If you buy coins on ebay, please read this

There are a lot of ebay threads, and a lot of questions about ebay, so I am going to offer some sound advice about buying coins on ebay. If you follow these guidelines, you probably won't get burned.

1. Make sure the coins aren't slabbed by any companies except PCGS, NGC, ICG, or Anacs, unless you unequivocally are confident in your grading skills. I can't guarantee they will always be accurately graded, but by buying these slabs, you can feel more secure.

2. If someone says a coin is ms-68, and it's valued at 23 grand in ms-68, but they have a buy it now of 100 dollars, the coin isn't the grade they claim. You will not get a steal on a coin like this.

3. Don't buy any raw trade dollars, draped bust dollars, or key date coins that are not in slabs, unless you fully trust the seller and their numismatic knowledge. There are a lot of counterfeit trade and bust dollars on ebay. Also, if a key date valuable coin isn't already in a holder, there's a good chance there is a reason why, such as cleaning, altering, counterfeits, damage etc.

4. Try to avoid sellers with private auctions. They typically are scam artists who make their auctions private so that people who have been previously ripped off don't contact the high bidder and give them a heads up.

5. Try to avoid overseas sellers, unless they have really excellent feedback. A lot of times too, an overseas seller might not accept paypal, and you might go and send them a money order, only to have no recourse in recovering your lost money.

6. Always check a sellers feedback. Even if it 99% positive, it may be riddled with negative comments, which may be a good indication that you don't want to buy from them.

7. Ebay doesn't seem interested to me in protecting consumers against fraud. They are more concerned in my opinion, about whether or not they get their money, so don't feel safe buying coins, as there are right now 1000's of coins that are counterfeit, damaged, altered etc.


If anyone here can think of add anything to this list, please add.

 

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Here is one more point that you should note Zaneman.

Do check the seller's history. If there was no transaction for the past 6 months or even longer and the seller is listing some expensive coins for auction, chances are that it might be a hijacked account.

 

Good point GX. It's really a shame the amount of fraud that happens on ebay on a daily basis.

 

I'd like to add some of my own tips.

* I'd make sure he had transactions with feedback much more recent than 6 months.

*in the last month, I've reported about 18 fraudulent sellers that were all shut down by ebay. They actually react fairly quickly when you report someone.

*Look at the shipping, even if the coin says its location is in Oregon, if the shipping says EMS, forget it. They use a hijacked acct from the US but they are in China. The real scam is that paypal allows these people to withdraw the money. They should make them all wait 24hrs or something.

*Don't buy US coins that have GBP in front of the price, a lot of chinese sellers funnel their crap through Hong Kong.

*Never send paypal money to an email address that is at 123.com or 126.com or others like that...chinese.

*If you buy a coin, don't pay for it immediately. I wait at least a day. If ebay determines a seller is using a hijacked acct, they will remove the listings. You will not get your money back if they do.

*The hijacked accts are almost always BuyItNow auctions

*Don't be greedy. If an auction says "I have these dollars but I don't know anything about them"...you mostly likely are not going to get the good deal you hope for. People word their auctions to take advantage of our greed and confidence that we know more than they do. They try to look dumb hoping we'll bite. 'Found in an attic', "Estate sale", old cigar box...most are probably fakes. An 'old bank' with some old looking coins in it means he bought an old bank at a yard sale and put a few wheaties or no date buffs in it.

*Be very suspicious of 2nd chance offers. Some people will email you with a msg that 'The top bidder of an item you bid on does not want it now, you can have it for $xxx Please send money to my paypal acct at xyz@...
Make sure its the seller who is contacting you.

*For new people...A pound of wheat cents is about $1.50 It ain't worth $9.95 Five pounds of coins sounds like a lot...but its not.

I just hate it when I see these things and I've always wanted to list them for people. Maybe it'll help someone.

Bigdaddyz

 

Big daddy, more excellent advice!

 

SH Through the Roof

All great points. It's a shame that E-bay has turned into such a scammers play ground. I remember a couple of years ago it wasn't nearly as bad.

