Maybe it's just me, but the seller here doesn't seem to have any title to these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/22104388336 "Coins found in the crawl space of my new rental house"
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Well, I guess I wasn't the only one with an ethical objection! It was basically a listing for a bag of mediocre looking circulated silver coins someone had put into a sack and stored in the crawlspace of a home. The seller was the person renting the home - he claimed to have come across the coins while cleaning out the crawlspace. I just wanted to see what everyone's opinion was of the situation.
I would say the coins belong to the owner of the house, not the renter. IMO, the renter should turn them over to the owner.
Sounds more like bs ebay marketing. "I know nothing about coins that I just inheirited so you could find rpm's and rare coins in my stuff." Yet the person has sold coins for 10 years on ebay and still know nothing. More than likely got pulled for something nit picky by ebay's listing rules not so much an ethics violation as some can attest to on CT ebay has no ethics themselves sometimes.
Well, that's stealing, right? Talk about a bad idea, advertising to to the whole world that he's a crook. I don't think the property owner will be happy!
My thought exactly. When someone sells something on ebay and proceeds to create this drama about the reasons for selling, it makes me think theres some goofy kid on the other end that would fail a polygraph miserably. When theres a backstory thats beautifully embellished it makes me think theyre trying to mush my brains with sentimentalism and evict my internal assay master
Sounds to me like the "unsearched" wheat roll scam made over... Instead of filling a roll of pennies with 1950s cents, and capping the ends of the roll with an indian on one side, and a Merc dime on the other (rolleyes), and hoping to sell $5 bux of junk for $300... They are filling an old bag with culls and playing dumb with a bogus story in hopes some fool pays a fortune for it. The scammers have to constantly up their game. When the word "unsearched" lost it's luster, they started putting token 1910s or 1920s cents on the ends to make you think the coins were older. Then they had to up that to putting a VDB out, so everyone would think it just had to be an 'S' on the inside. When that wore thin, they put Indian cents on the ends, even though these "unsearched" rolls were listed as "Wheats". (If there are IHCs on the ends, why wouldn't you assume it was an IHC roll looking at the ends... IF the roll was original and unsearched?) NOW they are putting the rolls together with dimes on the ends, as though they were wrapped that way 80 years ago! These rolls are bringing in the fools though... I have seen a few go for hundreds! What a racket.
Thieves are often not too smart, but eBay proves over and over that buyers are right there with the thieves when it comes to brains.
It reminds me of that one listing where these people "CLAIMED" it have found a secret compartment behind an "OLD" bookcase with shelfs of "UNSEARCHED" coins from his grandpa's time. The best part was, the coins were in modern wood small chests (like 5 inches wide, 2 inches deep) with packaging you would see off of QVC with like 3 nickels (liberty,indian, and jefferson) in a plastic container saying America's nickels!
I find it interesting that everyone has already tried, convicted and sentenced this alleged thief. I have a rental house and I've had a renter approach me and ask about a pair of moose antlers he found in the attic of the garage. He politely asked me if I knew who they belonged to or if I wanted them. I told him I did not know who they belonged to and as far as I was concerned, they were abandoned property and he was welcome to them. Maybe he posted them on an auction site saying he found them in the attic of his rental house. Maybe he didn't feel the need to spell out that he didn't steal them. Or, it could be this is a house that he just bought to be a rental. i.e. "His new rental house." Just sayin'...
In the silver bullion market on the bay, I see a lot of sellers using confusion to inflate selling prices. They'll list 5 ounces of 90% silver coins. What this does to new buyers is make them think that the ounces is the same ounces that they see silver prices quoted in. So the buyers are really getting about 10% less weight - approx 4.5 troy ounces. On top of that, they're buying 90% silver coins and not 99.9%. That knocks off another 10%. Granted, the sellers aren't explicitly defrauding them, but its rather clear that the buyers of these auctions end up paying very inflated prices when compared to auctions that list the Actual Silver Weight of their 90% silver coins. Its considered a good idea among bullion buyers to pay no more than spot for 90% 'junk' (no numis value). Many of the auctions I mentioned above go for about 10-30% above spot. Anytime a seller complicates the actual silver weight with tactics such as these, theyre being a little less than ethical.
I can at least translate what the weight of 90% junk works out to in terms of silver. What bugs me is when people list in Av Ounces, Pennyweights, or Grains (I'm looking at you, Franklin Mint) to inflate the apparent weight. Converting that back to ASW (in Troy Ounces) can be a lot of work.
Yes, the weight of the coins is listed in Av Ounces. Basically, what people do is look at the auction that says 5 ounces of 90% silver US coins and equate that weight to the spot price of silver, which is listed in troy and is of course based upon 100% silver and not 90%. Of course, you dont know whats going thru buyers heads, but when you compare these auctions I describe above to auctions selling the same things but include the actual silver weight, the final price difference is very different. So its obvious that theres something being lost in the translation. How much do you blame the seller and how much do you blame the buyer? I dont know.
I work with a dummy who buys those and couldnt be happier. he thinks they are legit, and i dont have the heart to burst his bubble. it makes him happy
