Anyone else have this happen to them?

I purchased this coin from Sam Sloat Coins, located in CT a few weeks ago. (awesome people)



Whilst taking part of my daily ebay perusing ritual, I noticed a coin that looked undeniably familiar. After looking at the rest of the pictures in the listing, it was apparent that this individual was fraudulently listing a coin that did not belong to them and was in fact, mine. It seems they simply copied the pictures of the coins listed on Vcoins.
Still active link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lucania-Her...783?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a51e1956f

I contacted the seller, telling them that I owned the coin and that it looked like they were attempting to sell several other coins that belong to Sloat. I told them that I may be reporting them based on their response. They only replied "you own none of my coins." to which I replied with the following photo:


I contacted Sam Sloat coins advising them of the suspicious activity. Their employee said that they do not consign, own all of their coins out right, and only use 1 ebay account that is not Sandraphoto909. I provided her with some links over email. What's interesting is that the fraudulent account seems to be selling from Bridgeport, Ct; while Sam Sloat Coin is located in Westport, Ct, 13 miles away. Anyways, I have reported all of the fraudulent listings for both Fraudulent listings and padding their bids. (3 of the coins have several bids on them only within a few hours of posting by accounts with 0-2 transactions.)

Pretty interesting. Anyone else ever have something similar happen?

What a fun way to introduce a new coin. Post em if you got em. ha.

 

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sad to hear your experiences.

But, good that you caught the crooks

 

So, it could just be me, but the bottom of the obverses look just a touch different. Is it possible that the same type of coin could be listed? I'm not familiar with NGC Ancients slabs but I assume the number on the front is the identifier and could not be duplicated?

 

The NGC slab number is unique. The difference on the bottom is just due to the angle and lighting. But, if it were not slabbed, I would almost think that both were forgeries. I wonder if anyone has seen their exact coin for sell that was in fact a fraudulent listing, but just came to the conclusion that it was a match on a modern forgery. That would be unfortunate.

 

I live in CT and I am familiar with Sloat. This is incredible. I am 20 miles away. I would love to see the examples in hand.

 

The seller also chose the following

Returns:
Seller does not offer returns. You are covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee - if you received an item that is not as described in the listing.

 

time to go there with the hounds Anoob?

doesn't make much sense though. Buyer will complain, and ebay will force a refund, plus shipping costs (both ways) and ebay fee, then he gets a negative feedback. what was the point in doing this?

 

If you receive an item at all.

I really can't find a reason, unless they pull the money all at once then close their account. I know of some people over seas that have done something similar. I don't know how vigorous Ebay is about pursuing petty amounts of cash through closed bank accounts.

 

hahhaah of course he takes the money on his creditcart, but the creditcart is from a person whom lended his cart and bank account because that person identity is stolen, due mostly they have a drug & drinking problem and so on.

Then you pay him with paypal he takes the money from the account by bank withdrawl and gone...but the other person whom is so stupid gets the blame....common trick in The Netherlands where I live.
Or they use your cart while you are sleeping a boyfriend and so on....yes they are very smart.

In The Netherlands are many fake websites for buying goods, once paid your money is gone, so we do mostly collecting at sellers home if possible.

The bank is not allowed to sent your money back and our lovely police ones you file a claim nothing is done, it seems that arround 100 Mil. is earned like this only in our country. crazy

 

Actually, given that the "seller" is just miles away in the same state, I am suspicious that the seller might be an employee. Employee opens up an Ebay account, if the bid is high enough he sells, if not he tells the bidder, "sorry technical error". It can last for a while until Ebay shuts them down.

I am not saying the dealer knows anything about this, do not get me wrong. I am saying I am suspicious of an employee of theirs or a spouse of an employee, is the Ebay seller. Maybe they didn't know this coin already got sold from their inventory.....

 

I thought the same thing, which is why I wanted to let them know. In case they had someone stealing coins or skimming some off the top from a separate account. Interesting in any event.

 

I think he is not in the same state all fake, he wants to sell as much as possible before e-bay closes that account due to fraud but then many people lost money and file a complain, they receive a refund, but paypal will start investigating and end up with nothing because they used somebodies account that person got no money to retrieve anything back from.
and the winner is the criminal that emptied the bank account.

ooo he is not from e-bay staff for sure.

 

well it's a cool coin, and an interesting ..if troubling ...story.


so it looks like that account has been open about a year? i would think it wouldn't last that long?

i'm still not sure what's going on.

did the place you got the coins from say anything about the other coins they have for sale? they all have similar in slab pictures?

 

I told her about them and sent her links to all 6. 4 of which they still have for sale on vcoins. It seemed she was just shrugging it off as common fraudulent ebay activity. Didn't seem too worried.

 

I once jumped on a beautiful denarius offered at a very appealing "Buy it now" price. Before receiving it, to my dismay, I saw the identical coin, identical photo, listed from a dealer friend on Vcoins. I called him and he confirmed the coin was still in his inventory.
I called Ebay and tried to explain there could not be two identical coins for sale. I gave them the link to Vcoins. As you might imagine, no matter how many managers I spoke to, it was impossible for them to grasp the uniqueness of ancients.
In the end, I was able to get my $ back by refusing delivery. I believe if I had accepted delivery it would have been very difficult to get a refund.

 

Wow...do I really want to get into ancients???

 

This typical situation isn't unique to ancients, alone. Determining the authenticity of ancients is an entirely different beast, but definitely separate than this strange issue. And yes.... yes you do want to get into ancients. You won't turn back.

 

Help me understand: What was in the package you refused? If it was the coin and the Vcoins dealer was your friend you could be helping him catch a thieving employee. If something else, you should immediately open a case for bait and switch. Certainly there is nothing wrong with refusing and getting a refund but it leaves the question of who is the crook to be settled by the next buyer.

BTW, I have been told by a Vcoin dealer that they had an item on their site six months after I bought it from them. Some of these people are better at recond keeping than others.

 

Whatever was in the box, it wasn't the coin that was listed. The dealer had it in his own possession. I have no idea what was in the box but my guess is it was empty or another coin might have been substituted.

The coin in question was a beautiful Tiberius denarius. I left my first and only negative feedback saying the coin was not in the sellers possession and Ebay promptly removed the negative. I researched his other listings and they were all Vcoins listings from different dealers.

This is going back a year or so ago, he's not around anymore.