Bought the Wrong Things at the Right Price at the Swap Meet and came out Right!

[Mustangerbob1]

Went to the swap meet in Forth Worth. Mostly junk, tools, stuff that won't sell on ebay, etc. Tired bench seat for $250, dirty, broken 65/66 console for $175, etc.

Well, my son is working on Boy Scout Merit Badges, and one of them is coin collecting, so we have been reading the coin magazines. I know silver had gone up in price. So I run into a guy selling coins, and look at his stuff, and he has lots of silver dimes, quarter, silver dollars, etc. He is selling them at 4.5 x face value if you buy $20 or more. I had a local coin store's card in my wallet, call them, and they will pay 8.5 x face value for silver coins. They guy said he knew silver had gone up, but didn't really care, and had not repriced his stuff. Bought almost $100 in coins for $420. Then he showed me his Silver Eagle 1 ounce coins. He said $9 each on them (Silver is at $13) Call the coin store back, and they will buy them for $14. Talk to the guy, and, again, he says he really doesn't care, $9 is all they are worth to him. :jawdrop: So I buy all 21 of them. Turns out, 4 of them are rare dates, and are worth even more. Stopped by the coin store after the swap meet, and unloaded a bunch of the coins.

Poke around some more. He has a box that each coin is $1 or 6 for $5, and then the 10% over $20. So each coin is around 75 cents. There are a bunch of Susan B. Anthony dollar coins in the box. So he is selling money at a discount. Thought about paying for the coins with the coins, and pocketing the profit, and see if he would put them back, but decided that was too much.

I still do not understand people who don't care that even when they are told something is too cheap, still insist on selling it at a loss. ::

[JSHarvey]

Good eye!

So you $300 to $400 profit on it all?

John Harvey

[66babyblue]

..
I still do not understand people who don't care that even when they are told something is too cheap, still insist on selling it at a loss. ::

I don't understand people who let people know they are selling something too low.. :winkgrin: :rolleyes:

[Jim]

I don't understand people who let people know they are selling something too low.. :winkgrin: :rolleyes:

That's called honesty.

[Roddster]

Look at it differently. He was HAPPY to get what he was asking for from you. Done deal. He might have figured the you too are a coin collector, and would enjoy them. But you "flipped" the coins for more money. Now you are happy too with the money you made easily.
Notice the word "flipped"? No difference between doing this with coins, or, with Mustangs. The only thing to brag about is not the enjoyment you had of owning something that had some value, either it be coins or a car. Seems you are bragging about the MONEY you made. :no:

[Hiker]

The seller may have had no investment in those coins to start with. He may of bought a large collection. Initially sold enough to cover his investment and the rest was profit no matter what he sold them for, whether at book or discounted as you witnessed. You most likely would of never bought them at there full value and for him to discount them, he made the sale.
I ran a sports collectable biz for over 8 years in the late 80's - mid 90's when people where buying anything and everything, not like today. I would buy large collections from people and part most out on eBay to quikly get my initial investment back, then everything else except for what I wanted to keep was sold at below book to move it fast just to buy more and start over again.
I hope you came out ahead. And for another dealer to buy those from you and you still making a small profit...consider that dealer... dealers DO NOT buy at full value, except for exceptional rareness. Those coins had to be worth even more then he offered and paid. He's a dealer.
I sure miss those days..........

[70_Fastback]

I don't understand people who let people know they are selling something too low.. :winkgrin: :rolleyes:

I agree with Pete on this one. If you are dumb enough to not research something before you sell it - shame on you, not on me for not telling you.

[127Bull]

Basically the seller made money and he left room for you to make money. Everyone was happy besides not everyone is looking to make their yearly salary on one sale, unlike some dealerships and the new GT 500. Congrats on a great deal too.

[Laurie_S]

I had a similar thing happen. One of the guys on my old bowling team worked in a coin shop. He knew that I was very familiar with Southwestern Native American jewelry, and asked for my help. Seems his boss bought a trailer (as in 18-wheeler) in an estate sale that was full of stuff just to get the coin collection that the guy had. The trailer also had about 20 boxes of jewelry, worked stones, and unworked stones.

I went in and in about an hour sorted out the "good" stuff from the plastic turquoise and nickel belt buckles. I have never seen so much stuff in one room before. There was a lot of junk there, but it would still sell at the flea markets.

They told me to pick out what I wanted in payment and they would give me a good price. Well, for about $75, I picked up close to $2,000 in jewelry, turquoise nuggets, and cabochons. I told my friend what the retail value was of what I had picked out, and he said, take it. All of the piece I got are older, one-of-a-kind items, including a bracelet that I've worn everyday since then.

I noticed for the next couple of months that their outside sign advertised turquoise and silver jewelry for sale. :winkgrin:

[Hiker]

Cool Laurie...

A couple years ago we were visiting some friends that live by Sabino Canyon. There was an estate sale listed for that Saturday and the Friday night before I happened to stop by and ask if I could look around. I have no idea what the estate sale company that listed the items for sale was thinking but obviously they had no glue. I bought two lots of high end electric wood working hand tools such as Porter cable, Ryobi, Milwalkee(sp), Dewalt and all for $65 a lot. I thought they would be $65 ea. The woman said no....each lot for $65. Hell, I sold the biscuit cutter along for $200. They also had larger woodworking tools such as table saws, drill presses, belt sanders all for $50 ea. I only had my small truck and no room at my other house. I bought two lots of hand tools...22 in all and a super nice high end black leather sofa for $50. I had to leave friday night and could not make it back Saturday....plus at those prices everything was probably gone by 10am. I probably sold 14 of those tools for easily over $1500 within the next two weeks. Man I love estate sales...well most.

Oh....don't even get me started on my major Hot Wheel find....lol

[theboogins]

I love these stories. Last year I went to a neighbors garage sale and he had this weird gizmo on a table looked likd a some sort of electronic deal. Just BS'ing a little I said "What the heck is that?" "CD burner he says" I took his phone # and went on my way.

Took the info off the label, went home and researched it and dang'd if these things weren't selling new for about $4000. I called the guy back, hemmed and hawed with him-Southern term and he says, "$100 come get it." I found one a similar used one on Ebay for $2500, and contacted the guy about it to try to see what it was really worth. He says he was looking for one like mine, and offered $2500 for it. Settled for $2800, best few hours profit I've made in awhile. And tax free, to boot. Oh, not really, I am sure I remembered to report that.

JB

[Qcodemachman]

the irs gives rats 10% so thatyll be 280 to keep my mouth shut! :rofl:

[jeffdeaton]

well .. i dont think it will beat the 'winnie the pooh' jewlery box i bought at a garage sale for $2 for the wife who is an avid disney collector... found a VVS2 diamond (about 25 points) but J in color tucked in there pretty deep.

[fomocodude]

Looks to me you did the right thing and tried to give him a heads up to the low prices, he chose not to change his prices. I wouldn't apologize for turning a profit either, be it a Mustang or coins.