People overpay for coins on ebay

Over the years, I've been able to get some unbelievable deals on ebay for around the house items, electronics and other miscellaneous stuff. But when it comes to coins, it seems that it's hard to get a good deal most of the time. Especially on lower grade stuff because there are so many more buyers and most don't know how to grade. It seems as if many people are willing to go by whatever the seller grades it, they look up the price for that grade and then bid up to that price and beyond. I would bet that most of the time, for lower grade coins that most of the people bidding have no idea what the actual grade is or if it's a problem coin.

People will bid on just about any problem, cleaned, coin and for the most part, they can't grade very well if at all to determine what a reasonable price is.

I bid on a wheat cent today that I wanted for a special set I'm putting together. Not low mintage by any means. It was decent. Nothing fancy but undamaged. Maybe a fine. An average circulated cent, chocolate brown.
It should have went for $2.00. It was bid up to $3.75. I couldn't be around for when the auction ended but I wanted it so I put an insane bid of $10.00 in on it, assuming people might go to $5 and walk away.
Sure enough, someone outbid me while I was gone and it went for $10.50.

I see many other G, VG and F coins that people seem to over-react on. Examples that are often common in that range. And I must be getting pickier in my old age because I have a hard time finding ANY examples I like while looking at them on ebay.
Really, Ebay is full of over-graded, cleaned, problem coins. Rarely do you find a quality example and when you do, there's 12 people bidding it up. I'm talking about loose, older coins in general.

It's a great place to go if you want to find a slabbed MS69 or 70 of something.

 

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I pretty much agree with ya.... that's why for the most part I only use ebay for slabbed coins. I'm lucky enough to have a good coin shop close by for the raw coins so its not much of a problem for me though. Gets to be frustrating on there though...

 

I've been doing the eBay thing as well and it is very hit or miss but generally you're right, the good deals are very few and far between. The age of those true deals is over I believe and the ebay pages are spammed with replicas and just ok coins.. I feel lucky with some of the coins I got for the price I paid because I see the same coins I got go for $500 more than what I paid, and crazy enough, people pay for it.

One thing I do have to say is eBay should do something about all these replicas spamming up the pages. They take a good chunk of quality listings away or make it even harder to find a good one. There are just too too many.

 

People consistantly over-pay for Lincolns. I, like most savy collectors, use CDN pricing. I pretty much stopped bidding there because the bidding masses don't know what they're doing. They apparently can't grade and don't even know what CDN is. I can get much better deals at coin shows, my local dealers and reputable sellers like Jack at Mesacoin.

 

This is the way eBay is now. Fools and greedy bidders who don't even know what they are doing. There is one exception and that's when I put something up for sale. It doesn't sell at all or sells too cheaply.
I have also noticed at local auctions that fools bid way too high for common coins. One auction I attended [twice] the bidding was just crazy for everything from new Presidential dollars to Morgans to Indian head cents.
I couldn't even raise my bid card because the prices were way over what I would spend. So now I just go to coin shows and negotiate price. If it's too much I pass. Then I go back a month later and renegotiate the same coin.
One guy is at every show with the same rather rough 1921-D half dollar marked $379.
I got it down to $325 a few months ago. Then 2 months ago he said he could knock the $79 off and let it go for $300. Last week he still had the same coin and I offered $250. He says no because he paid $300 for it.
But he would "let it go" for $275. Now next month I am going to try the $250 again and see what happens. The coin just sits in his inventory month after month.

 

"greedy bidders "

lol gotta admit thats a new one on me , sounds like sour grapes.

 

People have always tended to overbid on common stuff on ebay and for reasons stated. Lack of knowledge being number one.

When I was still selling there I made better money selling common stuff with a decent picture.

However, if I put up a tougher coin it seemed people wanted it well below CDN bid. We run into this at work as my boss sells there.
Put a tough coin up and even slabbed by NGC or PCGS with a reserve UNDER bid and we don't hit the reserve.

Put up an oddball coin that just happened to walk in the door and it goes for stupid money. Seems to me there's not much of middle ground on ebay anymore.

 

My secret about working ebay is to keep your favorite seller list tight. Anytime I have to return a coin, they get one more chance, and then they are out. If the coin is as described, they go on the favorite list. I currently have 40 on the list , but 2 are stamp related, 5 are gem related, the rest are coin related, including some that only list occasionally like Millerscoins. A couple are B & M stores with online also.

The dealer is more important than the descriptions. I give Jack high marks also.

