It snowed this morning. The first snow of the year, and only the second lot of the winter. It lasted a minute. The rest of the day was taken up with a mixture of sunshine and precipitation – rain, hail, snow, sleet and graupel. It was the sort of day that a snow connoisseur would love, so many types, falling long enough to show itself off, but failing to settle.
If I say that was the exciting part of the day, you will probably get the general idea that the rest of the day generated little worth writing about. We didn’t have a single customer enter the shop to buy or sell, and when we started, only had one customer on eBay. That developed during the day and we sold several more items and had a number of emails asking question.
The Prize Question of the day was “Will you take £1,000 for this?” It was a modern set of silver medallions and is priced at £2,995. We thanked the offeree and said we were unable to accept his offer. I checked online but can’t find any trace of National Wind Up a Coin Dealer Day or International Stupid Question Week.
They say there’s no such thing as a stupid question, but I disagree.
Spring in the Mencap Garden
Another customer, from Brazil, has been pestering us about postage costs to Brazil. He wants us to post him something at les than it will cost us to post and keeps telling us that he buys a lot of coins from British dealers with that sort of postage. It’s been going on for several days with him sending us screenshots of people who charge less postage to Brazil than we do. At least half our parcels to Brazil end up with claims that they were lost, or with Brazilian customs sending them back for unknown reasons, so we aren’t that bothered if he doesn’t buy the coin.
That was one of the first lessons I learnt in selling, apart from the ones about honesty and punctuality, some business just isn’t worth having, so move on. It seems counter-intuitive, but it’s true.
Daffodils at the Mencap Gardens
Yes, choosing your customers is a good idea.
🙂
Those daffodils are beautiful, Quercus, the primrose, too. Sometimes we get snow in April here, too. Rarely, but not impossible. It was below freezing here this morning, partly cloudy and dry.
Generally we have quite mild weather, so we can’t really complain. 🙂
So Brazil is full of nuts – obvious, but I couldn’t help myself
It’s true though . . .
Love those daffodils but snow now seems to shake up all that burst of beauty. Indeed there are always some with stupid questions and business time wasters. Hope all goes well.
I admit I am becoming immune to stupid questions – it’s just the price I have to pay for going to “work” to play with coins and medals. 🙂
I was wondering the same thing as Tootlepedal. Perhaps I am too passive, but when I learn what shipping costs are I just accept it and pay.
I tend not to bargain in normal life. When I was a full time deale I would haggle more readily but was always too soft on people. 🙂
I like the stories you tell of hopeful customers. Do they ever find coin dealers who will accept their offers or do they just live in eternal hope?
In many cases they just live in hope. In some cultures bargaining is more common than in the Uk, and they also start stupidly low as a psychological ploy to lower your expectations. However, to us, starting too low is generally considered rude and counter-productive. It’s a lesson in the buying habits of other cultures. Plus, in some cases, an insight into the minds of idiots.
Thank you. I have never got the hang of bargaining.
I’m often left with the distinct impression I have come off second best when I do it. 🙂