Coins We Love: Price, Value, Quality, and Relationships

I’m sure many of you have heard the saying “Price, quality, value, pick two”. Perhaps that is true sometimes, but in a service industry, it honestly should not be. Selling unnecessary items may be more of an emotional purchase or a tangible investment. A couple of conference calls and a book that I recently listened to have got me thinking about adding a fourth piece to the puzzle. Relationships. You can strive for all three of the above, but what good is it if you’re not valuing a relationship?

Every day we’re faced with challenges at the office. Sometimes the plastic is not holding up on a certified coin and the collector isn’t happy with it. Sometimes a coin misses the mark when a customer gets it in hand, but they can’t figure out how to return it because it’s expensive. And, sometimes a collector finds the perfect coin they've been looking for, but the timing isn’t right for them financially. All these things come together and can be quite difficult. In representing ourselves, it is our duty to help and nurture the relationship with the customer. That’s something we will strive for every day.

We understand that you can’t buy every coin from us as we don’t always have what you’re looking for. However, we often buy collections in which one coin is an outlier that the collector regrets purchasing or realizes he paid way too much for. These pieces are often coins purchased from a dealer that didn’t have a relationship with the collector. This shows the value of working with a dealer you have a relationship with who will keep your interests first.

Sometimes we have to tell the collector that we aren't the right fit for them or what they are looking for. Patience is a virtue in this situation. It doesn’t help the bottom line, but it’s our obligation and the right thing to do. I hear Jason offer this advice more often than anyone. However, instead of making me angry, it makes me proud because it tells me we are offering the service that we should. We value the relationship with the customer. I’m not saying this so that everyone comes to us and utilizes us as their representative (but we wouldn’t mind that!), but I want everyone to understand how we operate. We hope that we can build a relationship with you and your collection!

I get frustrated when other dealers let greed get in the way of relationships (especially when I’m on the customer side), but it happens. It’s human nature, I guess. But we will strive, as a company, to not let this happen. We hope to earn your trust by offering price, quality, value, AND relationship.

Thanks, as always, for reading! We hope that you enjoy our Coins We Love email. Our 13th Red Carpet Rarities Auction closes tonight and boasts some incredible highlights from the D.L. Hansen Collection. Browse the auction and get your bids in HERE!

Numismatically Yours,

John Brush

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