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I had a guy that was buying a ctu from me each month until his work slowed and he stopped buying form me a few month ago. His name came up on my phone so I assumed he wanted pennies again but instead he said that he had to take all his pennies to the coin dealer to sell them and that the dealer would not take them because they had 82's mixed in. He said they he went through them all and pulled out 46.00 in 82's and Canadians that he took to the bank, I told him that they were machine sorted and everything was copper. He said that future ones would need the 82's and Canadians removed. It all caught me by surprise so I wasn't sure what to say?

Should I offer him some money back?

No. Unless you had already agreed to ensure a specific date range, copper is copper, and the deal should have been for machine sorted copper.

Absolutely not and the coin dealer doesnt seem to be very smart either as Canadians are much more valuable then their US counterparts.

Thanks for the advice, I just don't want to cheat anyone. He knew I was machine sorting them, we had discussions about how I sort and how I count them as well as how many hours of sorting it takes to make a ctu with the ryedale ace. I gave him advice on where to get pennies to sort himself but after he sorted a couple boxes he gave up and just bought from me.

I guess we will have to have a discussion if he want any more, I really don't feel like picking all the 82's out

stonewallrabbitry wrote:Thanks for the advice, I just don't want to cheat anyone. He knew I was machine sorting them, we had discussions about how I sort and how I count them as well as how many hours of sorting it takes to make a ctu with the ryedale ace. I gave him advice on where to get pennies to sort himself but after he sorted a couple boxes he gave up and just bought from me.

I guess we will have to have a discussion if he want any more, I really don't feel like picking all the 82's out

I agree with the others. What he is asking for is unrealistic. You could also charge him a higher price.

You could offer to buy the '82s back if he wants to sort them out.

Engineer wrote:You could offer to buy the '82s back if he wants to sort them out.

Bingo.

I think I would have offered to buy it back. But not at the price sold. Deeply discounted, perhaps just better than the coin dealer offered. You are not cheating anyone. As, if he is taking them to a dealer/bank he should not have bought them to begin with.

Let him hand sort the 1982 and CAD and give him that much in credit towards his next CTU.

Keep his "rejects" and put them in your personal stack.

johnbrickner wrote:I think I would have offered to buy it back. But not at the price sold. Deeply discounted, perhaps just better than the coin dealer offered. You are not cheating anyone. As, if he is taking them to a dealer/bank he should not have bought them to begin with.

Why discounted? What is the harm in buying it back at "par"? Deeply discounted sounds like a bad way to show good business practices to your buyer.

We talked about this in a thread a couple years ago. As a handsorter, I kept the cu '82 separate. Some people thought that was unnecessary, but you see what happens down the road to resale.

"I bought these from a guy whose cousin got them online from some dude who owned some kind of machine that sorted copper from zinc..."

Hm, glad I keep my 82s separate. In fact I through them in with the "ugly abes"... they're going to the furnace the day it's legal, if that ever happens.

And like everyone else said, you don't owe him anything. Frankly I'm surprised a coin dealer would buy them at all. It's still a developing market...

If it was fully disclosed and understood that these were machine sorted coins and that they would contain 1982's and Cdn, then you did absolutely nothing wrong in any way, shape or form.

As far as future sales requiring them to be removed, that is extra labor, which means extra cost...

As far as whether to buy them back and on what terms, that is a decision you, and only you can make. Only you can accurately ascertain the circumstances and make a decision that is in the situations best interest.

I would have bought the 82's and Canadians back from him for the same price as I sold them to him for if he would have told me before he cashed them in at the bank, I would have also been willing to buy all the coppers back for a fair value if he would have came to me before selling them to the dealer.

When he first started buying from me he said that he had been buying some from the coin dealer for 180.00 a ctu and that the dealer was buying them for 125.00. I do not know what the dealer paid him for the ones he sold now

I keep all my 82's separate along with their Canadian brothers.

I'm another sorter who keeps 82's and Canadians separate.

i don't keep the 82s. also when i sell my CU pennies, the person doesn't want the 82s.
as for what to do. if you wish to keep selling to him, i would come up with a good arrangement. depends on how much he is buying the CTU.

I know there are many coin dealers here and it is not my attempt to offend them. I learn from, and enjoy, their input here as much as anyone.

My experiences with local coin shops has been a mixed bag. Some good, some not so good.

I am sure the LCS had his reasons for not buying the 82's & Canadian mixed in with the other coppers. It's his shop and his livelihood, so he gets to make the decisions on what he will buy.

I think the best thing you can do is find out the name and phone number of the LCS in question. Call him up and ask why? Be cordial, not confrontational. Let it be a learning experience for you. Who knows? Maybe you can turn this around with better results! Maybe you can sell custom orders to the LCS directly if you can accommodate his needs.

Of course, custom orders would have to meet your additional costs, too.

Do coin dealers typically buy junk copper? I was under the impression that you had to sell these on ebay,craigslist, or realcent.

Not here. The three stores I deal with wouldn't take them at face. One eventually agreed to take a $100 bag for $100 in merchandise, but he emphasized he was doing me a favor. He was only going to schlep them to the bank.

I didn't know ANY coin shops were in the Cu penny business.....

bookshelf wrote:I'm another sorter who keeps 82's and Canadians separate.

I do the same thing.

OneBiteAtATime wrote:I didn't know ANY coin shops were in the Cu penny business.....

I've got a shop about an hour away who sells 10lb bags at $40. They separate out all 82's

I don't think its a big market for them, they don't seem to be too interested in sorting and selling. Because the business has to factor in time/effort for everything they do, I'm sure they make much more on the numi stuff and their other PMs.

misteroman wrote:Absolutely not and the coin dealer doesnt seem to be very smart either as Canadians are much more valuable then their US counterparts.

Not altogether true. Lincoln copper cents contain 2.1 cents worth of copper whereas 1982 thru 1996 Canadian cents are smaller in size and contain only 1.7 cents worth of copper. 1980 & 1981 Canadian cents contain just 1.9 cents worth. Only Canadian cents 1979 and older are more valuable than their Lincoln counterparts.

pennypicker wrote:

misteroman wrote:Absolutely not and the coin dealer doesnt seem to be very smart either as Canadians are much more valuable then their US counterparts.

Not altogether true. Lincoln copper cents contain 2.1 cents worth of copper whereas 1982 thru 1996 Canadian cents are smaller in size and contain only 1.7 cents worth of copper. 1980 & 1981 Canadian cents contain just 1.9 cents worth. Only Canadian cents 1979 and older are more valuable than their Lincoln counterparts.

But canadians sell on here for 2X face with relative ease. I just sold 20,000 myself for that personally a month or so ago.
You cant give US ones away for 1.5x hence the Canadians are more valuable .