Jim

 

What is CDN? I am kinda new at this as i haven't collected in years, is there anything else I need to know about price guides?

 

Absolutely, I agree totally. I've gotten some deals on ebay but they are few and far between as someone else mentioned. I've found a decent priced coin dealer in my area but I finally found the best way, for me anyways. Ebay is great when you are looking for something that's hard to find. Also on "soonest to end listings" sometimes you can find a steal of a deal. With that said, the best place for me to buy coins is at my coin club, they have auctions there and I was at my first one last Wednesday.

I was able to get a couple really good deals, way better than ebay. Also I check out antique stores, not all of them but some of them carry coins. Then my coin store, and then my last resort, which used to be my first resort is ebay. Live and learn, is what I always say.

 

I've been buying coins off ebay for the past 8 years. I was able to get much better deals from 2002-2005 than the last four years. It is true that ebay has problems with sellers overstating the grade, selling fakes, etc. There are also a lot of buyers that often push up the price of coins beyond their book value. I always try to know the coin that I'm buying and be patient. I've taken a couple of years of bidding on different auctions to buy certain coins in my collection. On the good side of ebay, it is a great reference for getting an idea on the market value of your coins. Also, it is a great place to find coins that aren't always easily found at coin shows or coin shops. If the pictures are good (and I don't usually bid on coins without good pics), you have a few days to analyze the coin before the end of the auction.

 

For low value items people don't worry about the cost.
People will pay $5 for an item that should top out at $2.50 only because it's not "really that much more".
I might consider selling my collection for twice what it catalogs.

No, on second thought probably not.
I like it too much (but I'd be tempted).

 

^^^^^^ Sour grapes? Balogna. Don't know why you say that. You never heard of greedy bidders? There are bidders who just have to win regardless of cost. That is just greed.
I don't need many more coins and can find them elsewhere.
Doesn't bother me if I don't win. At least I know I didn't pay stupid money.

 

Options

I think FeeBay just offers options.

One does not have to play their game, but if someone offered a Kypton plated, left handed 3 Euro Zorgbot, slabbed on Pluto and someone wants to bid on it......

Why do you feel compelled to be the currency Nazi?

 

I used to think the same thing but I don't believe it applies to at least lower end stuff now. I agree with GD's statement.

And Kanga's statement here is why:

When stuff is lower grade, thus lower priced, it's easy to pay double or triple what it's worth when someone finds something they have to have.

When something is a slabbed, higher grade coin that may be worth several hundred or thousand dollars, there are much fewer bidders so somebody buying feels like they deserve a big break under the book value.

In that sense, ebay has raised the value of lower grade coins and lowered the value of rarer, more expensive stuff.

I think the best deals to be had are at coin shows with dealers who don't sell online. Many of them have such large inventories that they don't have time to monitor what crazy prices are being paid for every individual coin or set on ebay lately.

Here's a BU war nickel set in a Capital Plastics holder I picked up at a show last year:


The holder alone sells for $15. I paid $75 for this set. With good pictures, I could likely get almost double for it on ebay. But is that the real value of it? There almost needs to be a separate price guide for ebay!

The thing is, the guy I bought it from said he had 5 or 6 sets just like it that he left at the shop because he didn't think they would sell. At $75. He would have gladly sold them all if he had brought them. I know the guy I went with would have bought one or two. I might have bought another myself.

 

Kind of like when I go to work in the morning. There is a two lane road going in to town. Right at the tail end, where the road merges into a single lane, some fool is going to speed up to pass me if it kills them and me. Most of the time I end up right behind this person all the way into town.

Think people just caught up in the thrill of the chase and the competition as they see it. Have read some stories seller who were unable to sell a product with a BIN and then put them up for auction and sold them for more than they were originally asking. Just human nature for some folks.

 

I think Currency Gestapo is more like it.

As to Ebay and anywhere else, it all boils down to what you are willing to pay for something, not no stinking price guide. Colonial prices are all over the place and the price guide is only that, a GUIDE.

Here are two I find interesting:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250486580770

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250485745731

The first one shouldn't have gone as high as it did and the 2nd should have gone higher than it did, so what gives? :goofer: The only thing I can think of is someone figured out the first one is a 1882-O/S and they bid more for it but what's interesting, the second one is also a 1882-O/S.

Ribbit

Ps: I was outbid on the 1st one and I won the 2nd one. I got the better of the 2 and for $4 more.

 

Lots of wisdom here! :smile