eBay negativity?

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Only buy within your comfort zone
Don't buy from sellers who post bad pics or incomplete ones
If the pics suck, tell the seller
- you may get blocked, but s/he needs to know you choose not to buy because of the poor pictures...
Know what it's worth
If the listing doesn't show or doesn't say something - ask
- don't assume the unsaid is in your favor
- don't assume the seller is an idiot...

eBay listings are like real estate - they have their own language [close to transit means the back window overlooks the El].
- might means isn't/won't [might be the rare, might upgrade]
- unsearched means 'by me, personally'
- rare means I used stupid keywords and couldn't find another one for sale
- looks better than the photos [either: I can't take pics of anything, or my cataract surgery is scheduled for next week...]

There is good stuff out there, but you have to kiss a lot of frogs [view a lot of listings]. For three examples: the listing showed one, but the text said six - scored six silver 25c for $11. I snatched two low serial # slabs out from under Bob because I could sit there on the exercise bike for an hour paging through 1000s of listings...

 

Guy's like this.

http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=936725&STARTPAGE=1

 

The guy is a scammer, for sure, but why would you:

1. Do that much business with him at once ?
2. Not wait for a small purchase or two to be received as advertised, or what you THOUGHT was advertised ?

It's also clearly fraud, it's NOT advertised as a poster, but as a coin.

 

It pays to read the small print. This is in the details: "The poster sizes for the sale of this lot may vary,but approximately are two hundred ten millimeters on two hundred ninety seven millimeters." It was also listed in posters, didn't see it in coins.

I hate it when it looks like a lawyer wrote tthe description of an iteam. If it doesn't clearly state, in the first few lines of the description, what it is, I lose interest in a hurry.

 

as. I understand it from the post across the street, this was an old account that had been selling coins in the 20$ to 2 thousand dollar range for years with excellent feedback.

All of the sudden he started selling (apparently) very rare coins in the tens of thousands of dollar range with these carefully written descriptions the turned out to be posters. Since the photos came from Heritage he certainly didn't have the right to be selling the posters either. It definitely smacks of an account takeover. And hopefully eBay does the right thing, but I suspect it will take days or weeks to resolve. unlike the error coins fraud that played out over many months with charles somebody or other, this one happened fairly rapidly.

Goes back to the discussion above: you really must read the listing. And if anything smacks of being wrong don't buy. For the kind of coins that you're buying on eBay, it really should be like a bus, there will be another one along in a few minutes or days or weeks or even months. If you're spending the big bucks to buy very expensive one of a kind items maybe eBay is not the place. I know they'd like us to think it is but - if you'll pardon the pun - this is the poster child for why not.

 

Not necessarily. There are plenty of over priced graded coins on eBay. I haven't checked the percentages, but I'd say it's 50/50.

 

Good advice. Taking a chance now and again can pay off, but it's really important to only buy within your comfort zone and take precautions.

I took a risk on a listing last month. The pics were bad, but clear enough that I could tell it was a scarce variety and likely a condition rarity. I asked the seller for better pics. I was sent some low res scans which were hard to make out, but were better than the auction pics. The seller said he couldn't take better pics because of an equipment problem (red flag #1). Though I saw and asked about a couple apparent minor issues, the seller (who is a dealer with a shop by the way) assured me the surfaces were completely original with no issues significant enough to preclude grading. He has decent feedback so I take him at his word.

We settle on a price, but then he asks me to go outside of eBay and that he will send me a PayPal invoice for "services". For those that don't know, if you pay for services via PayPal your transaction is not protected as it is with goods, so don't do it. Having the seller ask for this was red flag #2, but I still took a chance on the sale, insisting though that he do the transaction through eBay.

Well I end up getting the coin and it has no original surfaces at all. Though significantly retoned, it had been whizzed to death; even the edge of the coin had been whizzed, completely obliterating the reeding and damaging the rims. This was hidden by the seller by photographing the coin in a holder that covered the edge.

I inform the seller of the condition of the coin and he immediately offers to renegotiate for a significantly lower price (less than a third of what I paid), so obviously he knew about the condition before sending the coin. Luckily I was protected by eBay buyer protection as well as PayPal buyer protection because I insisted on doing the transaction through eBay, and I got a full refund quickly.

