Sellers Remorse

As a dealer of over 30 years I have experienced plenty of remorse, both as a seller and buyer. I rarely go onto Ebay (for reasons which will soon be obvious), but today I browsed and found a coin I figured I would enter a bid on:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SEPITIMUS-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557



I figured, what the heck? If genuine its gotta be worth $25, maybe even $60 on a really good day. How can I lose? So, I bid and won at the opening price of $10. I paid within minutes of closing, but later in the day it was refunded with this explanation:

"HELLO SIR , THIS COIN IS FOR STUDY ONLY. DIDNT PAY ATTN AND HAD IT IN THE SAME BAG WITH COINS FOR SALE. I WILL GO AHEAD AND CREDIT YOUR
ACCOUNT. I AM REALLY SORRY FOR THAT."

What a load of crud! While some people may wish to give him a pass, he knew exactly what he was doing. Now, I suppose it could be that it was fake and he was saving me from future hassle, but why offer it for sale in that case? It just boggles my mind that such people even exist at all.

 

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Wow. How unprofessional. Even if it was an accident, the right thing to do is to honor the auction. This has to be against eBay’s rules in some fashion.

I couldn’t tell who the seller was, but the link took me to a high volume dealer—so high volume that I can’t imagine that honoring an accidental auction would hurt his bottom line in any meaningful way.

If he later determined it was a fake, he should have told you that and asked if you wanted to still buy the coin or request a refund.

 

So, the seller is saying it was 'accidentally' photographed and uploaded to eBay? Wow.

Apparently he isn't studying ethics.

 

Bad form! That's all I gotta say about a seller like that! He should have ate the loss and let the OP have the coin!

 

Used to be that you could put a coin like that on eBay and expect to get $25-30 for it. That's no longer the case. Sale prices on most ancient coin auctions have plummeted. I sell a lot of ancient coins on eBay, but I've given up on auctions. Everything I sell is at a fixed price anymore.

Looks like that seller is learning the hard way. I can sympathize. I've had to let some nice coins go at pennies on the dollar. Live and learn.

But you honor your auctions, even if you do make a mistake. What's a $15-20 loss compared with looking like a crook?

 

Ken, I feel your pain. Same thing happened to me yesterday - found a $30 "buy it now" for a rather nice RR denarius in an NGC slab, which would've been my first slab ever. Soon after paying, I got this message:

My mother hit the wrong button I always start bids low this coin should sell for a lot more I am relating it thank you

Order was cancelled and I was refunded. Although I was agreeable about it, this was a disappointing experience. Too bad, for I was looking forward to rescuing it from the slab...

 

I've never had that happen to me, but I've stayed away from Ebay much more than I used to and am buying more from known sellers/auction houses. Don't get me wrong, I do look on the "bay", but this kind of behavior drives many of us away.

 

If some sellers dont like the (final) bid on their stuff, they cancel the transaction with some lame argument. Theres only one thing you should do: Leave a negative.

The last months I searched for denarii of Nero, Vitellius, Otho and Galba on eBay.
found many, all fakes and listed on the fake reports of Ancient Forum coins.
waist of time.
My advice for new collectors: Stay away from eBay

 

My advice for new collectors: Stay away from Nero, Vitellius, Otho and Galba.

 

It is and it isn't. EBay frowns on this sort of thing, and if you open a case against the seller, they will attend to it. But eBay will not insist that the seller follow through on a sale he doesn't want, since mistakes do happen and they do not want to adjudicate every case that comes along. Too many. What they say they will do is make note of how often this sort of thing comes up with a seller. If it gets to be too bad the seller will start to lose privileges and then standing. But the worst they can do is shut down an account. Since the door is still open for another account, the seller shifts to a new name and carries on.

In the end its all on the seller - - and the customer.

 

My rule no. 1 is never, ever buy a silver ancient coin on ebay. I don't even look at them anymore. On the other hand there are many scarcer bronze coins that show up ... particularly Greek, provincial or Byzantine types. There are bargains to be had but you have to be careful. Ebay is not for the beginner collector anymore.

 

My instant response to the seller would have been: Great, that's why I bought the coin. My plans are to use it to study the coin and it's impact on ancient economics. Please ship ASAP. Thank you.

 

As a former broker on ebay, I see the seller's side on this. My clients would contact me regarding items I had listed for them from time to time, and even request that I cancel the auction. There were times when I wold have to deal with bidders who objected to those cancellations, and they were put on my list of bidders that could not participate in future auctions completely. Accidents happen, and I see no harm nor no foul in the OP's original post. I see trouble ahead from the sort of bidder who cannot understand that accidents happen.

 

It's for reasons like this that I've never purchased a coin on Ebay...

 

If you don't like the price the auction realized,
1. You honor your commitment and ship the coin at the agreed price.
2. Start listing BIN instead of auction.
3. Don't make up phony stories which anyone can see through.

 

I had the same thing happen on ebay a couple of years ago, but with magazines. I was trying to fill in the gaps on my Handloader & Rifle magazines. The early years are very collectible. I managed to get a year lot very cheaply, after which I got an email from the seller saying she had already sold them, and my sale was a mistake. I complained to ebay because she had the same mags broken up into smaller lots and back on the auctions that same day. Ebay did nothing.

 

I usually tell beginning collectors to bid on anything that strikes their fancy, but never bid more than $10. This way, they can get a good idea of what different coins are worth by checking the final selling price. If they live in the US, I also urge them to restrict their bids to coins that ship from the US. You'd be surprised how many decent coins, including Gordian ants and the like, can be won with a $10 starting bid.

I also warn them that there are a lot of fakes on eBay, but if they don't bid over $10, then even if they do end up with a fake, it's a $10 lesson instead of a $10 coin.

 

Well, here is an update this morning. Seems he has provided a shipping number, so I am going to assume that the coin is fake. May have been a mistake after all, but I guess I will know if and when the coin arrives.

 

Why bid on anything sold by a known fake seller? He is also only following two people on eBay-- one is another known fake seller. Surprise there are problems with this guy.

 

True. If it's a $500 accident, I can understand trying to beg the buyer's pardon. But this looks like a $50 accident for a high volume dealer, in which case I think the professional thing to do is to honor the sale. The seller's loss seems minimal compared to the ill will and (now) reputation damage done by yanking a "sold" coin.