Be careful buying rare coins on ebay

Certified coins can only be listed as certified coins with numerical grades from ICG, ANACS, NGC, and PCGS. These companies all have online cert verification and have encapsulated a certain number of coins, so are therefore trusted by eBay. I think the number of coins certified is absurdly low, like 50k, maybe?

Other certified coins can be listed as raw coins, with the certification company and numerical grade obscured from photos and not mentioned in the listing. Raw coins can only be listed with a descriptive grade, such as VF, Choice XF, Gem UNC, etc.

However... people frequently do list basement slabbed coins with numerical grades showing in photos. I haven't seen many instances of the grade itself being mentioned in the description, but I'm sure it happens.Blatant fakes and unmarked replicas abound as well.

All in all, eBay is a minefield if you're looking to buy raw coins, but fairly good (in terms of getting what you paid for) on certified coins.

Which version serves eBay's interests better: disappearing the listing entirely, or marking it as "removed"? I'm not sure I have the answer to that, but I think we can infer eBay's answer.

 

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The listing is gone because it's from October 2013.

 

Whom might they be?

 

I’m not naming names because there are others who I simply haven’t discovered.

 

There are several CT members who sell on eBay. Figure out who they are and message them on here so you can get a little discount by cutting out eBay fees.

 

I added a CT member to my list yesterday.

 

In reading the later posts to this thread, I re-thought the positive meanings of some of the earlier ones. When I considered @Morgandude11 's a second time, I thought to myself that here is yet another CT member who has disqualified himself from some spectacular coins. THAT is a positive for me, since the most knowledgeable collectors assemble here, and conventional wisdom counts for something. Alas, though, I have not set my snipes high enough to snag one of several gorgeous and underpriced 1904-S Morgans over the past week or so.

 

No, I have not disqualified myself from spectacular coins. In fact. I bought a raw 1900s Morgan from a very reputable dealer on eBay. I thought it to be AU 55 or so. It was a gorgeous coin, and it graded MS 63 Cac after sending it off. However, I am VERY experienced with Morgans. I do not recommend buying difficult or rare raw dates on eBay, unless one knows the series cold. Inexperienced buyers should avoid doing so. You misread my intentions of my post.

 

This is reality. If you really know what you are doing, eBay is a very safe place. If you think you know more than you do, then it can be a dangerous place. If you are greedy, don’t know what you are doing, and are trying to score rarities for pennies on the dollar, then eBay is absolutely an extremely dangerous place.

 

To be fair, the whole world is extremely dangerous if you’re that greedy and ignorant.

 

Kripes, 6 year old thread.......Start a new tyrade somewhere else.....

Necromongers!

 

For most of the higher end Morgans -- say, > $100 -- do you find that the coins are misrepresented (usually raw ones) or are TPG Morgans simply being priced very high ?

If someone is looking to scam, it would seem to me that rather than try and sell lots of $25 Morgan's for $50, you try and sell TPG 65's/66's /67's where price information might be tough to come by....and overcharge.

I see lots of stuff > 65 Graded where the jump above what are in the Reference Books is really big for 66's, 67's, and even the rare 68. Given the lower populations as you go higher, it pays to "wait" for the sucker or inexperienced buyer who "pays up" for rarity but overpays. Easier to get someone to overpay a ton for quality than to get someone to overpay less in absolute $$$ and have to get lots of people to do that to make the same $$$.

Would you agree with my assesment ?