What is with flea market vendors and insanely unrealistic prices?

[macrocoin]

How many of you seen something like this....

 

I go to a flea market and browse through the antiques in search of some coins.

Invariably, I always see at least one vendor that has a couple of Morgans or Peace dollars in crusty old 2x2 flips with completely exagerated grades handwritten on the white cardboard along with an equally exagerated selling price.

 

Ok, I am accustomed to seeing a Peace dollar that is all scratched up with BU written on the flip and the price being something ridiculous like $50. (ridiculous because the coin is a common date G-VG dollar) I can even handle seeing 1921 average circulated Morgans being sold at $25....let the buyer beware and all that.

 

Last week I saw something that I simply had to laugh out loud and just go home.

A guy had about a half a dozen coins...a few Morgans, a Peace, and a few Franklin halves....all in 2x2 flips. I glaced at them quickly but long enough to see that they were average circulated coins...maybe a few were VF, but you get the point. I cant remember the dates now but at the time I looked to see if these were some rare commodity keys and none of them were. Just plain old common date, circulated G-F coins. Each one.......ALL OF THEM....had 'MS70+++' written on them.

 

It gets better

 

He was asking $600 a piece for the Franklins, and $2600 a piece for the Dollars.

No rhyme or reason...just decided of his own volition that each coin was perfect, and then, as far as I could tell, made up a price out of thin air for each denomination. The issue, date, mint, population......none of that factored in....the prices were based on if it was a 50cent piece or a dollar.

 

I told him I could go $50 for everything in the case.

As he glared at me I walked away and went home with the Morgan I picked up at another table.

 

Some people are nuts.

[HaydenTubbs]

I know exactly how you feel bro!

[EZ_E]

I've seen plenty of exagerated prices but that guy was insane!

[Bruceswar]

Oddly some of my best finds have been at odd places.

[BankNote1]

Flea Market sellers are looking for the person without any coin knowledge at all. They sell a coin from time to time at the inflated prices. I don't call that insane.

[James_OldeTowne]

Flea market coin dealers are common around the St. Louis area. I think you encountered an old scam where several dealers get together and agree that one (or more) of them will have crummy coins marked up insanely. That way, the other dealers prices look "cheap" by comparison - and induce more purchases. It's a common collusion tactic at flea markets.

 

James

[kranky]

I wonder what he would have said if you had offered to sell him a couple Franklins in the same condition for $20. You'd know pretty quick if he believed his prices were realistic.

[Coinguy19]

That makes me laugh

[Morgannut]

I've never once found a good deal for coins at a flea market.

[Bruceswar]

My 1921 Peace Dollar came from a flea market, well an antique mall, but all in the same boat. Just one is indoors and one is outdoors.

 

[cointagious]

My experience is that those sellers often buy at local estate auctions where they regularly get fleeced themselves and are mearly passing along their lack of knowledge/grading skill.

[jtryka]

If I recall correctly, one of the only good deals I found at a flea market was in Rome. I saw a table selling some coins, and saw an 1868 French 5-franc, about the size of a silver dollar. The guy wanted L. 20,000 for it, which at the time was about $13, expensive for a silver dollar sized coin (this was 1995, when silver was about $4). And of course I still have no clue about the coin, it could be a fake for all I know, but it is silver. I still have it, and it just sits in my Morgan Dansco album as a place holder for a slabbed coin.

[Regis44]

QUOTE: "If I recall correctly, one of the only good deals I found at a flea market was in Rome. "

 

Is that the same place that was selling Roman coins with the year stamped "87 BC" .

 

[physics-fan3.14]

I have been to the flea market in Daytona Beach a couple of times, and was pleased with what I saw. There were four or five dealers, and none of them seemed too unrealistic ( a little high, but at least they seemed to know what they were talking about.) I even bought a 1976 silver bicentennial set for $13, and this was when silver was at $14.