Why I'm Skeptical of E Bay at times

I was watching a 1879 S Morgan Dollar on E Bay it never sold, so it was re listed this time without the the Item Condition of ( Lightly Polished ) and changed too

“Highest Premium Quality”


and this time it sold for $287.86. I saved the links in My watch Group when I seen it was re listed. I know it is the same coin just a different condition listed. I have bought nice coins off of E Bay and this guy has 100% feed back too. but this really got me wondering how much of this go's on ? I'm not an expert and I'm new to collecting and it really makes me Skeptical of buying anything that is not graded from E Bay, I'm I alone on this. I know a lot of you on here have been at it for years. I guess Wisdom comes into Play when buying anything off of there.

Here is the first listing of this coin.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221187138069?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Here is the new one and the new sale price.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321072476937?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

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yes thats interesting, makes me second guess myself about buying from there.

 

Misrepresenting a coin is not right from a fraud standpoint and from a moral one however it goes on each and everyday in the business. Even off ebay. Official line is Ebay prefers PCGS NGC and Anacs coins and will shake their collective heads and tolerate ICG. I personally have noticed over the years that they play favorites to powersellers (after all they are making them lots of money on the fees collected) on what they accept and with what "terms" and descriptions they use and it's not just coins and collectables.
As for why the same coin sold one time and the other it didn't the condition description I'm sure had a lot to do with it in this case but also it's about marketing an item even a properly described one. Saying it's Bu instead of MS could cost you a sale over a small detail like that. The final aspect is simply finding the right buyer at the right time. Off ebay I sold a coin described as cleaned to a guy who understood it and still wanted the coin all be it at a fair, properly discounted, price he just wanted the date and mint mark to fill an album hole on a budget.

 

This is all too common, my friend. At least you're knowledgeable enough to know not to bid.

And the price that coin realized is simply outrageous. Even if it were to grade cleanly at 62DMPL (but I suspect it wouldn't), that's still strong 65PL money.

Here's a 79-S I bought and sold last year. I bought it raw, had it graded, and PCGS called it 65 (no PL, surprisingly). It sold on eBay for about as much as that 79-S in the OP.

 

I am sure there are many Morgans described as DMPL but aren't. I bought 2 raw DMPL's or what I at least think are. When I have them graded I shall see, however I bought my coins because of the eye appeal, and they were good raw examples.

 

Yea I was wondering about this Morgan and did not bid on it because it was just to Polished looking in the outer parts of the coin. I'm very new at this and have been reading a lot of thing to watch for so I held off on bidding and now I see I made the right choice and the final bid the second time was way out for Me. I love the Morgan Dollar but I want good clean coins for that price too and from what I see all this guys coins or a lot of them look to be polished or cleaned some how for a crazy price.

 

It never sold because the the seller ended the auction prior to the first bid. Often a seller uses a template from a previous auction which carries over that information. If you're not careful with your editing, adverse info can carry foward. I suspect that's what happened in this case. I doubt if the coin was "lightly polished". Remember, if a coin on eBay is significantly not as described (SNAD) it can be returned for a full refund, regardless of the seller's return policy. I wouldn't hesitate to buy any raw coin from eBay if the price was right. Sometimes bidding wars can drive up the cost to unrealistic levels. That's when you want to bail out. Bid only the max you want to pay for the coin, and if you win you're covered by eBay's buyer protection.

 

That is probably what happened here, I think it was posted for a couple days like that before being pulled so it makes you think WHY. But as you said I bet that was the case.

 

Buy The Coin/Terms, Not The Verbiage

I'm sorry, here is a seller with almost 3700 100% positive feedback such as "Wish I could leave 6 stars. A++++++", 14 day virtually unconditional return policy rather than the common 3 day, and the verbiage determines the commodity sales price. If the seller had stated that the coin may have been "Possibly Dipped", he/she may have sold the coin for a lesser amount the 1st time. In the second offering the seller changed a connotation, and used the same image as the first auction. What is the difference? Maybe someone looked at the image, the seller, and terms. I think maybe some have become too selectively sensitized to a few words.
Hmmm, maybe an explanation for our electorate/elected!!

I wish we could know how many TPG "altered" coins have been removed from one firms "cleaned, uncirculated details" holder, and resubmitted to a second TPG, receiving an upgrade without comments.

I was once naive about potential value until a "Dealer" enlightened me by removing a "details" coin from a "lower tier" TPG holder, in my presence, betting me that a "top tier" TPG would appreciably grade higher. That was an expensive lesson I'll never forget, as the coin was an 1878-S Double Eagle, finally graded MS-62. WOW!! In the current market, a retail value difference of more than $4000.

I've come a long way from the day when I called my property assessors office to complain that their evaluation was considerably less than my purchase price, investigating/evaluating more factors before acting. I believe that someone missed an opportunity for a "snipe bid" steal.in the first auction by not understanding the total "value" of an offering, and by not placing an initial small bid.

I've personally learned that education is the key to success, rather than selecting a single word(s) from a presentation and missing an "opportunity". Buy the coin/conditions rather than a detail!

JMHO :thumb:

 

The seller made an error in his first listing and cancelled all bid. If you look at the bids for the first listing, he says so.

 

Buyer beware!

 

The seller just ended the first listing early before anyone could bid on it.

 

No. He actually had 8 bids on it (to $75), but he cancelled their bids because "Explanation: error in listing, coin is actually PQ".

 

Like everywhere else on the internet, 99% of what you read is garbage. Learn the series, the grades and what to look for and ignore their meaningless descriptions and you won't have anything to worry about on Ebay. You aren't even safe with graded coins, as we all know there are huge differences even withing the same grade.
Guy

 

Ebay is no different than buying a coin anywhere else; educate yourself so you know whether or not what you're buying is worth the selling price. Caveat emptor and all that.

You can get decent coins from eBay if you know what you're doing.

 

I wonder if "Best Offer Accepted" is a shill-bidding ruse. Take the spectacular auction which gets no feedback/nor recorded sale-price. How can we know IF the product ever "sold" in the first place, let alone what the sale-price was?

For example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970s-LEGO-14K-SOLID-GOLD-25-YEARS-EMPLOYEE-SERVICE-2X4-BRICK-ULTRA-RARE-/221148102615

That art-bar perhaps sold for ~$ 2,000 - 3,000., NOT $15,000. We know the "buyer" didn't leave any feedback - so maybe the sale was never completed? Authencity of the object was unsustantiated, very dubious.

It was discussed here - some CTers desperately wanted to believe it was genuine Lego and sold for thousand$. http://www.cointalk.com/t218193/

With eBay and 'odd spectaculars' DOUBT FIRST and verify, obviously.

 

Why didn't you pop in a $1 bid at the last second? "Lightly Polished" or not...it's still a steal at 99¢. :kewl:

 

Didn't ebay used to display the final sale price of Best offer items? Don't know how the sell well benefit from shill bidding when it comes to best offers', most often it used to run up active auctions'. It is next to impossible to crack down since the shill bidding is done via account that have different ip addresses than the seller.

 

I would be surprised if anyone got a real silver dollar from Ebay, I now have 7 chinese fakes. Morgans, Peace dollar, etc. I would never buy any silver dollar I couldnt take a magnet to.

 

What, I am shocked and appalled that with all the tight security ebay provides some dishonest person might put up something not real. Really, when picking through ebay I find a ten or twenty dishonest tricks for every straight up auction. You have to be skeptical sometimes.