sharing your worst experience

[n1k0s]

Hello to all gold stackers,

I was wondering if i could ask the collective knowledge in this forum to share some of their best and worst experiences in dealing with shops and purchases. 

It would be nice (for us, the younger stackers) to consume some of the lessons-learned of the veterans in here. 

You could share: 

- some of your regrets

- some of the scams

- some of the best decisions

- coins you don't want anymore

- trades that went wrong

From my side, I regret not buying a nice victoria shield that I saw at just 4% premium because it weighted 7.65gr and I had thought it was too underweighted compared to the official 7.9gr.

Now i know this is to expected for such an old coin and it wouldn't matter.

thanks in advance for sharing

 

[modofantasma]

I once bought physical silver 😬

[ZRPMs]

45 minutes ago, modofantasma said:

I once bought physical silver 😬

[ZRPMs]

In all seriousness. I bought a collection some time ago. It consisted of Proof and rare coins as well as bullion gold, silver and Platinum. I sold the platinum and a few of the gold proof coins. After the sale I managed to get to keep what was then about £6,000 worth of coins for no cost. It was a big trade but was completed in about a week. Worst or biggest regret was about 10 kilo's of pre 47. Eventually off loaded them to my brother for cost. Not sure what he did with them but he had some idea that require a load of coins.

[paulmerton]

My worst experience is a crazy story, all of which is sadly true and I have never mentioned it until now because it was something I just wanted to forget about at the time after worrying that some nutjob was going to turn up on my doorstep and do something silly. 

So...

I bought a mint condition, special year proof sovereign on eBay.

Things started to look a bit worrying when the tracking info I was following showed it had been delivered to someone else, hundreds of miles away, so I asked the seller what's going on. He admitted sending two special delivery items that day, that he may have got them muddled up, and gave me a different number. Hopefully just a mistake then, good good.

Thankfully the parcel addressed to me arrived a few hours later. 

However, when I opened the parcel, it contained a completely different year with the standard pistrucci design. It was also in appalling condition.

The other sovereign in his eBay sold items was not the right year either, so I assumes it can't just be due to the parcel mix up.

I explained to the seller what happened, and if he still has the correct coin, could he please send it to me.

He said the coin he sent me was the correct year and in mint condition, and immediately starts acting a bit odd.

I pointed out that I had (thankfully!) taken a continuous video of the entire process of receiving the parcel and opening it, so he had definitely sent me the wrong coin, and asked again if he still had the correct one or had mistakenly sent it to the wrong person.

He said he didn't have any other sovereigns and started being abusive.

Worryingly, he then sent me another message saying he knows he has been scammed and repeatedly called me a lying thieving scumbag and invited me to sue him for slander! I was called all sorts of other things too (all via eBay messaging)

I reiterated that he sent me the wrong coin, that I have indisputable proof of it, and that he should be careful about making completely false accusations.

He called me a professional hustler, a scammer, and a sh*tbag in response.

I contacted eBay for advice on how to proceed and how to protect myself. eBay were useless and also did absolutely nothing about the abusive messages being hurled at me via their platform.

At this point, I also contacted my local police force for advice on how to proceed, as I genuinely couldn't work out whether I was dealing with a scammer or just someone who was very confused or just an idiot. I was obviously concerned that he was going to try and say I returned the wrong coin, or worse, nothing at all.

Reassured by the police's advice, I opened the eBay return.

The seller sent some more abusive messages and some weird insinuations that made no sense.

I also reported the seller to eBay for breaking their policies (absolutely nothing happened again)

Then things started to take a sinister turn....

I received an email from the seller, out of the blue and to my personal email address (i.e. not within eBay)

The email just said Hi and contained a large photo of me.

That really shook me up and I felt pretty helpless - eBay wasn't doing anything and this delusional idiot seemed convinced that I was a scammer and was now intimidating me by cyberstalking me.

I called the local police again, this time to report what had just happened. They asserted that no crime had taken place so couldn't do anything. Bizarrely, they advised that the content of the eBay messages would have constituted a crime if they had been sent to my personal email address, but because they were sent via eBay it was eBay's problem and not theirs.

After I posted the coin back (videoing the whole process again, from packaging to post office in one take!), the seller tells me the tracking number doesn't work and asks if this is part of my scam. (I have literally no idea how he couldn't get it to work!)

