Anyone purchase these before?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Slabbed-...414321?hash=item36093fdd31:g:-9YAAOSwCGVX2qUz

I am just starting with ancients and I see these listed pretty cheap and was wondering if anyone has ever purchased these. Are they attributed correctly what kind of quality are they?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I think you'd be better off buying one coin somewhere else for $20. If he's selling these at $2 a piece plus the slab they're probably just junk coins he paid under a dollar for. You could get a nice ancient coin for $20.

 

they are listed cheaply because they are cheap...you will get junk coins, which may be just a little better than culls. Also note that you can't actually see the coins you will be buying.

 

Those usually have Sol on the reverse & poor quality. You'd be better of like Nicholas said. Look on FAC I see them in dealer auctions much better quality for under $10 + shipping of course. I just picked a real nice one on there for $6.

 

These are usually terrible coins slabbed to sell in gift shops. Search e-bay for ancient coins and set a $10 limit and you will find MUCH better.

 

Check Vcoins. You can get a single much nicer Constantine-era bronze for $20. There are many sellers out there preying on new collectors with bulk lots of sight unseen coins, whether they're "slabbed" like this or "uncleaned" coins sold by the pound and in most cases you'll end up with a pile of unidentifiable or only partially identifiable coins and wish you'd just bought one good coin with the money(in my experience).

And I highly recommend you avoid eBay if you're a new collector. I really hate having to tell new collectors that the new coin they're so proud of is a fake. Stick with Vcoins and FORVM while you're learning the ropes and you're much less likely to be taken advantage of.

 

Please stay away from those trash ebay coins, if you want an affordable constantine, look at the link below. Plenty nice & affordable ones. I buy from them often myself.

http://bargainbinancients.com/zen/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6&page=1&sort=3a

 

I've bought a couple on eBay but from trusted dealers with 100% guarantee of authenticity and high feedback. Advice I received from ancient collectors on CT. I have bought from members here as well. I'm trying to be very cautious that's why I asked about these first before purchasing. I don't spend much money on ancients yet because I don't have the knowledge. That being said this ancient forum is awesome as well as CT in whole. You can literally gain enough knowledge here to feel comfortable purchasing coins online or in person. Thanks to everyone for the help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

... I would tuck your $25 back into your wallet and I'd wait for a cool $100 winner (good luck)

 

My advice would be to treat yourself to something nice for a first ancient coin. Something to set the standard or the bar. My second piece of advice is to listen to the experts on this website who contribute to this forum. (I'm not an expert! In fact my priorities are a bit skewed. I like slabs only because they make nice gifts for non-collectors).

 

@Deacon Ray I could not agree more. In fact in my own collecting habits I go a bit further. I buyer fewer coins than many on here, but I only buy the best quality I can afford. I am not saying that this is the "correct" approach, only that it works for me very well.

 

Be careful assuming guarantees and high feedback means good coins. Ol' Saxby's Coins has great feedback, a guarantee of authenticity, and over 4,000 positive reviews and he's one of the biggest frauds on eBay with a stock that is a mixture of seemingly-authentic coins and everything from extremely sloppy fakes to some that are relatively dangerous even for experienced collectors but can you, as a new collector tell which ones are likely to fall into either category?

There are plenty of good dealers on there as well, don't get me wrong, but in my opinion being able to accurately judge dealers of coins first and foremost requires being able to judge the coins themselves and this takes time studying and handling authentic examples.

 

Is that for the 10 or just one as I notice 9 sold?

 

LOL Slabbed Constantines. What a waste of money.

 

I spent a little time looking at eBay offerings and must say I saw very few coins I suspect of being fake. However I saw a huge number of coins priced at least ten times what they could be had for on other venues certainly including right here on Coin Talk. I do agree that the slabbed group would provide coins worth a fraction of the asking price.

However I do see coins on eBay that are worth about what they are asking. How can someone with no experience separate the wheat from the chaff? The only way would be to enlist the aid of a more knowledgeable helper. That is what we suggest when we say to buy from reputable, known sources. Professional dealers really can not afford to provide hours of service to sell $20 worth of coins so you would probably be happier saving up for something a bit better. You could ask someone who lives near you to find you $20 worth of coins (perhaps two or three from their own trading stock?). The best answer would be to find a place you can shop in person.

Tomorrow I will be attending a coin show in Fredericksburg VA where there will be junk boxes with many coins of all prices starting at $5-10 and nicer items well over $1000. I wish you could go with me but the chances of anyone else here living close enough to that show is small. Perhaps you can research a local show or coin store near you (if you are lucky enough to have one). If you are considering buying those unseen slabs, you might be happy with just about anything but our hobby suffers from the problem of overhead (cataloging, photography and postage) eating up the profits and desirability of filling low end collector desires.

 

I was also looking at this dealer's other ancient coin listings. Here is a lot of Greek coins that have been very harshly cleaned and ruined as well. Those Romans in the slabs ain't much better. All those guys are right that you can get way better quality elsewhere.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Uncleaned-G...742986?hash=item36049eb18a:g:ua4AAOSwkl5Xfq7w

 

I just returned from the Fredericksburg show with 29 coins new to me although a couple were upgrades and a couple were bought for my gift/trade stock simply because I thought they needed to be bought at the price even i they were too much like something I have. I really encourage anyone withing driving distance of Fredericksburg VA to go to the show tomorrow. There were five specialist ancient dealers ranging from $5 the guy with gold and Aes Grave in four digits. Not bad for a smaller show.

 

I love going to shows and talking in person to other people who understand ancients. I love browsing coins in reality versus online too. Not that I don't love virtual browsing, but real world browsing is better.

 

I've never been to a coin show with ancient coin dealers. I'm afraid I'd lose control of myself and spend all of my retirement savings