Oh man... I thought I hit a jackpot. I was getting ready to post my score on CT and make everyone so jealous. I found this listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/180950320518 Description was: "Vintage five dollar bill issued by the First Natl Bank of Colorado Springs dated June 24, 1914" It had a stock photo: I knew it wasn't a 1914 series. After further research, I found that the date June 24, 1914 was the issue date on the lower right. According to the T&P census, there's only 1 date back and 16 plain backs. I didn't know the condition because of the stock photo. But all I saw were dollar signs, because it was a Buy It Now for $25.00! Even if it was in terrible shape, I was still going to see tremendous profit. I was eagerly awaiting the shipping confirmation, but instead I got a refund with this message: [TABLE="width: 100%, align: center"] [TD="class: small"]My apologies to you for this error, but my father sold this item earlier today. I just found out that it was already gone. My sincerest apologies! A full refund has been issued. Good luck to you, and hope you do find it for your collection. Jessica S.F.[/TD] [/TABLE] I bought it within minutes of it being listed on eBay... so by then it must have already been gone. I am angry and oh so disappointed!!!
At times like that I like to indulge myself. Either a pint of Häagen-Dazs[SUP]®[/SUP] Extraas Cookie Dough Dynamo Ice Cream or a six pack of a good lager. Both go down nice and smooth.
Hmmm, if it really was Colorado Springs and not New York there would be a major price difference. I see an image of a New York note. Something is fishy about the auction. Nobody really sells a large sized fiver from that era for $25. Sounds like the seller made a listing mistake and only realized it after the note sold for a ridiculously low sum.
LOL This happens to me every day when I auction snipe the newly listed items. At this point, if I get a good deal I only get excited when it ships.
I was confident that she had the actual note, because she mentioned the issue date of June 24, 1914. This date is much more prominent than the series date of 1902 - but very hard to find online because of the note's scarcity. That all let me know she had the note, but didn't know the value of it, which justified the gamble at $25.00. As far as the photo, she was just a newbie seller and used a stock photo obviously. I don't know if the note was actually sold, or they simply realized the actual value. But I did email the seller and asked to get in contact with the buyer to make them an offer - hopefully before they too realize the value of the note.
I doubt what the seller states is true. If true, the note is probably her father's collection and he would know what he was buying. And he would also know the value too.
What would be her motivation to lie? If she was a con-artist, she would have at the very least posted an image of the actual note and listed the item correctly. Also if it turned out to be bogus, I have eBay Buyer Protection to refund me my money in case of fraud. It's possible her father knew what it was actually worth, and perhaps threw a fit after learning how much it actually sold for. But then again a lot of people inherit currency and coins, or pick them up a garage sales and have no clue about its value. There are quite a few notes I've picked up at very low prices from sellers who didn't know the value of what they had. However, the price differential was never this extreme.
I have caught sellers, our very own LostDutchman no less, selling stuff on eBay at a pittance BIN and bought it and told him to keep it, I wasn't payin and expecting him to send a BU Morgan for a buck - but he could pay me back with searching for goodies for me, and he did. I have some sweet 19th century proofs that I bought later on from him, and have so far not sold back to him!
