I know that it's not a wise idea to buy coins on eek-bay these days but sometimes there are diamonds in the rough. I've bought and sold there since 1998, lately only buying there every once in a while. Generally I get what I expect. So far no real problems, coins arrive safely, in a timely manner and are exactly what is pictured and described. Unfortunately that recent record was broken today when I received what was advertised as a nearly uncirculated common date buffalo. What was pictured and described was not quite what I found. The coin was certainly not the coin that was pictured. Although it had nearly a full horn and some traces of original luster all the high points were obviously rubbed and polished. Of course there was a return policy and I've already applied for a refund, repackaged and shipped it back to it's origin as of this post. I guess it's a new record for the amount of time the coin flip was on my desk.. about 2 minutes from their packaging to mine, LOL! Sorry if this sounds like a rant but it's a reality of buying online these days. Kind of like playing a game of chance. The coin wasn't a big time rarity, didn't cost very much and the return process was easy. I guess my point is that this was just a time waster (kind of like this post). Sure would be nice if the coin was what was described. Would've saved me time, paper, an envelope, printer ink, tape, aggravation, teaching the cats new bad words and you having to read this long, drawn out mini-rant. I now take you back to your regularly scheduled forum perusal.
I ordered a hammer chisel bit and ups deliver a taped up empty box. Your ahead of the game with a pretty good average.
I believe that stories like this are a banner advertisement for your local brick and mortar coin dealer.
Over the years I've developed a short but excellent list of trusted dealers, both brick and mortar as well as online / auction. Every so often I test the waters with small purchases. Some make the nice list and some do not. It's just disappointing sometimes when they end up on the naughty list.
Given that you mention no real problems before this coin, I'd say you're ahead of the game. I understand the frustration and time wasted; it is part of the pain that one deals with in order to have access to a large venue like eBay (and the mostly positive transactions). And a solid rant might have been what the doctor ordered with CoinTalk being the needed therapy.
Too bad you didn't snap a couple of photos to post. Almost sounds like it might have been polished. At least your return was fairly painless. It did take time and annoyance, but not too bad.
I did snap a couple but they didn't really show much as I didn't want to remove the coin from their flip. The polishing was obvious as the wear points were really high gloss compared to the original luster still present in some of the fields. Coin had some nice detail but wasn't the coin that was originally pictured in the auction.