As per the police's advice, I ignore the message and let eBay's case handlers do their thing.

I then get another abusive message from the seller, calling me a scammer and all sorts of other names and threatening to call the police if I don't return the sovereign. The sovereign was already on its way, and the tracking number was valid, but the seller wrongly asserts once again that RM tracking numbers must be 14 characters long and the one I've given only has 13 (it should be 13!)

The seller sends another email directly to me (outside of eBay) and threatens that he is on my trail and has images of me. I was by this stage very worried as I didn't know what his intentions were from this threat.

The police advised that I reply, to ask only that he stops further contact.

I did that, and the response I got was "Get f**ked you c**t"

I eventually got my refund from ebay rather than the seller, and the seller got a visit from the police for two separate crimes: harassment and malicious communications.

After their visit, the police told me he was just an old and confused gentleman, and that's probably why I got sent the wrong coin in the first place.

I was given the choice of having it resolved with a community resolution, or to prosecute for the offences of harassment and malicious communications and potentially have to go to court as a witness. I chose the former option as it felt like that's what the police would prefer (less work) and I didn't really want to have to relive the whole experience again.

Reading through all of this now makes it sound far less worse that it felt at the time and I regret not prosecuting now for the impact it had on me.

[n1k0s]

4 hours ago, paulmerton said:

My worst experience is a crazy story, all of which is sadly true and I have never mentioned it until now because it was something I just wanted to forget about at the time after worrying that some nutjob was going to turn up on my doorstep and do something silly. 

So...

I bought a mint condition, special year proof sovereign on eBay.

Things started to look a bit worrying when the tracking info I was following showed it had been delivered to someone else, hundreds of miles away, so I asked the seller what's going on. He admitted sending two special delivery items that day, that he may have got them muddled up, and gave me a different number. Hopefully just a mistake then, good good.

Thankfully the parcel addressed to me arrived a few hours later. 

However, when I opened the parcel, it contained a completely different year with the standard pistrucci design. It was also in appalling condition.

The other sovereign in his eBay sold items was not the right year either, so I assumes it can't just be due to the parcel mix up.

I explained to the seller what happened, and if he still has the correct coin, could he please send it to me.

He said the coin he sent me was the correct year and in mint condition, and immediately starts acting a bit odd.

I pointed out that I had (thankfully!) taken a continuous video of the entire process of receiving the parcel and opening it, so he had definitely sent me the wrong coin, and asked again if he still had the correct one or had mistakenly sent it to the wrong person.

He said he didn't have any other sovereigns and started being abusive.

Worryingly, he then sent me another message saying he knows he has been scammed and repeatedly called me a lying thieving scumbag and invited me to sue him for slander! I was called all sorts of other things too (all via eBay messaging)

I reiterated that he sent me the wrong coin, that I have indisputable proof of it, and that he should be careful about making completely false accusations.

He called me a professional hustler, a scammer, and a sh*tbag in response.

I contacted eBay for advice on how to proceed and how to protect myself. eBay were useless and also did absolutely nothing about the abusive messages being hurled at me via their platform.

At this point, I also contacted my local police force for advice on how to proceed, as I genuinely couldn't work out whether I was dealing with a scammer or just someone who was very confused or just an idiot. I was obviously concerned that he was going to try and say I returned the wrong coin, or worse, nothing at all.

Reassured by the police's advice, I opened the eBay return.

The seller sent some more abusive messages and some weird insinuations that made no sense.

I also reported the seller to eBay for breaking their policies (absolutely nothing happened again)

Then things started to take a sinister turn....

I received an email from the seller, out of the blue and to my personal email address (i.e. not within eBay)

The email just said Hi and contained a large photo of me.

That really shook me up and I felt pretty helpless - eBay wasn't doing anything and this delusional idiot seemed convinced that I was a scammer and was now intimidating me by cyberstalking me.

I called the local police again, this time to report what had just happened. They asserted that no crime had taken place so couldn't do anything. Bizarrely, they advised that the content of the eBay messages would have constituted a crime if they had been sent to my personal email address, but because they were sent via eBay it was eBay's problem and not theirs.

