Does honesty pay?

This post is more like me ranting about my current situation.

Without a fixed job give for 1 month plus had given me a lot of time to think. I continue to read news about people getting scam with the amount sometimes reaching millions.

After reading all this news I could not help but feeling exhausted and wanting to give up on life.

Looking at my life last 10 years, I find myself still not earning enough to even get married, buy a house, or had a saving. I work hard that in my last job I almost every day had overtime and yet I find myself no reaching anywhere.

In the numismatic market, it is even worse. The Big players creating speculation in the market. One example is RM600 banknote.

The Bank Negara Malaysia(BNM) issue 6,000 pieces of RM600 banknote at the price of RM1,700 in 2017. In 2020, I am seeing people selling it at RM3,400 to RM4,000. It makes no sense at all. There are some funny thing going on in the market, I can't seem to find anyone selling it below RM3,400. This is strange because 6,000 is considered a lot and with the economy slow down, It should not be able to double within 3 years so fast.

It is a clear sign of someone buying up all the RM600 banknotes in order to push the price. I never do this because i believe this will damage the market in the long run.

Recently I had a client from India asking me for help to sell off his banknote, It was a rare note if it is authentic. Been an honest person, i show him a page about his banknote from my book

His banknote is estimated to worth around RM200,000 if we take the COVID-19 crisis into consideration.

After telling him the best course of action is to sell it in an auction and I say I will help handle the paperwork and detail involving selling it.

When talking about cut, they suddenly feel reluctant to talk about it. The negotiation almost breakdown because they feel I am asking for too much.

Personally I wonder if I should have gone down the other path. When I show that picture with other dealers, they told me I should not have to say RM200,000, I should have just told him only around RM20,000. Some say I should only talk about the Cut after the banknote sold off and hold the money.

I am a very straight forward person when it comes to doing business, I don't like to deal with after effect of a slick deal. Talking about cut after banknote sold off might make people feel I am holding their money hostage.

After all the talk here and there, the deal was agreed but not to my liking because no clear amount is decided for me. They say after the auction only then talk about it.

I find it really hilarious because they asking me a "poor" person to help them sell a banknote that might hit 5 figures and yet unwilling to give me a cut. They so focus on the cut and they forget about what could have happened if I did not share with them the information and likely to earn less than the cut I ask.

For now, I will honour my side by helping them get it down and we shall see how it end after the auction.

Margaret Thatcher: "We will stand on principle, or we will not stand at all."

This is some of the strict principles I follow when I do numismatic business, just straight forward sharing and asking.

I hope people appreciate dealer like me because we too need to earn a living. When dealer like me are gone, good luck in dealing with those cutthroat type.