Finding a good, reputable dealer to buy coins from is often the difference between staying in the hobby or leaving it for good. I could sit down for hours and tell you many horror stories of friends who got “jipped”, “ripped off” or “screwed over” by dealers who for one reason or another just didn’t measure up or who were outright crooks. Finding a good dealer isn’t as hard as it appears. You just have to sit down and do you homework before you put down your hard-earned cash on a coin. I’d like to share with you some tips and ideas that have helped me deal with coin dealers for more than 12 years. I will admit that I have been burned and screwed over a time or two. It’s those experiences that have helped me find the dealers out there who are honest and good. See if these tips work for you. Here’s what I look for when I look for a coin dealer:
1) Is the dealer a member of the American Numismatic Association? How about the Professional Numismatists Guild? The American Numismatic Association( http://www.money.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home) is the largest organization in the world devoted to the collection and study of coins and paper money and related items. All members of the ANA who sell numismatic items must adhere to a strict code of ethics that govern the sell of those items. For dealers, there is an even stronger Code of Ethics (http://www.money.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search&template;=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID;=8990).
Any dealer worth their salt who wishes to be seen as an honest, ethical dealer will be a member of this organization because if a dealer does not abide the Code of Ethics, the dealer will be expelled (ibid) and any dealer who has been expelled from the American Numismatic Association. will find it much harder to do business with anyone–that’s if anyone will do business with the dealer in the first place. The ANA has enough clout that when word gets around that a member/dealer has been expelled, the dealer can forget about doing business legitimately.
For bigger dealers, the Professional Numismatists guild(http://www.pngdealers.com/ ) is a more exclusive guild of top notch dealers in the country. According to their website, all dealers/members must be full-time professionals with verified numismatic assists over $100,000. They must adhere to a strict code of ethics ( http://www.pngdealers.com/category.php?category_id=6), agree to binding arbitration on all disputes and are strictly forbidden to sell any altered, counterfeit or grossly misgraded coins in any way.
Not all dealers can be members of the Professional Numismatists Guild. However, I wouldn’t buy any coins from any dealer/collector who wasn’t an ANA member because many of the standards of dealer ethics are shared by both organizations. For example, both the ANA and PNG strictly forbids the intentional sell of altered, counterfeit or grossly mis-graded coins. As a result , you can be rest assured that an ANA dealer/member who wants to stay in the business as a coin dealer will strive to be honest and fair.
2) Is the dealer a member of the state Better Business Bureau? That is another good sign that the dealer wishes to run their business above board because the BBB (http://us.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=113&id;=6cda12e2-5967-437f-876e-bd452a591b91) has a great reputation for having members who are honest, fair and who provide excellent customer service.
3)Can the dealer correctly grade coins consistently? It’s one thing for someone to call a Peace Dollar MS 63 while someone else calls the same coin MS 62 or MS 64. Subjectivity and opinion are two reasons why grading is such a controversial subject in the hobby. What you ought to be concerned about is whether the dealer is calling a coin MS 60 when the coin really is at best AU 50. We all make mistakes. However, if the dealer’s grading is consistently off the charts and is blowing obvious calls you might want to go elsewhere. Bad grading is a sign of incompetence. In some extreme cases, it’s a sign of fraud and misrepresentation. To see if your local dealer can grade coins well, take a grading guide like Jim Ruddy’s Photograde with you. Ask the dealer if you can see some of his coins. Do the grades the dealer lists on his coins match or nearly match the pictures in Photograde? If they do, then the dealer knows what he is doing. If not, the dealer might not really know what they are doing. If that’s the case, it might be better to go shop somewhere else.
To see if a mail order or E-Bay seller can correctly grade coins consistently, try buying a two or three examples of a cheap coin that are listed as Brilliant Uncirculated. If the dealer can correctly grade those examples, there’s a good chance that the dealer can grade coins correctly and consistently. In addition, an honest dealer who can grade Uncirculated coins well probably won’t have anything to hide from you because the dealer will know the difference between an About Uncirculated coin and an Uncirculated coin and not be afraid to tell you that difference.
4) Does the dealer list the grade, price and other characteristics of the coin for sale? The biggest pet peeve with some dealers is their lack of transparency about the coin for sale. Some won’t mention the price. Others wont mention if the coin has been cleaned or has been “re-tooled” to remove damage. I’d suggest you only buy coins from dealers who clearly indicate the grade, the price and any other characteristics(like cleaning) right on the holder. You have every right to expect those things. If the dealer can’t or won’t share this information, go elsewhere. The dealer may be honest but the lack of transparency makes the whole transaction suspect at best.
5) Finally, does the dealer offer a return privilege and a 100% lifetime guarantee of authenticity? I never buy coins or paper money from a dealer who won’t offer these two things because there just seems something very wrong with buying something through the mail or on E-Bay and not have any recourse if the item doesn’t meet your specifications. Also, a guarantee of authenticity is always neccessary if you are dealing with very rare or very expensive pieces because there are many counterfited and altered examples of very rare coins. An honest dealer will never sell a counterfit example of a rare coin or a piece altered to look like an example of a rare coin. Therefore, the 100% lifetime guarantee of authenticity demonstrates that the dealer stands by what they sell and will refund your money immediately in case a coin happens to be counterfit or altered. That’s why I only buy from dealers who offer a return privilege and 100% lifetime guarantee of authenticity and so should you.
I hope these brief tips help. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!
Just a friendly reminder. This article was written for educational and informational purposes only. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell coins, paper money or anything else. The author will not accept buy or sell solicitations. Any and all solicitations will be forwarded to CP as spam. Thank you for your understanding and consideration.
Sources:
Books:
Ruddy, Jim, Photograde. 19th ed. Irvine, CA: Zyrus Press Publishing, 2005.
Web sites:
The American Numismatic Association (December, 2008). Homepage. Retrieved January 2, 2009, from http://www.money.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
The American Numismatic Association (February, 2006). Dealer Code of Ethics. Retrieved December, 31 2008, from http://www.money.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search&template;=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID;=8990
The Better Business Bureau (January, 2009). Homepage. Retrieved January 1, 2009, from http://us.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=113&id;=6cda12e2-5967-437f-876e-bd452a591b91
The Professional Numismatists Guild (September, 2008). Dealer Code of Ethics. Retrieved December, 31 2008, from http://www.pngdealers.com/category.php?category_id=6