After I posted the coin back (videoing the whole process again, from packaging to post office in one take!), the seller tells me the tracking number doesn't work and asks if this is part of my scam. (I have literally no idea how he couldn't get it to work!)

As per the police's advice, I ignore the message and let eBay's case handlers do their thing.

I then get another abusive message from the seller, calling me a scammer and all sorts of other names and threatening to call the police if I don't return the sovereign. The sovereign was already on its way, and the tracking number was valid, but the seller wrongly asserts once again that RM tracking numbers must be 14 characters long and the one I've given only has 13 (it should be 13!)

The seller sends another email directly to me (outside of eBay) and threatens that he is on my trail and has images of me. I was by this stage very worried as I didn't know what his intentions were from this threat.

The police advised that I reply, to ask only that he stops further contact.

I did that, and the response I got was "Get f**ked you c**t"

I eventually got my refund from ebay rather than the seller, and the seller got a visit from the police for two separate crimes: harassment and malicious communications.

After their visit, the police told me he was just an old and confused gentleman, and that's probably why I got sent the wrong coin in the first place.

I was given the choice of having it resolved with a community resolution, or to prosecute for the offences of harassment and malicious communications and potentially have to go to court as a witness. I chose the former option as it felt like that's what the police would prefer (less work) and I didn't really want to have to relive the whole experience again.

Reading through all of this now makes it sound far less worse that it felt at the time and I regret not prosecuting now for the impact it had on me.

Thank you for sharing this crazy story. Good lessons there

[paulmerton]

13 minutes ago, n1k0s said:

Thank you for sharing this crazy story. Good lessons there

Certainly glad I took the pre-emptive precautions I did, particularly the videos. Despite having a watertight case, it was still pretty scary to have the person at the other end seem so utterly convinced that I was a scammer and for them to make the threats they did.

eBay still never did anything about it despite the crimes the person provably committed.

[TeaTime]

I sold my entire sovereign collection around the year 2000 (at £55 per coin) to invest in silver..... 

It's not all bad news though, Britannias were a fiver each back then 😁

I also scrapped my whole collection of gold watches when it hit an unprecedented £600 an ounce around 2009. Again, not all bad news because somewhere in the loft is an awful lot of mid-range watch movements !

[HonestMoneyGoldSilver]

I used to shop exclusively at the Royal Mint and Bullionbypost

[pricha]

Regrets.  I've had a few. But then again 🙄 

The biggest problem for a starter is not get carried away. I've bought stuff as it seemed a great idea at the time then sold them ( often at a loss ) as I had overspent and needed funds. The thing to remember is you can't collect everything. It takes a while to find out what really interests you. I had proofs , then realised the packaging they come in takes up too much room to store them safely , every time I wanted to view them meant unpacking up to 3 or 4 boxes at a time. Then decided I liked older , circulated coins so the proofs went. I had a 1899 20 franc , which apparently is quite a rare one and sold it for spot . That was a kick the arse moment.  You learn all the time from mistakes so don't beat yourself up too much when you make them .

[Thelonerangershorse]

49 minutes ago, HonestMoneyGoldSilver said:

I used to shop exclusively at the Royal Mint and Bullionbypost

#MeToo

 

[Spyder]

My biggest regret was not buying all the sovereign my local coin shop used to offer to me. He would sell them to me for £5-£10 above the price he paid, including proof coins. Sadly ill heath forced him to shut the shop. 

My advice, get to know your local coin shop, visit regularly (if you have a local coin shop) and have conversation, eventually when they start to trust you, you will see them offering you deals that you would never know. My guy would never advertise that he had gold to sell.  Buy everything that you could turn a profit and that way you bring your average price down on the coins you want to keep.

Some people ask me is it worth it making £5 to £10 profit on a coin, I say of cause it is. The way is see it, it £5 off the coin I want to keep.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Spyder

[Upsidedown]

This one time (at band camp) I bought a load of crowned charles 1oz gold coins. Then like 2 days later tavex brings them out like £50 cheaper EACH

Yeah but otherwise nah. Nothing bad yet. No assholes. Payed 300 for a roman coin that turned out to be fake once, but seller was really good about it and refunded straight away on return.

