An owl sold on eBay today for $7K.

I assume this information is credible.

I just saw a classical owl on eBay that sold for over $7,000.

Here's a link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3534687823...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

The $7K owl is a standardized classical tetradrachm. It is nice, but the obverse is slightly off-center, as is quite common, and the style is not of the best, in my opinion. But, to each his or her own. As my grandfather used to say "Someone must have liked it".


On another note, I just took some snaps of a Pi style II intermediate owl that I've owned for a while. I assure everyone that I paid less than $7,000 for this coin.

353-350 BCE
17.17 grams

 

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I saw that listing had “or best offer.” When an item on eBay sells in response to a best offer, is the best offer price listed? Or the original price? Could someone have offered $3000, had that offer accepted, but the original price would appear in the listing?

 

...no...

 

On the bright side, only $8,- in shipping is ridiculously cheap!

 

Wow. I've bought from Mr highrating_lowprice before (Ilya Zlobin of Authentic Ancient Greek Roman Coins, New York). He has good coins, but I only got one when he accepted an offer vastly lower than his 'discounted' price.

I also have an Attica Tetradrachm with the same reference (HGC 4, 1597). Maybe I will get it graded by NGC and sell it for 14 times what I paid for it.

Attica Tetradrachm, 454-404BC

Attica. Silver, 24mm, 17.19g (Kroll 8; HGC 4, 1597).

 

That's a possibility. Apparently the original price was $15K. The "sold" price displayed is $7K.

The actual price could have been lower, but by how much is unknown.

Are sellers on eBay restricted on the sold price they can show in the listing? If there is a significant difference between the listed price and the actual sold price, that can be very misleading.

 

There used to be many ways to get around to viewing the actual sold price from offer listings, but ebay plugs the holes each time they are found. Pretty frustrating.

 

Imagine a $700 ebay fee! I'd rather buy an owl tet for that rate itself!

 

Some eBay sellers list items at astronomic multiples of their actual value in anticipation of ridiculously low offers. Its a game. In all probability, the coin sold for something close to its actual retail value. The fee would be based on the price accepted, not the price listed.

 

Doesn't even have full crest designation.

 

I was just gonna say exactly that - $7k and it's not even full crest.

Ilya is slimy.

 

I've looked at some of the seller's other offers for a while and quite a few of the ones I looked at had outrageous prices. Have no idea about this particular coin.

Take a look at his other items and judge for yourself.

 

I'll sell mine for $5,000 each- total bargain!

 

High Rating Low Price -- named Ilya Zlobin, I believe -- is the most notorious joke of an ebay seller discussed here. Not because his coins aren't genuine, but because of his deceptive business practices, like asking for ridiculous prices supposedly lowered from even more ridiculous original prices that never existed in reality. There are innumerable threads on CT about him. He expects people to contact him to make offers for a small percentage of his asking prices, but I guess every now and then he gets a sucker who pays what he asks.

 

I've seen other owls listed in the $7,000 range, such as on Vcoins. Given the demand for these coins, and the cash floating around, that $7,200 sale price might actually be correct.

High Rating Low Price does have over the top initial prices for many coins, so the psychology used, where a comparative "bargain" is struck for a coin initially listed at $15,000, plus marketing, create the illusion of buying a coin of decent but not exceptional quality at over a 50% "discount".

I noticed that the coin has an NGC rating of 5 for strike, which I don't agree with, due to the off-center obverse, and 5 for surfaces.

All of this reminds me of how Morgan and Peace dollars have been marketed for decades, both of which generally have enormous annual mintage figures.

 

I have contacted eBay about Ilya's practices - particularly the fake discounts which are illegal in the USA, UK and certainly my own country Australia. You can't list a coin for $10,000; then a minute later offer it for $5,000, and then claim you're offering a 50% discount. This is part of his business model. It's illegal. But eBay did nothing.

 

We could give Mr Zlobin something to do this weekend by offering 10% of his asking prices for his coins (which seems about fair).

 

i love it!

 

I tried, but it doesn't work. I offered USD 425 for a coin priced at 1798,80* (roughly 25%). My offer was automatically rejected. I'm sure this particular coin can be bought at somewhere around my offer price.

*The original asking price was allegedly USD 4497, which is an insane price for that coin.

 

All I know about Ilya Zlobin is that he was that guy on Pawn Stars that argued with the NGC Ancients Director that a coin of Julius Caesar should be sold for 4 times its value



Rick: "I'll give you $1,000 for it"
Ilya: ..........


Looking at his eBay, it doesn't seem to be very "low price"s.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234069719128?hash=item367fa47858:g:GkAAAOSwmk5g2yxN
What a steal, for just $313.65 (was $697.00)