What the? Out snipped at 0.5 seconds.

Well i rarely have the time to sit there manually enter bids in last moment. Also often i find entering bids in last moments leads to less rational bidding that is human nature (which is want most auctioneers captailize on), i have noticed spending more to out bid someone in last secs to win an auction than i generally would have.

Also snipe will lead to over spending if you are using an automated tool and auction description changes' (once bids are entered you cannot change your item description).

 

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agreed.

 

I agree as well, and disagree with Doug. While there is some astronomical prices on a ton of material there nowadays. I just bought a lot of 12 Kushan bronzes for less than $50. You cannot buy one of these from a normal dealer for less than $15-20 at the least. There are still deals, just a lot more work and fewer of them than in the past.

 

Doug's statement is partially accurate, actually. Many dealers or whole sale sellers sell off their unwanted or second rate inventory, on Ebay. The actualy "good" coins that have great eye appeal, that you find by dealers at coins hows, heritage, and teletrade, rarely surface on ebay. But when they do surface, one of two things occurs;

1) The seller charges a outrageous price, because he knows that on the ebay market, their are very few similar coins.

2) The coin is put up for auction. Due to some bidders not having access to dealers with a much better selection, somebidders will get into a bidding war or "over-pay", because the other coins on ebay simply do not have the same eye appeal.

This is all just theoritical, and my opinion though

 

I don't use automated sniper software, so that isn't a problem for me.

 

But that takes all the fun out of it.

 

It's the competitive nature in some people.

 

The advantage of live auctions is that the auction will continue until all but one bidder drops out. eBay (and many other internet auction sites) has a specific auction ending time. Yes, you can get automated bidding (snipe) programs that will place your bid just seconds before the auction ending time.

More than once, I've missed winning an eBay item because someone's automated bid program placed a bid at 5 seconds before the auction's ending time and I couldn't hit the increase bid button fast enough.

On auction house (unfortunately not for coins, but for scientific equipment http://auctions.biosurplus.com/view-auctions/sales/) extends bidding if someone bids on an item within the last minute—the auction ending time is extended another 4 minutes. Just like live auctions, that gives other bidders a second chance to increase their bid and win the
item.

What do you think this would do if eBay offered this as an option to sellers?

 

If an end time is posted, the auction should end at that time. That way the auction is fair to everyone.

 

I used to do the same thing, but frequently the auctions end in the middle of my sleep time, or I can't be at the computer at the ending time, or frankly sometimes I forget I have an auction closing. The snipe program doesn't sleep, can always be there, and doesn't forget.

I agree. A lot of people whine that it isn't like a "true auction" but it is. It follows the rules of a mail bid auction. It has an ending time and that is when it ends. Bids received after the end of the auction are not considered. You want your bid counted, get it there before the auction ends. You got out bid and you would have bid higher? Next time enter your maximum bid.

 

Unfortunately i can't most, most of the European dealers who have the coins i am looking for rarely ship to US or charge a lot of $$$ for US buyers.

 

I will respectfully disagree.

guy

 

Maybe i was ignorant in my original statement. They do surface, but the premiums are too far fetched for my liking.

 

You can find good coins and at small premiums. Trick is to go thru bins and grab any bargain while they get listed or message sellers directly and give them good reasonable offers. For example i just grabbed Nicaragua coin (near mint condition) for 400 bucks in bin the same coin just went for ~563 in auction (plus it had scratches and damage case)

 

No, you can't. Maybe YOU pay too much on eBay but that doesn't mean everyone else does.

 

Sorry Doug,

Your premise doesn't even make sense.
If it were true, the reverse would also be true and the dealers would be able to sell their coins to the so called bidiots on EBAY for higher prices.

If so, why wouldn't they just list their wares on the 'BAY and haul in the big bucks and not even bother selling through their other channels and get a lower price. The 10% premium paid for listings, paypal etc fees, would also pale in comparison to the cost associated with more tradition channels.

While no one is saying that some coins don't go for a very price, there are certainly good deals to be had if you work at it.

