Searching Wrong Ebay Categories for STEALS

Hey folks, what are the eBay categories YOU search to find the steals?

PGCS, NCG anyone?

What about for your junk silver? Do you go into the watch section?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I don't look for steals, I look for good coins. Thus I am unable to answer the OP's question with authority. That said, I would look to coins that have crappy/small pictures -- that's where I made my biggest score on eBay some years ago.

 

Learned a long time ago, misspellings are a good place to start. Some wind up in wrong categories. "Sliver, cion(s), etc." is always a good place to start.

In the early days of ebay, we used to buy rare perfume bottles, primarily Steuben glass and we would always find incredible deals if we typed in "Stueben" . They would be under the wrong category as well. Sometimes we got $500 scent bottles for a dollar or two.

 

I don't know if those would work. A while back, eBay changed their policy with listing TPGs in the title of an auction so only the big TPGs may be used (I believe it's only PCGS and NGC). I would imagine that if the TPG acronym was incorrectly typed in the title the auction would be pulled because of this rule...maybe not though.

It's not that the auction would violate the rule, but I wonder if it would be "picked up" by whatever measures eBay uses to enforce this rule.

 

Never tried a misspelling search like that, but may have to just to see. Sometimes I'll just type in "old coins" or something along those lines. Usually people who don't know or don't care what they are selling put it that simply, but it's also rare to find anything worth bidding on.
Guy~

 

I'd say don't search at all. Just watch the new listings in the coins category. I just picked this up. They go for 45.00 - 65.00 as a rule.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ONE-OUNCE-PROOF...mQQptZCoins_US_Individual?hash=item3a55edb80c

Nightowl

 

Wow, great steal! Did you BUY IT NOW?

 

Of course I did......

Nightowl

 

Come on BNB, don't give away all of the good tricks!!!

Actually I sold an awesomely toned Columbian half several months ago, but screwed it up and had it listed in the Mint Errors category I think. Because I had the links posted here and at CU I still did ok on the coin, but I'm sure it may have gotten an extra bid or two if posted in the classic commemorative category.

But yeah, sure, plenty of coins get listed in wrong categories and/or with misspellings, but bottom line is that it needs to still be a good looking coin for me to pull the trigger. It also pays to look at coins of grades that you're not really looking for. I was looking to buy a raw indian head cent in AU condition once and happened to click on an auction for one in "very good" condition. The seller obviously wasn't a hardcore coin guy as the auction detail listed the coin as "used" but still in "very good" condition. The coin ended up grading AU55, but I got it alot cheaper than AU money presumably because of the "very good" in the title.

 

I have had luck in the past just studying the pictures. Once in a while you can find a die variety or a mintmark the seller just plain missed. Sometimes you can even find in lots a coin listed in the description, but not when you type that coin in for a search. Yes much of it can be attributed to luck, but creative thinking got me some decent deals, because of bad listings.

 

Precisely! :headbang: Why speak openly about such 'techniques' to buying... sure it can help one another out, but it likely narrows what you'll be able to find with more people looking for the same things, and it sure spoils the fun of figuring stuff out for yourself -or- if sharing, doing so discreetly amongst close friends/associates, not on a public forum. It's not top secret or anything just common sense. Discussed 'tricks' might also become a tool used on tools who look for short cuts only to be taken on the idea of a "steal". Cutting to the chase in this case isn't helping anyone perfect coin collecting skills, to me. :smile <--- The smiley indicates a non-threatening, non-negative intentioned post in a BNB thread, this is this members opinion/thoughts on the OP's topic. And this is a disclaimer, not sarcasm. :thumb:

 

and

I agree with krispy...

Unfortunately, nobody else is going to share either. If anyone having luck and profiting from any particular strategy is here on CT, they certainly aren't looking to share the pie just because someone asked where to find stuff. Quite the contrary, most would be protective of their ideas.

Unfortunately, Jay (OP), that's kind of the problem with the whole "What do you guys think" thread, most of the people who are actually making money won't share, and the ones that do give strategy usually aren't doing that well with the strategy that they profess.

It's like these late night info-mercials who say, "Buy my system and make money with it" when what it really means is: "I made some money doing this, and you might too, but I figured out that I could make tons more money if I sell you my "system" and make guaranteed money in the transaction".

 

LoL, I have literally spent the past 3 hours searching on Ebay due to the OP's question looking for a good deal (hence my questions in other sections of CT).

 

Wow sorry guys I really didn't know some of you don't like me sharing some of these techniques openly. To be honest, the PGCS and NCG search terms have yet to work for me so I just threw that out there as an example...

But, I guess I can see where some of you are going with this, but heck, I believe this is an open community where we can discuss just about anything to make ourselves better buyers and better collectors(or investors )!

I'm that guy in the corner who spends hours a day sifting through auctions to find a steal. If I can use search terms or search tactics to make the process of finding steals easier, I certainly would.. I would also share those tactics with this group because I truly love ya guys and want what's best for the CT community as a whole; since it's such a personalized community! So, I'd never think sharing a trick or idea or two would be hurting the other guy, but instead helping the rest of us become better at this.

Plus, I guarantee you it won't make much big difference for a few people to actually search misspelled terms. It's just something different to do..and not always very effective might I add!

bnb

 

Searching using misspellings and wrong catagory have been being discussed since ebay was two days old. The strategy of searching for newly listed BIN auctions and quickly grabbing the bargains has been around for a long time too. Each works sometimes. Just keep having fun with it and you'll always come out a "winner".

 

I just saw a 2000 silver eagle for a "Buy It Now" price of $2.00. The catch is that parcel post shipping is $24.00. I wonder how many people he catches with that one?

 

He'll catch fewer now. I just reported the listing. Nothing gets pulled faster than a listing circumventing eBay fees.

Check on it in 5 minutes and see if it's still up. I'll bet it's gone.

Nightowl

 

LOL My wife has been doing this for designer shoes, purses and clothing for years. I never thought to do the same for coins.

 

I don't think they were saying they didn't like you sharing techniques, they were saying if there are people reading this who have a technique that is really working for them they're probably not going to share it.

Also this is a public forum, anyone can read it, so if someone really did post some technique that was working, you can bet more then just the members would be trying it.

Lastly as others have said the misspelled word idea is pretty popular, if you didn't know there are a bunch of different websites that will search it for you ebay search mispelled words - Google Search (It will probably save you some time rather then searching yourself).

 

Besides collecting coins I also collect Roy Rogers Comics and items. I always search items on Ebay and look for Roy's last name spelled wrong-
"RODGERS". I can't tell you how many items I have bid on and won because of that.:thumb: