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I walked into my LCS the other day and saw a friend of mine selling off her uncles coin collection. This person knows I buy coins and I can't figure out why she would be selling to the LCS. I went back the next day and bought all the silver. The shop owner is also a friend of mine and takes good care of me so I can't hardly go to the seller and tell her how much more she would have gotten by selling to me. Any idea why people go to a middle man to sell instead of a collector? Any Idea on how to change that perspective?

I have wondered the same thing. I know people that I have offered a fair price for coins but yet they would rather take them to the LCS and get less for them than I what I offered them for the coins. It must be somehow they think you are taking advantage of them, or they don't want to give a friend a good deal. I don't know what it is.

Yeah, I don't get it. Some people are just dumb I guess.

Why take it to the LCS when they could just cash it in at one of my pick up banks!

Maybe if they come to you, they think that you may think they are hard up for cash.

Maybe you think they are your friend but they don't think you are their friend.

Maybe they think the LCS owner has better knowledge than you and will get a better payout from them.

Ultimately who really knows.

Perhaps it's a fear of appearing needy. Pride and all that rot. "I can't have my rival friend know that I am short of money because I didn't manage my finances well."

The response is quite easy. Sellers feel at ease going to the LCS and receiving less money because its less hassle to deal with strangers. If you deal with freinds, the friendship is out the door and while you may be offering a "fair" price, your friend will be thinking "low ball" offer. That is not the way I feel as I don't sell my stash.

NHsorter wrote:Yeah, I don't get it. Some people are just dumb I guess.

Why take it to the LCS when they could just cash it in at one of my pick up banks!

yeah....or at one of mine!!!

mr18 wrote:The response is quite easy. Sellers feel at ease going to the LCS and receiving less money because its less hassle to deal with strangers. If you deal with freinds, the friendship is out the door and while you may be offering a "fair" price, your friend will be thinking "low ball" offer. That is not the way I feel as I don't sell my stash.

Well that may be but if I am offering someone $30.00 for a coin that the LCS is offering him $28.00 for why wouldn't he want to get an extra 2 bucks from me?

NDFarmer wrote:

mr18 wrote:The response is quite easy. Sellers feel at ease going to the LCS and receiving less money because its less hassle to deal with strangers. If you deal with freinds, the friendship is out the door and while you may be offering a "fair" price, your friend will be thinking "low ball" offer. That is not the way I feel as I don't sell my stash.

Well that may be but if I am offering someone $30.00 for a coin that the LCS is offering him $28.00 for why wouldn't he want to get an extra 2 bucks from me?

Your friendship may be worth more than $2.00

Business and friendship don't mix.

Business and friendship work great together.

The issue is people improperly define both terms so frequently.

Because they feel guilty as hell for selling the stuff in the first place.

NHsorter wrote:Yeah, I don't get it. Some people are just dumb I guess.

Why take it to the LCS when they could just cash it in at one of my pick up banks!

Hey, I think someone did that at one of mine. I don't think it was one of my friends though.

Maybe they thought the LCS was better capitalized than you.. or that they would take it all rather than cherrypick.

Being the LCS... a degree of anonymity has a value

Never been a big fan of money transactions between friends and family members, myself. Money seems to be what most often comes between people. Just MHO.

rexmerdinus wrote:Never been a big fan of money transactions between friends and family members, myself. Money seems to be what most often comes between people. Just MHO.

I agree. And I can see if I were trying low ball a friend it would cause problems. But when I am offering them MORE than the LCS I don't see why that should cause problems.

Again -> this would never be a problem with a "true friend". But people throw around friend like penny candy. Facebook friends hasn't helped But long before the advent of Facebook people have over used friend.

Precious metals for profit is not really something to be done amongst friends according to many.

Someone always gains, someone always loses. There is no in-between. If the price goes up after you buy it, you gain, the other person loses and vice-versa.

Its much more "sanitized" if going through a coin dealer, there is also a certain amount of trust in expertise. A coin store owner will immediately be able to point out fakes, where the person selling may not be entirely sure or comfortable selling something that they are not sure of its value (either over or under valued as a lump or iron, or a rare numismatic)

Actually in the OP's posting both parties would have gained. So it's not always win-lose.

PM's are always win lose. It is a simple transfer of wealth, nothing more or less.

Both sides can be happy about the transaction, at least initially - but say if 10 years down the road that silver hit $300 an ounce or $3 per ounce. One side may feel that they were cheated. Having a 3rd party (coin dealer) who pays the same for everyone levels the field.

Buyers and sellers regret *always* happens, and its terrible when done between friends.

Interesting thought, but I disagree completely.

If you have that opinion you definitely should not deal with your friends. I have a totally different view and so I will deal with my friends in the future and have done so in the past and they are still friends

Market Harmony wrote:Being the LCS... a degree of anonymity has a value

Bingo

barrytrot wrote:Interesting thought, but I disagree completely.

If you have that opinion you definitely should not deal with your friends. I have a totally different view and so I will deal with my friends in the future and have done so in the past and they are still friends

IMHO, it really depends on what type of person you're dealing with. Whether or not they're a friend/family isn't the whole story.

I have several friends who would be happy for me if prices rose after I bought their stuff, and others would have a problem with losing out on potential gains. The first sort is the type I'd consider buying coins from. The second sort I'd refer to APMEX.

None of my friends are punks. I guess that sums it up

Become the LCS. I'm working on that now

If I were to buy any silver from a friend or relative, I would probably offer them close to the spot price, depending on what they are selling.

I asked my uncle to sell his collection to me, if he should ever decide to do it.