My biggest peeve today is SH costs versus the item being purchased. There's one person selling modern day cents (the last 6 years) starting a one cent with 3 dollars SH.:headbang: Then there's the 1971 Eisenhower with 6.99 SH. :headbang: :goofer:

I'm planning on selling some coins off on E-bay and offer free shipping if not just the actual cost to ship and no handling fees. Do you think I'll get more bids, better bids because of this????:kewl:

 

Another bit of e-bay advice!

Thanks all for the great advice! One more thing to watch out for is any seller offering "unopened" proof, mint or other coin sets. Unless you really trust such seller, stay clear. "Unopened" could mean the seller bought envelopes he or another seller had printed up with older dates, took some inferior coins and placed them in one of those envelopes and sealed it himself! Yeah, it's "unopened" alright, after he sealed it in that newly printed envelope! You can find older dated "envelopes with no coins" for sale all over e-bay. They're usually no more than new replacement envelopes. I've bought some myself for some of my older sets with roughed up packaging, but some sellers are ruthless enough to actually pass them of as original. Just be careful!!

 

To go along with the S&H charges, be sure to check out the insurance details. I've seen some try to charge $5 or more for a $10 or so item. PO charges $1.35 up to $50. Of course they have a disclaimer, not responsible if you don't buy ins.

Make sure to read at least several feedbacks, even positives too, for sellers with high FB scores. Sometimes buyers are afraid to post negs for fear of retaliation . They will post positive but their comments suggest otherwise.

 

Walterallen, you'll probably make a little more on your sales but you'll pay more fees too. Why should ebay get a cut of what it costs you to ship if you offer free shipping? I think most people look at S&H fees and figure them into the final price so even if someone inflates the S&H that means they just pay that much less for the item. Sure, some people use S&H fees to try to scam people and some of the bidders are careless enough to fall for it but if a person keeps his head out of his butt they should do okay. If not they've probably got bigger problems than paying five bucks too much for S&H.

I agree that can be a pet peeve but realistically it just makes sense to figure the S&H and err a bit on the side of caution. If I've got bigger items I usually charge a flat fee of five dollars for priority shipping. The post office will provide you with the boxes and it only costs a bit over four dollars, unless the box is unusually heavy, and it will be delivered within two to three days. People seem tickled pink to get it that quick, at least that's what they say on my feedback, and I haven't had anyone complain yet.

Another tip if you find a coin you're interested in but you feel S&H is inflated too much is to check and see if the seller combines shipping. As in Walterallens case with the single cent with three dollars shipping the seller might have more sales you'd be interested in so check the other items they have. I've found many sellers will throw more items in with the original for an extra fifty cents or a dollar each. If you can pick up a couple other things that can knock the S&H fees down to something reasonable. You may have to contact the seller and ask but the seemingly excessive S&H fees might keep their auction prices down a bit and the combined shipping might give you enough of an edge to bid a little higher and win more of their auctions. Many times I'll check out a sellers other items anyway if I find an auction I'm interested in and they combine the shipping. Even if their S&H is reasonable to start with you can save a little more if they have anything else you're interested in.

 

Another ebay caution is to read the description carefully-
avoid pictured items which indicate that the picture is not of the actual coin being auctioned.

 

Tips for sellers

*Never ship til the check clears...it may not

*always get a signature on delivery and keep good proof/records.

*If you are selling something expensive, only ship to Paypal Confirmed Addresses. If the account is hijacked, they'll want you to send it somewhere else

*if the buyer opts not to get insurance, and the item is expensive, I'll usually pop for it myself for my own protection

 

It's about like buying on ebay, figure out a few basic tips and tricks and you should do okay. Search around here and you'll probably find most of them pretty easily. I'd recommend doing one relatively low cost item at a time to start with and after you get a feel for it and get comfortable then progressing. Just remember what you look for when you're buying and always cover your butt.

 

Also for sellers:
- If you accept personal checks at all (many do not), require a certain amount of feedback first.
- Have new buyers or low feedback buyers e-mail you first before placing a bid.
- Include in the disclaimer that you have the right to cancel bids from people with negative or no feedback.

