I do not know where this question fits since I am new to CoinTalk, so feel free to move or delete. I just started collecting coins and starting with wheats. I do not have a collection of wheats piled up yet but am anxious to get started. So I have turned to ebay to start my pile. I have been looking at the bulk options and I know that they are a scam and all common. Thats alright by me, I just like wheats. However I am noticing a weird trend or patten that I have to inquiry about: On all the wheats I see listed on ebay, either bulk, or in shotgun rolls are being bid on by people with the ebay names such as r***r or a***j, etc, etc. Every single bid is by these buyers! Did I miss something? Am I this new to ebay that I dont know how this works? Can anyone shed light on this subject? My only guess is that its a tight knit community of sellers who have separate names that bid on eachothers auctions to artificially drive up the price so suckers like this guy (me) have to shell out more money for an everyday common coin.
Ebay's new " security " system for you. Only the sellers can see the bidders now. It was designed to cut down on fraudulent "second chance offers" which so many newbies fall prey to. I also make it near impossible to warn a bidder when the coin is a fake....see other thread on this subject
I have to agree with all of the above. I do not understand the point of keeping the bidders anonymous at all. At first I thought, " well, possibly, it might be a good idea for the winner to remain anonymous if this is a high dollar coin or something." WRONG! As soon as the auction ends, the winning bidder's user name appears. So what are we hiding? Pros: None Cons: You can't warn somebody if a coin is fake. You don't know if shill bidding is going on. You can't contact other bidders to discuss the item. Your user name is listed as the winner at the end of the auction anyway. I've noticed nearly every person selling coins keeps bidder IDs private while very few sellers of anything else on ebay use that. Not a fan of it at all.
I sell once in awhile on ebay and I do not like the hidden bidders either but I believe Ebay does it to prevent people from emailing bidders with offers from coins they have. But as stated above I do not like the system because I all most always start my coin auctions at 99 cents and let them go for what ever they go for. I have lost money on coins once in a great while but usually do just fine. I believe someone will replace Ebay before long if they do not change their ways and lower the fees.
Most Wheatie bags will give you 1940's-1950's coins, and you will have a lot of bulk coins leftover. It will probably be a $300.00 investment you could be better off trying this website. If you go for raw coins, you could fill up your with a lot of coins for $300.00 http://www.apachecoin.com
That's why I stopped placing a "full" bid on items I really want. I snipe everything now, ever since I was the victim of shrill bidding. I notified Ebay of the incident, which they supposedly investigted but determined shrill bidding wasn't involved but it was too obvious. I never paid for the item and just about the same time, Ebay took away the seller's ability to leave negative feedback and the seller "moved on" with it and I never heard from them again. I got lucky but it taught me a lesson! Ribbit Ps: As a note - prior to the auction closing and the shrill bidding occurring, I had messaged the seller and asked to withdraw my bid. That's what broguht about the shrill bidding, since they figured if they overbid me, they could cancel the sell and resell it later but if they could get my bid up, they could scam me. Also, that's why I don't feel guilty about not paying for it, since I had properly asked to have my bid removed well before the auction ending.
Hey Mikey! Couldn't help myself... been waiting years to say that. Sorry. Welcome to Coin Talk! You mentioned 'wheats' in your message, so what dates/mints are you searching for? jeankay
Umm, well key and semi-key dates plus commons. I just like to have them around, I have always enjoyed seeing wheat pennies in change for the historical aspect of them. I got my degree in history so I enjoy having older coins. With that said, I am going to start collecting wheats that are not just common, hence why I am going to ebay and joined this site.
