Should ebay ban grades?

Lots of ebay sellers assign grades to their raw coins in their description. Is that fair to do knowing grading is subjective? What if you're just starting, and buy an ebay BU spectacular coin, only to find out years later that you bought a cleaned damaged junk? What do you think?

 

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no. I find it time consuming enough searching through all the junk on Ebay. I would never buy anything if i had to search 500 listing of a particular coin. I wish they would increase the search functions. I dont buy much on Ebay because it takes to much time. If I type in BU, At least it widdles away the amount of listing to look at

 

They will just mark it on a 2x2 and include that in the picture instead. If enough people get burned by a bad grade in their description, they will have neg feedback.

ALSO, you're not supposed to. eBay will remove the listing (usually).

 

Do you really think that SleazeBay would spend the money to have staff validate such listings before they are posted?

Chris

 

I don't either, I thought if the coin isn't graded by the top TPG's you're not supposed to put a grade on it. If somebody is doing that on their sales, I would pass the coin up and move onward. But I shouldn't even count b/c I seldom buy graded.

 

Grading is somewhat objective.
The ANA Grading Guide is just that ... a guide.
And it gives an objective set of things to look for that lead you to deciding what a coin's grade is.
BUT the "things to look for" are not set in stone; they are a bit fuzzy and that's where the subjective part comes in.
At that point you compare your interpretation of the guide vs. the seller's interpretation.
No big thing.
If you don't agree you move on to the next listing.
PLUS
You have the fallback position of disagreeing with the seller if what you receive doesn't in your opinion agree with the seller's description.
It's called a SNAD (Significantly Not As Described).
BUT this means it's incumbent on you to have a reasonable working knowledge of grading and the general characteristics of altered coins.

If you don't have that knowledge then there are several choices:
-- don't buy raw coins from eBay, or
-- only buy raw coins on eBay from known reputable dealers, or
-- only buy coins graded by a reputable TPG, or
-- only buy raw coins from stores of/at shows from known reputable dealers.

 

I used to always put a grade or grade range, like, "XF to AU." But a year or so ago someone left me a neutral saying "I am of the opinion the coin was over graded." Since then, I rarely do it. But occasionally I still do, if I feel strongly about it.

 

Edited. Duplicate post

 

You can't use a numeric grade for your coin (XF-45, MS-63, etc.) unless it's slabbed by an eBay approved TPG.
And that pertains to both the title AND the description.

What I do since I want to attract people looking for a raw coin with a general grade is express an educated opinion such as 'This coin appears to be XF to me.'
Then I start the bidding LOWER than XF to give potential bidders some wiggle room if they disagree with me.
Plus I include VERY good images.

 

I am not talking about numeric grades, not many ebay sellers assign numeric. But many assign XF, AU, UNC, BU...

 

what wrong with giving grades?

 

Well say you're a beginner and only have a slight idea about grading. You search "BU" on ebay and find lots of hits, and choose one that is described as BU but it's cleaned and has rim damage, but you buy it anyways because you can't grade and don't pay much attention since seller said coin was BU. Wouldn't it be better just to take a good picture and let the buyer decide the condition of the coin? I am not saying I am in favor or against grading, I am just asking.

 

I guess I wouldnt care about that person and whether he cant grade. I like when sellers give a grade because it saves time. When Im looking for XF coins for my commem set, I dont want to look through a bunch crappy BU coins. I also want to do it in a hurry.

 

Lots of folks find out that they'd bought cleaned or damaged junk but as long as they pay close to melt value, it all works out.

Grading is an opinion and if folks are going to purchase coins off of eBay from sellers who do not have stores or actual store fronts, then they'd better KNOW what they are doing since it is oh so easy to learn.

Should eBay regulate their system to protect folks from themselves? I don't think they should but I'm sure that others, who want to learn at someone elses expense might just disagree.

Alternate question: Should Dealers at a coin show be forbidden from "assigning their own grades"?

 

No.
But in this case the potential buyer would have a much better look at the item vs. most of the images you see on eBay.
Therefore a buying error would be less likely.

 

Yeah, I'm a bit annoyed at the "BU" coins I bought that I now recognize as cleaned or damaged. Of course, I bought them at coin shows, or at local dealers, or from ads in the back of a coin magazine, because it was FORTY YEARS AGO and I was only a kid.

Rules and regulations can't fix everything.

Lately, the thing that's frustrated me most on eBay is the "required pictures" that are so low-res you can't even make out mint marks. It's particularly awful on their mobile app -- you used to be able to zoom in, but now the app just downloads low-res images. You can't tell everything about a coin from a photo -- but from these photos, you can hardly tell anything.

 

↑ Yes. The mobile app is all low res now. I used to be able to zoom in closely with nice, big, high res pics. Miss those days.

 

No, they shouldn't ban grades. The rules they have for not allowing sellers to assign a specific numeric grade in a non TPG holder seems fair enough. Coin collectors should take it upon themselves to learn how to grade the coins they collect if for nothing other than to protect themselves to a certain degree from those coin sellers who are over grading/pricing their coins.

eBay requires an image to be at least 1600 pixels in any one side which unless it is saved in a high resolution format, at least 300 dpi, will result in a very blurry image in most cases. If a seller has a coin that has a distant or unclear image then he/she is either not wanting the buyer to see its actual condition or is just a lousy photographer. In either case, you have the choice of asking for a better picture to be sent to you, buying something you really don't what you are going to get or just not bidding on the coin. Even with the eBay buyer protection the seller does not have to refund your money unless the item was not as described and if so stated in their return policy you basically don't have a chance in returning it. The sellers who are out to deceive deliberately will state they know nothing about coins and it is up to the buyer to determine what it is worth to them which makes it easy for that seller to deny a refund.