Mike

Mike

 

Some of them do Mike. NFC, executive coin company, LNE, Harlan Berk are the ones that pop into my mind. You have to know which are the dealers and to watch what gets posted. I sold a few graded large cents to the local dealer early on a Saturday - by Saturday night they were on ebay. A quick flip and quick profit for them - more than retail on several of them. So do a lot of comparison shopping. I do not know what most collect and if you do not have a local dealer to get some low grade, cheap stuff(not knocking this and it depends on what your are collecting) then ebay is the best bet.

I do know this - I would rather spend $30 more for a coin from a dealer I trust than save $30 from someone on ebay. I know and trust what I am getting. It is all a personal preference. Then again if you are collecting graded any type coin - I would seriously check out heritage and then to some degree teletrade.

 

Mark nailed it, with the heritage and teletrade. It's all personal taste i guess, but i find the coins offered on those two sites can typically be had for a better price, and a better quality coin. Not to mention the zoom on the photos, and the absence of photo juicing is as well a plus. Some Ebay sellers are so good at juicing their photos, i cannot tell the difference on the NGC website (partially due to NGC's lack of lighting conditions?).

Not only that, but if you can buy a coin in person, you can see it in person. Buying coins online can yield not so great results when it comes in through the mail. Buying a coin in person can also give the buyer a trust feeling. You're not talking over the phone, or through email, it's straight face to face. Of course this paragraph was on the contemperary presumption of physical face to face dealing.

Now, i've only bought 5 coins from teletrade, none from heritage, so yes my opinions are probably not so valuable, and my insight can be clouded.

I can also show anyone that is interested statistics regarding my theories. I have a Heritage 5% off center NGC MS64 1943 cent, realized for about 150 dollars. A seller on Ebay is asking 400 for his, which is NGC MS63, 5% off center. Not to mention the eye appeal and luster on the Ebay sellers is far less than Heritage's. Of course i'm not going to show this on a public thread, but if you want proof, i can give it to you VIA pm.

 

Mark,

You are exactly right and you just made my points for me , we are near in perfect agreement. Lets go through your post

Of course many dealers sell on EBAY. Why, becasue EBAY fits their buisness model, quick turnaround with lower cost than more traditional channels. The desire for quick turn around leads to better pricing in the end. Now some dealers play the BIN route, price it high and sit back and wait for a sucker. The second path is obiously not we the bargains are found BTW you can still get so good deal with BIN if you search for newly listed BIN where you can cherry pick coins when inxperienced sellers don't know what they have. So, even though there are many high priced coins on EBAY, that has nothing to do with the original premise, that almost any coin can be found cheaper by a dealer. It simply is not true and many bargains can be found on EBAY. It just takes a bit of work to find them.

You next point is barely worth mentioning since a few examples of coins selling high means nothing except that a few coins were sold at a high price. I could just as easily go and find you a bunch of coins that went for a bargain price. This serves no purpose and I decline to play.

Then you admit for some coins EBAY is a better place to go. EXACTLY, could not have said it better myself

Your next point is you would rather pay $30 more from a coin from a dealer you trust. See, you just admitted that more traditional dealers have higher prices, it is just your preference to pay the premium. EXACTLY right again. No one is arguing there is no upside to buying from a trusted dealer. This is only about cost. There are two things to consider here though, many EBAY sellers offer excellent return policies and between EBAY and PAYPAL backing up the seller, you are VERY protected on EBAY. The second thing is you may be willing to pay $30 more for a coin from a trusted dealer, but are you willing to pay $200 or $300 more? Yes, the spreads do get that high and higher.

Now your final point is to check out Heritage and Teletrade. Exactly right again, these are excellent places to buy coins. You can throw Stacks in the mix too.
Remember, this is not an argument if EBAY is the BEST place to buy coins, it is just about whether you can get almost any coin cheaper from a dealer. The places you mention, we all know are auction based formats where the purpose is a quick turnaroud. Again, that is my point, where a quick turn around drives better prices than the traditionl coin dealers buisness plan.

Mike