Ebay Troubles

I am old enough to remember when change was silver, and you could find most anything in bank rolls. Now, if you want to collect, you must buy from specialty dealers.
In my area, coin dealers are scarce. Most are barely knowledgeable about coins, and only interested in buying gold and silver, etc, at a pittance, to re-sell for a large profit.
My experiences with two of the local dealers have been borderline. Even though I have known the one a long time, I still feel like just another customer to be fleeced. He has a partner who gives me the full-blown creeps.
It is possible to travel around, go to shows, but that is time consuming. Thus, EBay has become my primary shopping place by default.
However, EBay can be tricky as it gets. You have to be very careful. I have had coins switched on me. The dirtiest trick was when I bought an old large cent. It was in the usual fold-over holder, and I left it in there quite awhile, until I acquired an album for that type. (It was circulated)
When I took it out to transfer, some brown powder fell out, and I discovered the coin was holed. The seller had filled in the hole with a brown powder of matching color, and held it in with the plastic tightly against it, or, possibly it was originally solid, then dried out.
Wow, was I angry! But the seller was long gone.
What are the worst tricks on EBay, and how do you avoid them? Is the resolution process any good at all?

 

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That is not good to hear. I would be angry as well. I suppose the only good news is, because ebay is largely paypal payment based, that paypal now has extended their dispute period from 60 to 180 days, if I remember correctly and paypal/ebay often side with the buyer.
As for preventing being conned, I guess you need to examine your purchases as soon as you receive them.

 

eBay is better about protecting buyers these days. You can pretty much return a coin for any reason or no reason at all as long as it's within 45 days of receiving it.

I have a friend that bought a proof trade dollar for $4000 off eBay about 12-14 years ago. The "seller" convinced him to send a cashiers check. The coin never came and the seller changed his phone number. eBay never did a thing to help and my buddy lost 4k...

 

Is there a reasonable alternative to EBay?

 

Call me crazy, but how do you know it was the seller that played that dirty trick on you? Are you sure it was not like that in the pictures/listing? You obviously didn't notice it in hand, so maybe the seller didn't either.

 

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Its possible he acquired it and passed it along, unknowing, although I will never know.

 

Good gosh yes. Lots of dealers have their own websites. There are huge auction firms like Heritage. There are coin shows where many dealers show up and you can compare quickly between them. There are even B/S/T offers here on CT where I have made some tremendous purchases.

Ebay is not bad, I feel as a buyer and sticking to Paypal, you have TONS of protection. You still need to know what you are doing, but there are great deals to be had. I bought 8 artuqid figural bronzes a month ago for an average of $13 each. The same coins are going for over $100 a piece from other dealers.

Its all about knowledge, both of the coins and of sources. You have to do your homework.

 

Ebay sure is tricky. I once bought a 2007 1oz Buffalo in 2008. Guy sent a 2006. Another time I sold 40 rolls of wheat pennies for $96. I advertised them as unsorted rolls date ranging from 1909-1958. Guy left horrible feed back because apparently he didn't find any key dates.

 

that's to bad. look for a return policy and amount of days you can return a coin. look at feedback. if buying on Ebay.... I would personally not spent over $1,000 on a raw coin. To risky of a bait and switch. It would have to be third party graded either PCGS or NGC, some ANACS and some PCI slabs. I bought many $1-100 raw coins all the time off Ebay. the only time I get nervous... is if the coins are being mailed overseas. you better believe I ask for tracking numbers and insurance if a coin cost me more than $150.00. good luck in the future.

 

bought three "Red Indian Cents" on eBay. photos weren't the greatest quality, but showed really nice spot on bright copper color. Coins arrived and were at best AU condition—all three coins were brown without a hint of red. When I messaged seller, he said he was selling "Red Indian" {as opposed to Asian Indian??—my comment} pennies and he couldn't be responsible for the color my monitor showed.
He waited until I posted my less than flattering feedback, then gave me bad feedback because of "Poor Communications".
I did learn never to trust eBay images with regard to color, lack of hairlines or luster.

 

I feel your pain. There's a dealer I frequent when I visit the wife's family. I obviously remember him more than he remembers me, but he knows I'm working a Type Set. Every time I look at a coin, he pretends it's top grade and then gives me catalog prices for them.

 

Yes....

 

You could always buy stuff from this website. You can also trade and sell. Check them forums, on this website.

 

We have a few dealers in Omaha. A couple of them are really very good guys that will work with you on pricing over selling and buying of coins. One other dealer, however, will grossly overprice his coins and will low-ball everyone that sells to him.

 

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ebay-return-4-trying-to-steal-or-just-ignorant.256274/

 

I use eBay and like it. The buyer is very protected today when using PayPal. I buy most of my higher priced coins from other sites though.

 

For a future recommendation, if you ever buy raw coins that come in a holder make sure to take them out of said holder to check for problems.

 

Haven't done any business on sleaze bay since 2005 never will again!

 

IMHO - Sellers are more likely to get scammed than buyers, and ebay does little to support them when they do.

What are the worst tricks perpetrated against sellers and how do we avoid them?