I've only ever bought coins from online retails and ebay auctions, but never from an actual auction house, so to get a taste of what it's like I tried to sign up with Leu, entered the details and all but then they required references of other dealers? I don't know anyone one lol, so how do I go further? also what does the 'credit limit' mean?
I can’t help with that house but essentially credit limit means how much they’d let you buy. It’s basically just a protection to make sure you can pay for what your purchase. If you have a long history or prove funds to them the limit will increase.
I did the same recently... I did not have any auction house references so I just listed the VCoins dealers I had purchased from prior... it went through OK. "credit limit" is the max they will allow you to bid at the auction (you don't pay until after). Some set it at $1000.00, others $5000.00 to start. I would never come near these levels - so all good.
I do have dealer friends, but this is what I have done in the past. I listed the names of VCoins dealers I've bought from and interacted with on the forums.
When I started out and didn't have any references, I just told them that I didn't, but linked them to my ebay account which is very old and has perfect feedback. I think I might have mentioned my credit score too with an offer to send them a screenshot of it. I think most places will let you in with a tiny limit to take a chance on you if you seem serious.
You could also include your eBay handle, and the auction house can check your rating if they cared. I did this and the Vcoin shops I bought from for my first references.
I too have used my longstanding pre-millennium-tenure and unblemished eBay feedback rating as a reference once or twice. I think that is a totally valid thing to use. In fact, since it is transactional in nature and very detailed, I think it’s a reasonably good reference point, though not 100% reliable all of the time. (We’ve all seen shady sellers with perfect feedback, after all. But it’s better than many things, as a barometer.)
I signed up for the recent Leu auction in which I won two coins. I used references from m-a shops, vcoins, Frank Robinson as well. They assigned me a 5,000 CHF credit limit.