I have taken similar risks in the past that have paid off, so I don't regret taking the risk. The biggest risk as a buyer with eBay is if you buy something you aren't familiar with and don't know enough to assess the condition properly. Make sure you understand how eBay and PayPal buyer protection works; you can always call their customer service and ask if you have a question. Make sure you read the auction description completely, understand the seller's return policy, and evaluate the pictures of the coin thoroughly before bidding. Also, if you are buying a problem coin, make sure you know the market value and don't pay a problem-free price.

 

It seems like an anti-ebay forum sometimes because the ebay haters think they have to pipe in to every conversation involving ebay.

 

I would say this is not a huge thing, depending on the item. Many eBay sellers are in a time-crunch to get the photos taken and up. They are generally not professional photographers and even if they are, the item photoed is not photoed to win any awards, it is there simply to convey the fact that there is an item and what it is basically. There are types of items that, even if watermarked, lose their saleability to a lot of people who simply will take the image and have their 'collection' with images; these are people who might buy the item if that wasn't available. Watermarks can be taken off. Coins, obviously, are different for most... buyers want them in their hot little hands. But, still, doing the best photo of each could take a lot of time that is unproductive to gain a sale from some who will only buy if the pictures are great. Now that eBay and PayPal are buyer friendly, all it takes is to do a SNAD if you get the coin and it isn't what you wanted, especially if the pics were bad enough. And some surf ebay for poor descriptions, badly titled items, and bad pics so that they can cherry picks stuff from unwary sellers who post poor quality or bad pics. And knowing that bad pics can keep some away lowers the number of competitors for those.

But you do have to know your stuff because if you operate on thinking you know more than most, you may not, and you may lose. But you do have a lot of protection from PayPal's and eBay's policies right now.

I'm not put off by bad pics so much as I am with other things that give off red flags in an item's description or by the seller with the type of items he/she sells being completely different and bad pics/bad descriptions, and then suddenly a quality item appears and it is described very well with very great pics. Something could be very rotten in Denmark with that 'seller'. But I probably wouldn't be buying things worth thousands of dollars on eBay (in most cases for non-professional sellers).

 

I don't consider that problematic the seller wants to sell to the buyer who wants to buy if the seller sells for a reasonable price but when they wont budge then they really don't want to sell it or they want to sucker someone why put make an offer and with you requesting a rock bottom price I think is a fair request the seller should have seen that you were interested in the coin and if they wanted to sell then they should have responded just my opinion

 

Bookmark geek's thread - https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ma...n-dealers-dealers-with-great-websites.248281/

Lots of good dealers listed there. Don't limit your buying to only ebay - check dealers and other auction sites.

Besides - people are always quick to complain, but never to praise. I check ebay - not as often as I used to. I can find something I like every now and then, but seems like the ones I want are over priced. And a bunch are the right grade, but have terrible pictures so I just pass on them.

 

I don't think it matters what category

edited

 

edited

 

I hope that was not for me as I have my opinion like it or not

 

As far as I know, the seller doesn't get to choose the reason for blocking a potential E-Bay bidder/buyer. The seller simply adds the name to the list and if the buyer tries to bid on their listing, the buyer gets a message that apparently contains the verbiage "problematic buyer." Are you a problematic buyer? In the eyes of the gentleman with that listing, you are. It doesn't matter that you think you are great, he has decided based on your previous bids and comments that you are a problem and does not want your business.

You have provided us with your side of the story, but you have deliberately omitted all information about what coin it is. I find that strange since the only guy who has one has blocked you from buying his coins, meaning their seems no harm in divulging the information. You did however tell us that this is basically the only example of this coin that you can find over the last 6 months to a year. That begs the question, how old is the data regarding past sales? If your auction archive price is 2 years old, it is perfectly reasonable that price of this coin could be significantly higher than what these coins have sold for in the past. Furthermore, you are definitely dealing with a coin that has a marketplace availability problem. The price guides & archives might support a price of $500, but are you willing to wait 2 years for another shot at the apple? The seller might know this an be counting on it to command a higher price.

