A Village Stamp & Coin

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME.

I took my late father's collection in for an appraisal and possible sale. I had the coins neatly organized, with a complete typed up inventory to help them with their review.

The first words out of the appraiser's mouth was "I don't care about your list, just show me the coins." Umm, OK ... fine ... That was a little abrupt, but I'm sure you know coins better than me, so let's go ahead and go through them.

I had the coins neatly organized by type, year and mintmark, and had already done enough of my own research to know that some were worth more than others. But the details weren't important to this guy. After opening an envelope full of quarters, dumping them on the table, and glancing through them without even checking dates, he said, "how about I just write on each envelope what I'm willing to pay for them?" Fine.

He then proceeds to "appraise" them by looking at each pile for about 15 seconds. Quarters? 50 cents each. Dimes? Dollar each. Again, not even bothering to look at years (some of them were quite old), grades (some were in better conditions than others) or mint marks. He had, in his mind, a set price regardless of year, mark or quality (all of which, by the way, were on the low side), and he wasn't interested in the fact that some were worth considerably more. It was clear he was trying to just come up with a lowball price, as quickly as possible, cut a check and get me out of his hair.

Approximately a minute into this process, the telephone rang. His coworker told him it was for him, and he proceeded to continue "appraising" (if you can call it that) while talking on the phone, telling whoever was on the other end "yeah, I'm multitasking right now".

By the time he hung up the phone, it was more than evident he had no interest in actually determining a fair value for the collection. He was just trying to get me out of there as quickly and cheaply as possible. So I gathered up all the coins, tossed them back in the box, and told him I was done talking to him.

I walked out, took his coins to the Guilder Shop on Armenia, where an employee actually sat down, appraised each coin, and offered a fair price for each coin - even taking the time to explain why some coins were more valuable than others. When I was done at Guilder Shop, I felt like I'd been treated fairly and honestly. I highly recommend them instead of this place.

Rude people with attitude issues ...get educated if you have a chance and widen your scope if your system can absorb it ...then start learning about numismatics best of luck