anywhere from $55-$70 depending on the dates for the ones that I have. I went to the LCS because these coins have no numismatic value to me at all and I wanted to see if I could trade up for a net gain in silver because that's what I'm in this for (I figured it was worth a shot). I explained this to the gentleman who owns the LCS and told him that he would offer me what he could afford and I would simply tell him yes or no. He looks the dates up on his piece of paper that he had in his hand and then writes down a number. I was a little confused because it seemed like he was offering me WAY too much money per coin or less than the actual silver value. I asked him how much he was offering me per coin. His answer, "Well I'm giving you bid price for these and then I take half of it back." So of course I ask him how much his bid price is. He tells me that he is giving me $58 per coin and then taking half of it back because that's how he makes money. I told him I understood that he would have to give me less than they sell for, but I then pointed out to the gentleman that he was actually only giving me $29 per coin. He looks at me and says, "Well yeah. I mean they would only go for $32 for their silver value anyway." At this point I wasn't sure if he thought I was an idiot or if he was just really confused himself. I reminded him that the reason that I was trying to do this in the first place was to try to get a net gain in silver, not a loss. He was a bit confused at this statement so I explained that it didn't really do me a lot of good to walk in with 1 ounce of silver and then walk out with 9/10th of an ounce of silver (before his markup on the junk silver of course) as my goal again, is to get more silver through this transaction, not less (I will take some blame here as this was apparently not a good idea to begin with). The light went off at that point and he realized what I was talking about. So then he politely offered to bump up the amount so I would get $32 per coin so I could trade for junk silver. At this point just to humor myself, I asked him how much he was getting for $1 face value of junk. He told me $26 so I quickly calculated that it would cost me about 11% premium to trade for the junk silver, thus still losing 11% of what I walked in with. I politely thanked him and told him that I would think about it, but I just didn't want to do that right now. I had to laugh, I guess I'm better off keeping my "prettier" silver in the form of American Eagles right now!
Sorry for the long story but I thought it was funny. Before I turned him down on the American Eagles I was talking to him about the key date Buffs and V-nickels I found last week. He literally said that he didn't even want to look at them. One of the buffs was a 1915S. I guess if I'm going to try to get rid of them I need to look at Ebay?
HH
Kiggity
So I have many Silver Eagle coins that were given to me over the years. All of the ones that I have are in the box with the COA. I see them go on Ebay for anywhere from $55-$70 depending on the dates for the ones that I have. I went to the LCS because these coins have no numismatic value to me at all and I wanted to see if I could trade up for a net gain in silver because that's what I'm in this for (I figured it was worth a shot). I explained this to the gentleman who owns the LCS and told him that he would offer me what he could afford and I would simply tell him yes or no. He looks the dates up on his piece of paper that he had in his hand and then writes down a number. I was a little confused because it seemed like he was offering me WAY too much money per coin or less than the actual silver value. I asked him how much he was offering me per coin. His answer, "Well I'm giving you bid price for these and then I take half of it back." So of course I ask him how much his bid price is. He tells me that he is giving me $58 per coin and then taking half of it back because that's how he makes money. I told him I understood that he would have to give me less than they sell for, but I then pointed out to the gentleman that he was actually only giving me $29 per coin. He looks at me and says, "Well yeah. I mean they would only go for $32 for their silver value anyway." At this point I wasn't sure if he thought I was an idiot or if he was just really confused himself. I reminded him that the reason that I was trying to do this in the first place was to try to get a net gain in silver, not a loss. He was a bit confused at this statement so I explained that it didn't really do me a lot of good to walk in with 1 ounce of silver and then walk out with 9/10th of an ounce of silver (before his markup on the junk silver of course) as my goal again, is to get more silver through this transaction, not less (I will take some blame here as this was apparently not a good idea to begin with). The light went off at that point and he realized what I was talking about. So then he politely offered to bump up the amount so I would get $32 per coin so I could trade for junk silver. At this point just to humor myself, I asked him how much he was getting for $1 face value of junk. He told me $26 so I quickly calculated that it would cost me about 11% premium to trade for the junk silver, thus still losing 11% of what I walked in with. I politely thanked him and told him that I would think about it, but I just didn't want to do that right now. I had to laugh, I guess I'm better off keeping my "prettier" silver in the form of American Eagles right now!
Sorry for the long story but I thought it was funny. Before I turned him down on the American Eagles I was talking to him about the key date Buffs and V-nickels I found last week. He literally said that he didn't even want to look at them. One of the buffs was a 1915S. I guess if I'm going to try to get rid of them I need to look at Ebay?
HH
Kiggity
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