Hello, I'm new here. My name is Eric and I was wondering where you guys get your coins from. Do you go online, to coin shows, or to a local dealer in your area? Bringing me to my next question: If you buy online, what website do you use? Who do you buy from? Coins from sites like Ebay are really low in price and seem too good to be true, I have this paranoia that most coins from these websites are fake.. any help?
eBay is very easy to avoid the scams, if it seems to good to be true it very likely is. Stick to graded coins from there and you eliminate a lot more of the problems. Avoid international sellers and even more problems disappear. As you get more comfortable with the process you could relax some of those rules but that takes time. Regardless it's easy to get your money back if a fake shows up. As for the question yes almost all my purchases are online and the vast majority are from eBay, it is easily the largest selection of coins in one spot
Just to be clear. I do online ordering from PM dealers such as JM Bullion, Apmex and Provident for all my fractional gold and also for my Silver Panda's, Queens Beasts and ASE's. But I do go to my local coin store at times to buy my Junk Silver and Morgan Dollars when the price is right.
I buy private collections from ads in local newspapers. I have the family get all coins appraised at local coin shops and I offer UP to 10% more than the coin shop, since most shops buy silver and gold slightly less than spot. Sometimes spot alone gets the coins.
Reaperz, you say "Coins from sites like Ebay are really low in price and seem too good to be true". Oh, they're true and they might start out in price to be low but you take, say a roll of silver 50C or silver dollars. The bids end up at the end of the listing to be way over the melt value of the silver content of the coins on bid. Why they bid that high, I don't know. Have seen a roll of Morgan Silver dollars bid up to $3,300.00 because one end of the roll showed 1885 and the other end of the roll showed CC. Now you figure. If I had had the money, I would have been bidding on them. Now those coins were not fakes. But it seems that people go funny like in their bidding.
First off, Welcome! I had to select all of the above. I CRH, strap-search, troll eBay, go to LCS (even when I'm traveling) and coin shows. Each gives their own sense of enjoyment. I agree with all the statements by other members above. Depending on which avenue of collecting you are into depends on the best route to take. I get a kick out of CRH and strap-searching and have found some really neat stuff. Last week I found a 1913S T1 along with a 43S and 45S war nickels, different rolls, but the best $20 in MWR I've ever picked up. eBay is a place to be careful, like @baseball21 said, but if you're patient enough and spread yourself across a few areas at a time you'll make out here and there. You can find deals on slabbed and graded examples if you're patient, but get a good feel for what is counterfeited and what is safe before you spend too much money on raw coins there. I made the mistake early on of buying I searched rolls of coins. Peace dollars, Mercury dimes and wheats put me back around $1k and after I picked out what I wanted it took a lot of work to get that back. Unsearched rolls are like scratch off tickets- a bad investment of money and time. I find Pawn shops to be a good place to check out. If you really know a coin type you can, sometimes, make out well with finding VAMs and oddities that the owner didn't pick up on. If you can form a good relationship with the shop owner they can put you on the call list for when coins come in. I look forward to seeing you share your finds and experiences on here!
Thanks for all of the responses, they are very much appreciated. I don't feel as unsure and doubtful about ebay as i did, but i'd still rather see the coin in my hand before buying it just for safe measures. Like i said, i'm new here and i'm just learning the ropes. I've never been to an auction or a coin show in my life! I've only seen coins from dealers and the internet. With that being said, i'll add it up there.
I have a list of favorite coin dealers I regularly check on line. A tip I learned here: some dealers sell on their own sites as well as eBay. If you see a coin you like on eBay, check the dealer site. It'll often be cheaper on the dealer site. No eBay fees. The savings add up!
There are hundreds. Personally, I do most of my buying on Ebay, occasionally at shows and once in a while from a dealer online. It's easy to say "Ebay's OK," but I've shot thousands upon thousands of images of my own coins, and studied who knows how many thousands of other people's images in almost twenty years of lurking that place. Learning the differences between what the camera sees, and what you will see in-hand, can only happen with long experience. Not everybody's a pro-level hand with a camera, and even if their intentions are good their images aren't, really. You have to learn to "read between the lines" with much of it. Worse are those who deliberately doctor their images to make the coin even better, and worse yet those who manipulate the imaging process to present the coin in its' "best light," which is a euphemism for "you're probably not ever going to be able to light the coin well enough to make it look like that." You'll find all of this both on and off Ebay. And even with all my experience, I still get deceived occasionally. Your best, and only, weapon against all this is knowledge. Numismatics is not for those unwilling to go out and develop a level of personal expertise; heck, the whole hobby is about knowledge. It's necessary to learn to grade, first and foremost, and then to learn to grade from images (a completely different skillset) if the plan is to buy from images.
Because of what I primarily collect, pre-1860 Italian & Sicilian coins, coin shops and coin shows are not very good. American Ebay and Italian Ebay is the best place for me. Of course Ebay can be a minefield with it's crooked sellers, but it's still by far the biggest buying/selling place for coins.
I appreciate the well written out response and I see where you're coming from; great response and well written.
I was forced to use Ebay for my USSR coin collection. So i understand your foreign coin wants and what it takes to fulfill those wants to get it in person.
So you're familiar with Ebay's style, then, and I'm guessing you're up on evaluating seller Feedback and the like. That's half the battle right there, and most of the reason I'm kinda down on Ebay for beginners. It can be a bit deceiving if you're not already a little jaded. But on the other hand, there are north of 2500 1909 VDB's listed there right now....chances are, for any given issue, Ebay is offering as many examples as the whole rest of the market combined.
I do not buy from eBay as it will become an addiction to me. I personally also want to see the coin live before purchasing it.