[Upsidedown]

8 hours ago, modofantasma said:

I once bought physical silver 😬

This is even funnier because its probably, genuinely, my biggest regret so far lmao

Went hard on silver, which I've sold most of already. Now going hard on gold instead

[SiCole]

9 hours ago, modofantasma said:

I once bought physical silver 😬

My condolences! 

[TheShinyStuff]

Not really a regret, but I wish I had got into this 20 years ago. Better late than never I suppose...

Thankfully no actual real regrets though, it been a blast, especially since finding this fine place.

 

[HonestMoneyGoldSilver]

12 minutes ago, Upsidedown said:

This one time (at band camp) I bought a load of crowned charles 1oz gold coins. Then like 2 days later tavex brings them out like £50 cheaper EACH

Yeah but otherwise nah. Nothing bad yet. No assholes. Payed 300 for a roman coin that turned out to be fake once, but seller was really good about it and refunded straight away on return.

Honestly, with you it's any excuse for a line of Charlie

[theman73]

The auction starts at £40, bid and won, no idea at that time how big a three pence was, looking at the picture I was thinking that should be at least 100g...

Dropped in the first bin after collection

 

 

[Spyder]

18 minutes ago, theman73 said:

The auction starts at £40, bid and won, no idea at that time how big a three pence was, looking at the picture I was thinking that should be at least 100g...

Dropped in the first bin after collection

 

 

I guess that is when you realised, there is money to be made selling silver.

[MonkeysUncle]

46 minutes ago, SiCole said:

My condolences! 

Bit harsh!

The mantra I follow is that silver is very speculative and should be a small part of an investment portfolio and that you should accept you may not get the money back, ever.

Bit like a three legged horse at Haydock Park... but one day all the four legged horses might just fall on their arses!

[dicker]

Regret - 1855 Sydney Half Sovereign - probably around AU58.  Missed buying on eBay because I thought 200 was too much.  Around 2006.

Best decision - specialising in buying Sovereigns with unknown errors.  

Coins I don’t want anymore - lots of Brits, Roo’s QB’s etc etc.  
 

 

[dicker]

Oh the other best decision was buying a certain amount of PM’s on my Amex in person in the Perth mint.  Lots of points - stunned that they accepted Amex for bullion…..

[n1k0s]

1 hour ago, pricha said:

Regrets.  I've had a few. But then again 🙄 

The biggest problem for a starter is not get carried away. I've bought stuff as it seemed a great idea at the time then sold them ( often at a loss ) as I had overspent and needed funds. The thing to remember is you can't collect everything. It takes a while to find out what really interests you. I had proofs , then realised the packaging they come in takes up too much room to store them safely , every time I wanted to view them meant unpacking up to 3 or 4 boxes at a time. Then decided I liked older , circulated coins so the proofs went. I had a 1899 20 franc , which apparently is quite a rare one and sold it for spot . That was a kick the arse moment.  You learn all the time from mistakes so don't beat yourself up too much when you make them .

You definitely have a point here.

I love sovereigns because of liquidity and history and i love britannias and maples because of 9999 purity and security features and i love buffalos because of their unique design. You are right, you cant stack everything. 

 

if i have to stick to just one choice i go for sovereigns. Low premium, high liquidity and fractional, all in one.

[Stuntman]

No real regrets, at least not since I started taking a more serious interest in stacking/collecting PMs about six years ago.

I have some physical silver coins and bars, but mostly only for pleasure of ownership rather than to aim to sell at a profit.  I'll continue to buy occasional such items if I can justify the money.  

So far I have only bought new coins/bars and from reputable UK dealers, mostly Atkinsons and Chards but occasionally BBP and SilverTrader, and then the RM if you cannot get get the same item elsewhere (e.g. bullion double sovereigns at the moment).

I collect rather than stack, so my main regret is having a few duplicates of coins which at some stage I need to sell, and then reinvest the proceeds into the same physical metal, but different coins.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Stuntman
added SilverTrader. Am impressed with him/them.

[AaaGee]

Sold a 1/4 of gold on here and it never made it to the buyer. Took for ever to claim a refund from the Royal Mail. Not a regret as such but it still niggles the hell out of me when i think about it.

Bought to much silver. Got about 95oz to shift at some point. But it looks like silver isnt flying at the moment to will have to hang on to it.