I'm sure nobody is going to divulge their top secrets, but I've scored a few silver quarters for cheap by employing a misspelled listing tool and searching for 'quater'. Quite a few sellers can't spell or don't proofread their listings, so a 'quater' for sale (newly listed) or auction (0 bids) is a place to try. Of course, expensive shipping plus that 6-7% sales tax they add now may be a deal breaker in many cases, turning a piece at melt into an overpriced 'passadena'
Taxation of bullion and coins depends on the destination address, regardless of the origin state. BGASC (in California) has a good taxation page: https://www.bgasc.com/sales-tax-gold-silver-bullion-coins
Has your service ever been outbid...? I mean, 3 seconds is 3 seconds...someone could be faster with trigger-finger reflexes and hand-eye coordination...the fastest gun always met someone faster .
I've found that, regardless, some sellers just/still don't charge it...and sometimes they charge it and sometimes they don't...and sometimes it's not added immediately, so the faster you can checkout and pay...immediately if not sooner...you may have a better chance of not paying it.
I live in California and I can assure you that we pay sales tax on all eBay purchases in our own state and every other state and other countries too. Almost 10% sales tax on purchases. Used to be that we would only get taxed for purchases made from a Calif. seller but they changed that. In the past I would avoid buying from Calif. sellers because of the sales tax, now it's all the same.
I find a similarity between the ebay sniper and sellers of investment advice. If you really had a system that worked, you would keep it to yourself, or share it with only a few insiders.
I stick to the highest I want to pay for a coin and let SNIPERS pay the higher price. Not worth it to me to sit up until 3:00 A.M. to snipe or to set a program, that takes the FUN out of coin buying
Agreed, theres no challenge if you ALWAYS wait until the last minute to be the highest bidder, its no fun if you dont lose an auction now and then, keeps a little bit of uncertainty in the game and feels much more rewarding when you DO win one, I like it that way