Should an ebay seller disclose corrosion and tape from an album?

I purchased one of those older (not sure how old) Dansco pop-in folders for Australian 20 and 50 cent pieces. There were many coins, maybe 13 or 14 face and i bought them for 21 free ship. If the coins were undamaged, i wouldve got a great deal. However, blue corrosion (bright blue, powdery in a lot of cases, and small-medium sized spots of metal has corroded under this verdigris) was along the edges and on parts of the reverses of virtually every coin. I threw away the 20 cent pieces becuase i dont want them infecting my poundage, and the half dollars im keeping for selling at hopefully half face. Everything was quite common so i wont even bother attempting to conserve anything. Potholes everywhere will show up in the best scenario.

1) should a seller know about this corrosion and mention it? It was very hard to see anything amiss in pics but easier to see some indication of damage in person.

2) should he know about the tape that was used by the previous owner for all the halves?

Please see pics below. I'm just curious what you think about this bad deal. The seller says no returns after coins are removed from original holder, so i think i couldnt get a refund even if i wanted to. This was just a small loss that I'll get over, but it bothers me a tad because i would have offered a better description if i sold it. In fact, i wouldnt have sold it judging the condition of the coins just by a cursory look. I'll never use these dansco type folders after seeing this mess.

 

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I do not collect or store coins in holders like this, but if I was bidding on some, I would take them as is. You can only see one side of the coin anyways, so it is a gamble.

 

I see. Good point, especially at the price i paid, too. It was definitely a gamble, but unfortunately i feel i lost. You cant win all the time i guess

 

Since the tape is quite old, it's plausible that the seller didn't know. I've certainly bought and sold older completed albums of coins without removing the coins to see if there was tape behind them. Unfortunately you now have an unusable album and damaged coins. You could try contacting the seller and see if they will issue a refund. I know if I inadvertently sold someone damaged goods I'd refund them.

 

It's a tough call - if this was from a coin dealer, yes I would expect more information. But at the same time, if this came from a small time seller who don't specialize in selling coins... it's a bit rough to say if he / she didn't do their due diligence.

If you happen to have a 1966 20 cents, would you mind to check if you happen to have a scarce variety of the wavy 20 cents? You'd never know - that would easily make it a very sweet deal. 1966 50 cents is also struck in silver so that's an added bonus if it's in there.

 

For what it's worth, I'd say the seller might not even have known about the problems with the coins. I don't necessarily fault them for not disclosing something they didn't know about, and I suppose you could always ask to send them back, if you truly aren't satisfied. If they refuse, you can claim SNAD. That said, if you wanted the set, just apply some verdicare and store them properly, I suppose.

 

Definition "SNAD" please?

 

Significantly Not As Described.

 

Aahh..thank you

 

verdicare wont help with the damage here. The corrosion has already stripped some of the metal and what would be left behind is a pothole (sorry, cant think of a better term). Id rather not make an issue for the seller. Thanks everyone for the responses. Now, i have to look into the "wavy" variety mentioned. I saw in he price guide something about a wave touching the 2 but didnt see it for one of the years

 

Should have added this - you can see an example of the difference of a standard and wavy 20 cents

https://www.sterlingcurrency.com.au...ed-circulation-1966-twenty-cent-wavy-baseline

I've been searching for this for more than 10 years and I still can't seem to find one. It's that scarce. 1966 20 cents are getting harder to find in circulation these days.

 

Buyer beware.

 

I wouldn't loose a minutes sleep over it and move on. Hardly worth the shipping cost to send them back.

 

thanks for that. very interesting. so, from what i read, it sounds like there may be other dates with this variety, but that the 1966 is the rare one. is that correct? Have you found this variety for any date? I was repyling to gxseries' post with his link. Sorry, for some reason this new update for my ipad has really messed up everything

 

Joe, that is correct. This is the only year where the wavy 20 cents variety is made. This was struck in London and it is assumed that only one die was responsible for this. Hence a rough estimate is around 50,000 - much less for the current survival rate today.

For some years, coins were made only for mint sets for instance from 1986 to 1993. Mintage figures for 20 cents can be found here: https://www.ramint.gov.au/twenty-cent

Did forget to add - as a matter of fact, those massive coins still circulate in Australia so imagine if you have a batch of 50 cent coins... they are half an ounce EACH!

 

Wait until you make a $10,000.00 boo-boo. THAT kept me awake for a while!

 

Should an ebay seller disclose corrosion and tape from an album?

I don't know. Should an ebay buyer disclose that he is about to rip a seller a new one?

Fishermen bait hooks and troll for fish looking for a great meal. Who's at fault--the fisherman or the fish that lunges for the bait without checking it out?

 

This gave me a good chuckle. And also this is my 1,000th post.

I frequently message sellers on eBay when they've posted something incorrect in their auction that they could get hit with a SNAD for. Wrong date, attribution, listing a restrike as original or vice versa. Most sellers are appreciative. Once in awhile I get a nasty response, but if it were my auction I'd appreciate the correction.

 

An honest seller will disclose damaging information even if it affects the price and the auction. This applies to everything, not just EBay. Used cars, etc.
I imagine there are plenty of "dishonest" sellers, but in this case, it's possible he may have been unaware of the tape if he never took them out of the album, and it was not his collection that he put together.
Perhaps someone can offer a way that will not damage the coins any further, but be able to conserve them by getting rid of the glue/ etc.

 

You could certainly improve the appearance of the coins with acetone and verdicare, however, the damage is done.