For buyers:

- Look at a seller's feedback and what the comments were. A single negative doesn't mean a bad seller, understand what the circumstances were; the seller could have just run into an Eternally Unsatisfied buyer.

- If it doesn't have reasonably sized in focus photos of both obverse and reverse, keep shopping.

- If the terms and conditions include multilple colors, multiple fonts or multiple paragraphs, or make you think that the buyer thinks he's the customer, keep shopping.

- Be very wary of items sold by drop-off shops. The S+H usually starts at outrageous and goes up from there; and many "have systems that do not allow them to combine shipping." Well, I have a system that doesn't allow me to bid on items from such buyers.

 

A few more tips:

- When checking feedback - notice if it's from selling or buying - even with lots of good feedback, it may be from the seller BUYING rather than selling.

- Always check the seller's return policy. Depending on the item, ALL SALES FINAL can be a red flag.

- Try to avoid impulse buying - looking in the final minutes of bidding - you may end up over paying because you think you really want it, or because you get into a bidding war with someone else. Plan ahead and do a comprehensive search for what you're interested in. Keep track of items in the WATCH section of MY EBAY.

A-

 

I dont mind paying slightly over the odds on shipping but what does get me is when a seller charges me a high shipping price then can not rven be botherd to make sure the coin is secure in it's packaging That realy peeves me. So if you are selling consider getting in a bulk supply of padded mailers, they are not that expensive and can save you a load of problems in the long run.

De Orc :thumb:

 

I'll add my two cents

First off, please all sellers read this:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/30/BUGTGKRHSF1.DTL

It's a story about a guy who, upon trying to cash a check for an item he sold (not ebay, but easily could have been), was arrested right in the bank because the check was fraudulent. So now it's not only buyer beware, but seller beware too.

As for s/h prices, I'm of the opinion that it's perfectly fine to add "handling" charges to the s/h (that's what the "h" is there for). Depending on one's situation, there is cost associated with packing and transporting items to post office or whatever. Time, also. It's up to the seller to figure the charge into their total and decide whether it's acceptable to them. Ebay get's plenty of $$ as it is from seller's fees.

When I see seller's who offers "free s/h" I wonder why they think they need an "extra edge" on the competition. Not denying that there's a psychological impact of the word "FREE" in an ad, and that I've bought from sellers who, all other things being equal, offered free s/h, just sayin' to evaluate why they are taking that strategy (in other words, check their feedback well).

Now, regarding feedback: it's true that people are quite often afraid to leave honest feedback because of retribution and don't want their own feedback dinged. So, read the comments carefully, and in particular, read the words that ARE NOT there.

Here's a funny story: I bought something last week (3 items from the same seller) and the seller left me feedback BEFORE I had even paid for the items! LOL, they were really lucky I was an honest person!

As a seller, I don't leave feedback for the buyer until I know that they have recieved the item and have left feedback for me. I'm always surprised when sellers leave feedback for me saying that I "paid quickly". It's nice, but they leave themselves open to problems -- because what if I were a jerk who said I never recieved the item, or that it was broken, or not well packed, or whatever --it's best to wait until the entire transaction is complete before leaving feedback. IMHO.

One other thing: as a buyer, I almost never will buy unless the seller takes Paypal. I know there are problems with paypal, and that some people refuse to use it. You can tell which people don't take it, because they have to sell their items at lower prices than everyone else, to get business. Even then I won't buy from them. I'm too much into immediate gratification, lol. Also, as a seller I only use Priority shipping, for the same reason.

 

i hate paying 6 bucks for shipping, just to get the package with 1.25 in postage.
When i sell stuff on ebay i always try to be fare on shipping costs.

 

I can't recommend eBay as a venue for buying, unless you are intimately familiar with the items you are bidding on, and have a clear understanding of how eBay on-line auctions work.

I would much sooner recommend established coin dealers, with well established reputations.

Be careful, ask questions, and use your head.
You don't have to be a victim. You can be a happy collector.

 

If you realy want to know the perils of Ebay then please I urge you to watch this short public announcement clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYokLWfqbaU&NR


De Orc :kewl: