Why do so many people "Trash" Ebay?

You can get scammed on Ebay, but you can also get scammed at your local coin shop and the fact is if you know enough about coins to not get scammed at a coin store then you know enough not to get scammed on Ebay and Ebay is cheaper.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Opinions vary...personally it's a necessary evil for m both as a part time dealer and as a full time buyer. I haven't been scammed in the 12 years I have been on and I would agree that knowledge is the key to surviving the pitfalls....but there are a lot of scammers out there so using paypal helps protect your cash as well if you don't receive an item.

 

One of the big problems with eBay is that it's very easy to look reputable even if everything you sell is obviously fake to those in the know. The problem is that you can only leave feedback if you actually buy something from someone, so those who make fakes that are bad enough where no one who actually knows the coins would mistake it for a real thing can often get 100% feedback. Combine this with the fact that people in China, Bulgaria, and other centers of fakes can sell directly to the consumer through eBay rather than having to go through coin shops, where there are experts who would know if they were getting ripped off, and you'll find that there are simply a lot more fakes on eBay than in virtually any local coin shop, and it's a lot easier for sellers of fakes to make a living on eBay than it was before it came about.

 

You know what krypton is 100% right, I wrote a whole paragraph only to delete it. Opinions are going to vary beyond imagination. Just like anything in normal life, if two people are faced with the same situation each person might have a good experience or a bad one which determines how they see something for the future. All my experiences with eBay *roughly 100+* have all been pleasant which is why I'm a repeat customer.

 

Ebay just makes it easier to scam someone via deceptive pics and depending on the seller....a no return policy. Some things I will buy on ebay, other things I have to see in person. Any numismatics that are worth anything I would never buy on ebay, as there are too many people with too many opinions regarding what a coin should be graded. (if I see it in person I can draw my own conclusion)
But as far as bullion goes I have no problem buying on ebay. (I`m just getting real sick of ebay`s seller fees.)

 

Yes, knowledge is power, but the problem with SleazeBay is not the organization itself, but the lowlifes who use it. I try to pick and choose carefully the sellers with whom I choose to do business with on eBay, but even then, some scumbags fall through the cracks.

Consider, for example, the time I purchased a $1K Morgan only to have the seller, WHO WAS A TENNESSEE MAGISTRATE, switch coins with one that was ungradable. Yeah, I finally got my money back, but it took a lot of arguing and threats to file charges with the US Attorney and the States Attorney of Tennessee.

Another instance many years ago involved a seller who misrepresented a casino chip that I purchased. I never got my money back, and he even hit me with negative feedback when I had done nothing wrong. Like I said, this was a long time ago before I was using a PO box, and the next thing I knew, I was inundated with dozens and dozens of magazine subscriptions, time share proposals, intimate ladies wear catalogs, etc. I had to spend many hours on the phone with these companies explaining to them that I had never ordered their marchandise. All of these requests originated from mail-in cards and some of the companies kept them on file. I asked for photocopies of the cards, and sure enough, they came from his location and the handwriting was a match to his.

The same can be said for Craigslist. Slimeballs are using it to supposedly sell valuable merchandise, not just coins, to gain access to some homes for the purpose of robbing them or burglarizing the home when the residents are away.

So, whenever I refer to them as SleazeBay, I am referring to the people who use it, and I would strongly urge anyone who does use eBay a lot to rent a PO box for the peace of mind it gives you. If you don't, you may be asking for serious trouble if some whacko gets ticked at you because he knows where you live!

Chris

 

Ebay is now safer then it was in the past since sellers have to go through Pay-Pal and they have to accept returns so its almost imposable to get scammed now. If you are smart enough to realize if the item is a fake or damaged once you have it in hand and know how to take advantage of the return policy's but if you cant do that then you could just as easy get taken at your local shop..

 

yes....I left that piece out....even when a seller says I do not accept returns....they have to accept returns if using paypal or at the very least you will get your money back from paypal if the item is not as described etc. I like that part and as a seller I always accept returns for any reason on slabbed and raw coins...I want happy customers and sometime it just takes seeing a coin in hand for them to truly decide if the coin is for them so while my return rate is low, I do get some and I don't ban those buyers from future auctions.

 

With a local shop you can go back and visit them personally. You can work through issues like that. Plus in hand coins are different than only pictures. So I can think of lots of reasons a local dealer is better than EBAY.

With ebay - not quite as personal. Email, mailing stuff, etc. And some sellers can be nasty at times as mentioned above.

 

With a little basic knowledge, you can easily limit you risks to a couple per 100. Some people look at that and say "I might/will get screwed." They are correct and they will bash eBay until the cows come home. Nothing is going to change their mind. Others look at it as an opportunity to get a bargain and that more than makes up for the occasional hassle. The result of that is just like the evening news - you don't hear about all the happy people out there.

BTW, pretty much there is no such thing as a "no return policy" any more so long as you use PayPal.

 

I for one love hearing people bash Ebay and I hope they all stop buying there. Yes, there are sharks, yes there are forgeries that can and do turn innocent buyers against the hobby. I wish Ebay would do more about Chinese fakes and make it easier to flag fakes and copyright violations. However, I buy some good stuff there cheaply and I will continue to buy there as long as people continue to post. I only shop the auctions, not the BIN, and still get good deals. Basically its buying without the safety net of a dealer, which is not advised for new collectors, but profitable for someone who knows what they are doing.

Edit: One other great plus is you can actually find stuff you want to Buy on Ebay. Try being an ancient collector in the Midwest sometime, not a lot of options. Even coin shows may have one dealer with ancients, but the prices are very high and I do not like negotiating downward. I would rather participate in an auction and set my maximum price, and many times get it even cheaper. I do participate in US and overseas auctions as well, but Ebay lets me buy continuously and search out the esoteric coins I am interested in.

 

You're missing my point. It's not eBay. It's the sleazeSellers. However, there is one thing you haven't factored into the "safety net" of using eBay & PayPal, and that is the cost of having to return an item because of an inscrupulous seller. Does PayPal refund your return expense? I doubt it! I sure wouldn't mind having that as an annual income.

Chris

 

With Ebay you also get to see the coins in hand with only the risk of not getting refunded shipping and with the large discount in price buying on Ebay vs the local coin dealer you will do better on Ebay even if you return your items 50% of the time.

 

When you are buying coins that are priced as low as 50% or lower of what you would pay at a coin shop it is worth paying the return shipping on vary few items that you do return. I have bought over 200 items and never have i had to return one item. Plus you have to take into account the money for the gas to get to the coin store just to find out that they don't have what you want.

 

No! PayPal does not return your return postage. However, they do return your original shipping costs. That guarantees that the seller loses money.

 

I have never found a local dealer with 1/100th of the selection I find on Ebay....most brick and mortar dealers have turned into nothing but bullion dealers in my area so finding actual collector coins in their shop is the real rarity. I do believe that Ebay is not for everyone but I have made tens of thousands of dollars over the past 12 years buy buying and selling and will continue to do so for the forseeable future.

 

This is very true, most B&M dealers make their money as bullion dealers. However, there's no way they could survive without doing it. Nonetheless, most of the dealers in my area do have a nice selection of coins. There's only one place I call a "scam coin shop" that is nothing more than a metals exchange with maybe 100 or so coins on display at HORRIBLE prices.....

Funny story about the owner of the scam shop. I was trying to unload a nice NGC MS-65 Lincoln and decided to entertain muliple offers from some local shops. This guy looks at the coin and tells me no collector would buy it and he wouldn't buy it because of some minor surface flaw. HAHAHAHAHAHA....I asked him if he knew better than NGC? Then he makes me some low-ball offer based on what he said was "book value". I then busted his nutz by telling him the CDN value, PCGS value, Numismedia value and approximate realized auction values from ha.com......he turned pale when he realized I actually knew WTF I was talking about and his "book value" was like $300 too low. Of course, I left immediately.

 

If it's to good to be true it is.

 

Guess I've been lucky so far. I've yet to have a problem with ebay. I am pretty selective though. As others have mentioned, I only browse the auctions, not the BIN, I also buy from long time sellers that have high feedback. I also use a website to check sellers feedback, which helps. So far no complaints with any of the purchases I've made, or with the sellers. but, maybe I'm due!