Five Boxes Arrived
Editor’s note: This story is based on actual events. Small details are changed for privacy.
So one box went missing?
For three exhausting days, after our staff did everything right, one secured box vanished in shipping.
The clients were already protected by our agreement. Their money had been paid in advance. I was to be paid in 3 weeks. If one box was lost, they wouldn’t suffer. The loss would be ours.
This was not a package containing a bracelet or a cheap watch. Its content was a crushing six-figure loss. Our insurance deductible was huge and making a claim would only begin a long, uncertain process.
The package was not even scanned by the shipper somehow, so it was untraceable, the tracking system noting it had simply disappeared.
By the fifth day the other five shipments arrived; the sixth was gone. The shipping company was no help, and all appeared lost so we opened an insurance claim but still called everyone involved, every day. The tiny margin we’d be making for the most complicated bullion transactions we’d ever seen was irrelevant now. We were contemplating how much the privilege of helping our longtime customers would cost us.
There is an old saying in the jewelry and auction trades: The profit is made when you buy. Sometimes, however, character is revealed when you lose.
Our contract did not leave the couple exposed. We were not going to blame the carrier and tell the couple to wait as they had already endured months of excuses from another dealer. They would not get excuses from us.
Then five days after it vanished, the phone rang. Our buyer received the sixth box, battered, dirty and looking like a truck ran over it, but the contents and tube were intact. Every ounce was there and we want to thank our buyer for being honorable. He could have just as easily said it never arrived. Our entire building exhaled.
We had been saving good wine from a Bel Air estate and opened them that day, sharing with the crew. This was technically an HR violation and contrary to the “rules of Katrina” but on this occasion even she took a sip.
The clients received approximately $1.5 million for the replacement silver and elected to keep their recovered platinum. It was less than the theoretical value their holdings had briefly reached near the top of the market but unlike numbers on a statement or false promises, they actually had money in the bank.
The couple thanked us in person, in writing, in emails and texts, and took us to dinner at one of Tampa’s finest restaurants. After weeks spent together in the strange, frantic world of judges, armed guards and pallets, and one wandering package, we felt like battle-weary comrades.
So what was it worth?
The father’s investment was worth more than $1 million when acquired. The hoard of platinum & silver was worth more than $2 million when inherited. At the market’s feverish peak, its value on paper climbed to over $3 million. After keeping the platinum, the replacement silver ultimately produced about $1.6 million for the silver alone.
Value on paper is not the same as cash. Precious metals are only as liquid as the market allows. A vault is only as secure as the person owning it and a promise is worth precisely as much as the character of the person making it.
The lesson? The overwhelming majority of coin dealers in our market are honorable pros. The lesson is to investigate before surrendering possession of a major holding. Trust but verify. Get a written contract and read carefully, paying attention to the fine print. Google the company involved. For a huge sum, include an attorney before the coins leave your sight. Not after.
And choose a company that will answer the telephone when something goes wrong. Anyone can tell you what gold, silver or platinum is worth today. The harder question is: What is trust worth when millions of dollars… and a family legacy are riding on it?
In this case at the end of the day everyone was happy and we were thrilled to be a part of it.