I routinely go through my listings and block bidders who lowball by listings. I don't want a guy who offers $100 on a $1500 coin buying anything from me. Furthermore, anyone who sends me comments/questions that are rude or stupid will also get blocked.

The last blocked bidder is a guy who decided to inform me that the price guide for a 1944-D Jefferson Nickel MS67 is $75. The coin he was talking about has monster toning and the last sentence in the item description is "Price guides simply don't apply to monster toned coins of this magnitude."

The fact is that E-Bay sellers get all kinds of nasty, rude, & stupid comments thrown their way. I know it is hard to believe that E-Bay trolls exist, but they do. It becomes very difficult to separate the trolls from legitimate buyers sometimes. And while you may be right about the seller and this whole situation, without all of the relevant information including the coin and the seller's name, there is no way for us to determine who is right and who is wrong.

That depends! Give us the coin and seller's name and I will get back to you.

 

Apparently I broke some forum rules in the previous posts with @AWORDCREATED, so I am going to plead the 5th on this one. But I will say my explanation was precise, concise and logical, was agreed with by all who had time to read it, contained no foul language and I am in the dark as to why anything I wrote was moderated away.

As for you, trying to find some extraneous detail for this mystery ebay seller/coin that would justify my being blocked is a waste of time and I am shocked you invested the time to type out that response. You did it AFTER it was moderated into the void. Further, I do not really want to call attention to the particular coin and have it snatched up by someone else not searching for it as actively as I do simply because they read this (yes, I have seen threads where someone brought up a listing they were interested in only to have another CT member become informed and outbid the OP who found the coin, maybe mislabeled or not properly described and is a diamond in the rough) should it appear again in the near future. I also don't think it is very classy to drag an ebay sellers name into this over the nature of the "crime", it would almost feel slanderous. Had he sent me a shiny penny instead of a coin purchased and was pulling a scam, yes, I would alert my community to the scam. My stories intent was COMICAL in how testy people can be. Or how unrealistic people on eBay can be (because gosh, that isn't the topic of 100+ threads).

And lets make this simple; if I REALLY was willing to pay the ridiculous price being asked and FEARED I had lost out on this coin, and now I am blocked, would it really be so hard to call my brother and have him just BIN for me? derp derp.

Oh, and lets not forget the part of my post you clearly overlooked. A 100% rating. Every single feedback mentions my fast payment or "gentleman negotiator". If only for the coins currently listed, I am not too worried about being blocked: by @AWORDCREATED, you, or this other seller. As I said, blocking is not the scepter of power you eBay sellers make it out to be, if I wanted either one of your listed coins, I have the money and intelligence to get it, clearly.

Lets not make this into something it isn't and both get spanked for no reason. My original post was humorous and comical in nature, no need to have it take a turn to the dirty, whether real or incorrectly perceived by the mods. It seems any disagreement (ON A FORUM MEANT FOR DISCUSSING DIFFERENT IDEAS/PERSPECTIVES/OPINIONS) is quickly swept under the rug as it is already. I should invest in some ballet shoes for the toe support necessary for the tiptoeing around out of fear of breaking one persons interpretation of a rule.

And not for nothing, but I would hardly call myself "disagreeable" or "problematic", both on this site and in life. Clean record on all accounts. And for a stats man, my like-to-post ratio is over 50%; this was actually pointed out to me. Statistically, I am a likeable guy!

 

You can't type "funny story" and then proceed to post a rant in order to call it humorous or comical. That seller ticked you off, you ranted to us about it, and now you want us to believe you were joking. Yeah right! I have no idea what happened between you and AWORD; as pointed out, the entire exchange was edited. My post was designed simply to show you that E-Bay sellers have different agendas than you and that it is not a stretch for someone to be wary of you given your low offers and attached correspondence. When I say low, I mean in relation to his asking price, not to market value which is impossible for readers of this thread to ascertain since you won't divulge the coin.

I don't understand your point about 100% E-Bay feedback since sellers can't leave neutral or negative feedback for buyers. Regarding your "like-to-post ratio", some of us have been members of this forum long before the like button existed. Forum reputations usually take care of themselves and the truth reveals itself in the end. So if you say you are a good guy, then I will believe you until you show me otherwise.

Paul