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This happened on Friday.
Some background first. I'll call Mr. Dips' boss "Chris" to make this easier to type and read. Chris buys and sell precious metals as well as coins. For silver he buys 80 cents under spot and sells at 80 cents over spot. Spot being the current market price per ounce. This reduces his risk of losing money and gives him an opportunity to make some profit. He's in business to make money, after all.
So a lady walks into the coin shop to sell a 10oz. bar of silver. She accepted the offered price and Chris cut her a check. He told her that she can cash it at her bank or at his bank down the street and gave her directions.
Just another routinely pleasant transaction.
She leaves and the peace lasted for about ten minutes.
She came storming back in outraged. Why? It turns out that Chris's bank charges non-customers a free to cash checks, asks for ID and collects a thumbprint. Whether the bank should or shouldn't have those polices is quite open to debate (but not here, please). The point is that the coin shop is not the bank. So she was yelling and screaming at the wrong folks.
Chris has, to put it mildly, a very low threshold for bullshit and a temper. He was trying to bravely calm the storm and suggest she cash it at another bank, like HERS.
It didn't help. She got even madder and started demanding that he take the check back and give her back her silver bar.
He told her that he'd be happy to sell her the silver bar. At 80 cents over spot.
Oh, she didn't like that one bit. She couldn't believe he'd charge her $16 to get her silver bar back. She called him a crook and demanded *her* silver bar back.
That's when the boss started yelling back, "Lady, you sold it to *me.* It's *my* silver bar now. If you want to buy my silver bar from me, the price is 80 cents over spot. If you don't want to buy it from me, take your check and get out!"
She left.
Some background first. I'll call Mr. Dips' boss "Chris" to make this easier to type and read. Chris buys and sell precious metals as well as coins. For silver he buys 80 cents under spot and sells at 80 cents over spot. Spot being the current market price per ounce. This reduces his risk of losing money and gives him an opportunity to make some profit. He's in business to make money, after all.
So a lady walks into the coin shop to sell a 10oz. bar of silver. She accepted the offered price and Chris cut her a check. He told her that she can cash it at her bank or at his bank down the street and gave her directions.
Just another routinely pleasant transaction.
She leaves and the peace lasted for about ten minutes.
She came storming back in outraged. Why? It turns out that Chris's bank charges non-customers a free to cash checks, asks for ID and collects a thumbprint. Whether the bank should or shouldn't have those polices is quite open to debate (but not here, please). The point is that the coin shop is not the bank. So she was yelling and screaming at the wrong folks.
Chris has, to put it mildly, a very low threshold for bullshit and a temper. He was trying to bravely calm the storm and suggest she cash it at another bank, like HERS.
It didn't help. She got even madder and started demanding that he take the check back and give her back her silver bar.
He told her that he'd be happy to sell her the silver bar. At 80 cents over spot.
Oh, she didn't like that one bit. She couldn't believe he'd charge her $16 to get her silver bar back. She called him a crook and demanded *her* silver bar back.
That's when the boss started yelling back, "Lady, you sold it to *me.* It's *my* silver bar now. If you want to buy my silver bar from me, the price is 80 cents over spot. If you don't want to buy it from me, take your check and get out!"
She left.
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