As you might of read awhile back, I won a lot of 131 coins from Great Britain, some people suggested that they were "spiced" in order to move. I got the box today, and although I'm not going to contact the seller, I was a little bummed at the way they were shipped. They were all put loose in a box, mixed in with foam peanuts. Anyone with a 5th grade science degree knows heavy items sink to the bottom, which they did. This nicked the rim of a lot of coins, but like I said, I bought this lot so cheap, it's no big deal to me. This was an old collection, and not something just put together. Looks like it had been sitting in a box for at least 25 years. The dude had over 5,000 feedback, so he should have known better. The other thing that bummed me out, is that the title said 131 coins. There were 109 coins from GB, and the rest worth worthless world coins added to make 131. Here is the collection as it came out of the box. I was overwhelmed how many coins this was. Here is the silver. A florin, 3 shillings, and 3 six pences. All are .500 silver. Total melt value is $13.60. I paid $26.50 for this lot. $13.60 in melt for 7 coins out of 131 is pretty good. There were 40 pennies, including two from Queen Victoria, a bailiwick of Jersey, and some older ones. I'm valuing these at 10 cents each, even though they commonly sell for 4/$1 at flea markets. Total penny value is $4.00 There were 15 halfpennies, including one from Queen Victoria. I'm valuing these at 5 cents each. Total 1/2d. value is 75 cents. You can see the rim dings I was talking about. There were 13 three pences, valuing them at 5 cents each, there is 65 cents here. There were 15 cupronickel six pences (one didn't make it to the pic). At 5 cents each, there is a value of 75 cents. There were 10 Cupronickel shillings, at 10 cents each, there is $1.00 here. There were 3 cupronickel florins. At 25 cents each, there is 75 cents here. There was a churchill crown and a few other coins, I will put a value at $1.00 There were 3 CuNi half crowns, worth 75 cents. Not shown, but there were 13 non GB coins, valued at 5 cents each, there is 65 cents. So when I undervalued the coins, I get a total of $23.90. I paid $26.50 with postage. If I took my time to sell all these coins, I could get at least $40 out of the lot. However I'm keeping these.
Agreed. Seems that the seller added a couple of German pre-euro coins. Those pfennigs do look familiar. Not worth much though ... Christian
not bad thier mate and hey it was great way to grow your collection in the end you got a little of everything in thier !!
Seriously - given that I got an item a couple of weeks ago that was just placed unpacked into an envelope - I think you should ding the seller for lousy packaging. The seller has over 5K feedbacks and he packs coins loose in a box? My thing that was packed loose in an envelope was one of those miniature teapots that was made out of a cent during the 1930s - it wasn't damaged but could have been. It really chaffs me when sellers pack poorly. The best was a few years ago, a German note from 1910 - by itself in a #10 envelope that got crumpled in the post. Got my money back on that one.
I'm not going to ding the seller, I'm going to send him a polite message. Checking out his profile, he has been on eBay since 1998. That's 15 years to have gotten that right. What I hate, and it seems quite a few sellers practice, is when they tape a coin to a piece of cardboard, or cereal box. I had a unc coin sent to me, that during transit, the tape discolored the coin where it had been taped, leaving one small area BU, and the rest ugly. You can buy 2x2s for less than 5 cents each, or you can get 2x2 ziplock bags for less than 2 cents each. One of the worse offenses is when I ordered a 10 oz silver bar from a seller on eBay. They just stuck the loose bar in a bubble envelope and mailed it. No insurance or anything.
My guess is that they did not bring what he wanted, so he thought it wouldn't be worth it to spend any more money on packaging.
I have sold things when I was on eBay for less than I paid for them and just figured the person got lucky - I still shipped well packaged and quickly. You reap what you sow. Hopefully your seller has lost you as a repeat customer for that indignity.
At the very least..if the seller would of put 20-25 coins in ziplock bag, and let them all sink to the bottom, and taped the bag around the coins, that would have prevented a lot of movement. The box the coins came in (which was inside another box) was an old omega watch box. When I opened the inner box, it was just peanuts and coins, and naturally the coins were at the bottom.
I have gotten huge 10 kilo shipments of old Aussie pennies from Oz that were packaged up in bubble wrap and lots of tape - packaged like it was going to be dropped from an aircraft.
