http://cgi.ebay.com/1876-CC-US-SILV...166QQihZ001QQcategoryZ529QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Not an expert, but quite a few things pop up as red flags for this auction, lol... especially check out the feedback. Here's another: http://cgi.ebay.com/PROOF-real-1874...943QQihZ014QQcategoryZ529QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Love the description where it says Is that basically admitting it was made in China, lol?
Troodon,the second piece looks like a dud to me.It looks too grey,as opposed to the whitish colour that genuine silver coins are.As to the first piece,I can't give an opinion,as the photos are too dark to get a good look.In my view,give both auctions the widest berth possible. Aidan.
One fuzzy picture, vauge return policy, high shipping prices... sounds exactly like the scams out of china that are all over ebay.
Try to avoid buying coins from chinese sellers as most are counterfiets. Some may look very authentic because the Chinese counterfieted US coins 100-150 years ago and they were actually in circulation. Today they hold a value to some collectors becuse of there realistic appearence. Also he wants 42 dollars to ship one of the coins!!!
Those are all the things that popped out at me also. The first coin, if you look at the seller's feedback, he also sold another trade dollar which is an extremely obvious fake (is clearly a cast copy). Other things that immediately seem suspicious are: very recently created eBay ID very low feedback Little or no feedback left for actually selling coins The second one had not completed a single auction for coins before. The first, only one, and the pics of that one showed the coin to be an obvious fake. Now I know people have to start somewhere, so not all new IDs mean the coins are fake, but before buying a coin of high value that has a history of being counterfeited I'd definitely wait to find a seller with an established reputation. If it was a common modern coin wouldn't be quite so concerned. Anyway even if the coin was legitimate wouldn't pay 30 to 40 pounds shipping which works out to about 55 to 73 US dollars.
Dont you just love that they list on the British page so that the prices are almost double???? Almost all the Chinese seleers do that! Usually when i do my searches i click the US ONLY box.
Indonesian auctions are the same. Zaneman,the same situation applies to Indonesia.There's a lot of Ebay & credit card-related scams that originate in that notoriously corrupt country as well. Aidan.
i almost bid on a set(5) of good condition seated liberty halfs until i read that the seller bought them from a vendor in china. FAKES!
I've even seen duds of some of the rare dates in British Trade Dollars.When I looked at them,their soapy appearance was a dead giveaway,as was their extremely light weight. Aidan.
Ha Ha...I wouldnt buy any coins from China...period. Not even Chinese coins for that matter. Looks like they drug the 1874 trade dollar through the dirt to make it look old. These coins are clearly fakes. The sad part of it all is that in China its not illegal to make copies of coins and currency and sell it. Read the article in the May 2006 issue of COINage magazine "Collecting in China", its very well written article and very informative.
Actually from my understanding it is, but they usually concentrate their enforcement on those that counterfeit Chinese coins and currency, gold pandas esepcially. I'm not sure if the laws apply to counterfeiting foreign coins and currency to sell outside of China; they probably do, but the Chniese government seems less interested in enforcing them if so. Not too long ago they started getting serious about cracking down on movie piracy because they realized it was hurting China's reputation and they may start getting more serious about coin and currency counterfeiting as well... but there's so many people doing it that likely the best they can do is to find the larger scale, more blatant operations.
3 Reasons NOT to buy from this guy 1. Look at the item location, he doesn't even know where he's at 2. Look at his Email, fgfgfh5544?? Hmmm, if I'm not mistaken, F,G,and H are right next to each other on the keyboard. It looks like something I type when I don't want to give my name 3. I almost had a seizure from all of those stupid lights!! Stay away! There's a few good things in China, but coins isn't one of them!