Here's the story:
One of the dealers I frequent at our monthly show had quarter boxes out. Not only is this dealer (I'll call him cooldealer) a good guy with great prices, but I'm a sucker for the cheap stuff, so I wandered over and started perusing the boxes with a couple of other regulars.
A minute after I got there, another dealer (I'll call him psychodealer) a few tables down made a little grab for business. He does this all the time, calling over to people he knows and saying things like "I got some great stuff today", and "come on over, I have something for you". He had enticed me to come over the show before by telling me he had a dime box that he had put some extra good cards in. "Better than a normal dime box", was how he put it. So I had gone over and pulled out about 20 cards. When I took them up to pay, psychodealer grabbed them and went through them. He pulled out 4 of them and said he couldn't let me have them for dimes but quoted a much higher price. I didn't want the hassle, so I put back the non-dime cards, paid and left. But it left a sour taste in my mouth.
So when psychodealer called out and tried to get some of us to come look at his stuff, I told the story to cooldealer. I told him that I wouldn't probably look at the pushy guys cards again and he said he would feel the same way. So I continued with the quarter boxes...
At first I only found a couple of cards I liked and was on the verge of leaving for some dime boxes on the other side of the show. But then I started finding good stuff. Or at least interesting stuff to me. The stack of cards I wanted was growing high! I put a cool card on the stack and cooldealer made a slightly confused look. I didn't think much of it. I put a few more on the stack and he came over and looked at my stack and another guys. He mumbled something about "these aren't all my quarter stuff", and wandered off. I was thinking, is he serious? and, why doesn't he pull the box then? I stopped and went over to talk to him. I asked if they were really higher end cards and he said that some of them looked like stuff he would have asked more for. I told him to grab the box and re-sort. He was hesitant, and I realized that the story I told about psychodealer renegotiating on the fly might have something to do with it. That made me feel like crap! I told him that didn't apply here, this was an honest mistake!
So I pushed a little harder and he agreed to pull stuff out of the box. I was really glad. He's a good dealer and I hated to see him feel crappy. I pulled out some of the cards I had pulled, the really obvious stuff and took it to him. He tried to refuse, but I told him I still had more that should come out. We settled on him taking back some cards, but me keeping some for quarters. I could tell he felt good about it.
I gave him a few extra dollars and will be giving him my business every show. I turned out good, but it was very uncomfortable for me while it happened.
So here are some examples of the kind of stuff I got. They aren't really all that awesome, but some are right up my alley!
I got about 20 cards I think were great deals. And I did the right thing, at least I think I did. Its a win-win.
Nice pickups! Also very noble of you to do the right thing, always good to hear a story like that!
ReplyDeleteGood story. Glad you'll keep giving him your business.
ReplyDeleteWow... nice 25¢ bin finds. Both you and the dealer dealt with it fairly. Feel badly for psychodealer. If he doesn't figure things out quickly, he's going to lose all of his customers.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing when cards have been obviously moved by customers from say a $5 box into a 25¢ box. But if it's a few $1 cards in a 10¢ bin, the seller just needs to think about the future and return business.