26 years of ebay

Today marks the 26th anniversary of ebay for some its a curse to me a good amount of my coins are from the bay.

 

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Go Ebay!!

 

I don't feel comfortable buying coins from the Bay!! Think I could end up getting took!!! With more knowledge, I will start to be more comfortable but not yet!!!

 

Aw. The memories. The eBay of today is not the same eBay of the 1990's. Back then you had direct email contact with the seller, sellers often had their email address incorporated into their user name, you could see the full user names of other bidders and even contact them, and feedback was far more open and transparent for buyer and seller alike.

There was no Buy It Now or make a Best Offer, pictures in listings were not necessarily common, and it was way easier to weed out shill bidding.

Paypal was in its infancy and many years away from being the only payment method that sellers could accept. Payment was generally done by cash, check, or money order. Ebay back then was way less automated and buyers and sellers had way more interaction with each other. It was a lot more fun to use eBay in the old days than today in my view.

 

I remember selling on eBay for the first time back in I think February of 2000. A coin. With a written description only. No pics. Lol! And yes it sold and I got positive feedback.

 

I signed up in October 1998, I think.

Yeah, things were different. I got 50 or 60 positive feedbacks, and my one and only neutral feedback, from a joke auction I posted in January 2000.

 

I remember an article from I think Newsweek back in 1999. Someone had bought like a fancy $6000 video camera that the guy never shipped. So the buyer and his buddy drove the the guys address…. armed to the teeth. No one died but cops and lawyers got involved. As I recall the gist of the article was, “how can you really trust a system like this?”

 

eBay is by far the biggest marketplace for buying and selling coins. I've been buying coins on eBay for years. I check it almost daily. Nothing comes close to it for variety and price

 

And at the time ebay warned you that they were JUST a venue and transactions were all caveat emptor. If you had a problem with a seller or a seller had a problem with a buyer, it was none of ebays business and they would not get involved in any dispute.

Paypal was still about three years in the future. (founded December 1998) Then when it did come along it offered anyone who signed up $5, and they promised they would always be a free service with no fees. The reason being because the transaction money would tacke about four days before being credited to the sellers account and paypal would derive their income from the four day float interest.

Ebay advised everyone to stay away from Paypal because they thought it was a scam. Then when it became the popular way to pay on ebay, they bought the company. I don't remember if the fees came before or after they were purchased by ebay. Probably before and ebay wanted that piece of the pie.

I've been a member on eBay since April 18, 1998.

 

Ebay is the biggest coin store in the world. Point blank. Could you imagine if they backed off the sellers check books just a little bit? Enough that would entice more sellers to sell on there?

 

I don't know about the market for modern coins on eBay, but the days of the good deal on raw (but genuine) ancients on eBay are long gone. Instead, the buyer has five options:

1. Buy a fake at a low price.
2. Buy a genuine raw coin at a price quadruple or more of that it would sell for elsewhere through the "buy it now" or "make an offer" options.
3. Buy a $45 coin in a $50 slab for $250.
4. The particularly egregious combination of an outrageously priced coin and a slab. That's a coin that might bring 36 Euro at a Savoca Blue or Zeus Numismatics auction, btw.
5. Wade through thousands of listings looking to cherry-pick an unrecognized rarity among the job lots and junk.

 

I don't collect ancients. That sounds like a miserable go at it.

90% of what i collect is 1700s 1800s. I don't have any major problems. I buy almost all raw coins. I just try to follow a few rules that seem to work for me.

1. Never impulse buy. It could take me days or weeks to buy a coin. I'm just weird like that. Especially anything 50.00 and up.

2. Get a weight. These guys selling expensive coins have it on the page sometimes. If they dont just ask.

3. Preferred dealers. I have a handful of sellers i always try to use. Dont always work... so follow all other rules.

4. Look at sellers other items. Do you see problems? Do all they're coins display a problem of of some sort? Do you see something going on with the coin you are considering now? I've bailed on more than a few coins after exercising this rule.

5. Verify everything upon receipt. If your still not sure bring it here or your local dealer. I spend enough at my LCS that he will check out a pc for me. Don't ask often but i have twice. Both checked out because i followed all my rules.

6. Don't buy Morgans

I dont know if any of this would help with your ancients....but either way sorry you have to deal with all that.

 

I joined Ebay back in 2001 and ironically it wasn't to buy coins. I have now quit cold turkey. Buying isn't an issue it's the selling. Now Ebay wants your bank info and keeps your money until the item has been shipped. BS.

 

They don’t keep your money till you ship. They send payouts to your bank account every business day. The only time it gets held longer is weekends and holidays.
I actually prefer the direct to bank method, as it’s more streamlined for me as a dealer using QuickBooks. But if you’re nervous about it, you could always open a new, separate account just for your eBay.

 

I prefer to buy my coins from eBay. The process is simple, ebay's security procedures for protecting both its sellers and customers has evolved into something top notch. I have not felt that confident about other coin purchasing venues.

 

I've had good luck with MA Shops as well. Always check them out . I always do.

 

I have bought a ton of coins from ebay, it is almost an addiction for me. Sometimes I feel I am paying too much, then I go buy from some other auction house and start paying all their fees, and suddenly I have paid over $200 for a small copper coin. Then I think, wow, I could have bought a hand full of silver coins for that much money from the old ebay. Sure, their customer service lacks a lot, and their fees get tiresome, still, it is often the lesser evil.

 

On the last item I sold they held my payment until after I marked shipped with tracking.

 

I fell the same way every time I go on I fell like I have to spend money lol.

 

If there is a better venue bring it. But i hate to be the bearer of bad news ... there isn't.