eBay buying experiences?

Just curious what your experiences have been with buying coins on eBay. Good? Bad?

 

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Just search this forum and coin chat for Ebay - you will get a ton of different opinions. Overall I am happy - 1 or two issues, but that was it.

 

Ditto...98% positive. Every once in a while I get some really good deals, too. I have to keep reminding myself...

"Don't bid on anything I don't understand".

 

Don't shop on eBay if you expect every coin you win to be perfect or even close to it. However, I am way ahead from the coins I have bought there despite having receive several cleaned coins (returned them).

 

Not an e-bay fan!! Especially from the sellers view!!

 

So far, so good.

 

During the late 1990's to about 2004 I got mostly good deals and good coins say 9 time out of 10. That was with a wide cross-section of coins though. When I really got into the die variety side of it though I found many sellers starting to fudge a bit with descriptions and references.
I then found that any coin that I might get on eBay was availible eslewhere, local shops, coin shows, online etc. Also I could find my own die varieties going through coins from rolls, bags, mint sets and such.

I would be very cautious buying any die varieties or errors on eBay today - at any given time a can go on there and find at least 2-dozen misinformed, misattributed or down right lies.

 

I have both sold and purchased hundreds of items on eBay. I no longer sell, but I still make purchases. I am happy with 90+% of my purchases. Why am I happy?:

* I usually only make purchases with good photos.
* I usually only make purchases from sellers with long feedback histories that are positive.
* I use toolhaus.org to check a seller's history
* I do not purchase coins or groups of coins that require pretty stories to sell them
* I set what I want to bid, and bid near the end of the auction, and I never go over my maximum. Alternatively, I use Buy-It-Now or Make an offer options.

In the rare cases where I have been unhappy, I have found most sellers to be cooperative. In the cases where I have had uncooperative sellers, I have no problem ramping up pressure via various means until they become cooperative. I have never had a situation that remained ultimately unresolved. But, as you can see, there is a lot of preparation and effort that goes into making that happen.

 

I used to buy a lot on the bay, but have since cut back considerably. Your best bet on ebay is to know the tricks used in selling problem coins, know how to grde what your looking at, and know the highest price you would pay for a coin (and stick to it). Do not get caught up in bidding wars, and don't ever pay more that scrap for a silver coin with a bad photo.

 

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I have had a few sellers that were impossible and did not cooperate.
I usually keep the coin but they get a negative. Oh and they try to get me to reverse it after the fact, especially when they had 100% previously.
Nope. Once I leave the neg. I am done.

 

It just depends what you're looking for and how patient you are. I've had good luck sniping junk silver and a few of the modern commems that I was looking for. However, the older series in raw coins is a mine field---beware!

 

i have been happy with ebay have gotten some good deals just got to know what you are looking for

 

I've been happy with most of my Ebay purchases. However, I don't know if it's because I got good deals (unattributed scarce varieties) or because I don't know I've been had with a fake which has been distressed.

One insoluble problem we face is that educating buyers on spotting fakes also leaves a roadmap on how to make better fakes. How many of the coins out there are just better fakes that we think are original? No one really knows.

 

Good Experience

New collector and have followed everyone's sage advice and have only used ebay to find some mint proof sets for my sons and have also bought some NGC graded coins from their birthyears. I just don't know enough yet to do anymore than that. It is fun to browse and learn all the different coins though.

 

Ive had a few coins that looked better in pics and get them in the mail they were dogs. But I had just resumed collecting about a 13 year hiatus and thanks to paying attention more and asking questions here or the seller, I have made much better purchases.

Now selling on the other hand....ugh.

 

One more thing:
If thinking about buying doubled dies on eBay never bid, (or buy) any with the decription worded as "double" die instead of correct "doubled" die and especially not the "doubled dyed" or "doubled died" guys, (it pains me to even say the words)! Chances are if they don't know the correct phrase they do not know what they are talking about. Never rely on thier description or comments alone, make sure that you can trace what you see in the photo to a known reference guide or attribution such as "Cherry Pickers Guide" or "Authoritive Reference" CopperCoins and such.
Never buy errors unless you can also so the same.
Remember one last thing, if you cannot see it with 5x to 10x, 99 out 100 times the coins not worth much more than face value.

 

I try to stick to buying Mint sets,modern coins and Proofs that I need for my collection on Ebay. I gladly pay the shipping when its reasonable and try to find dealers who combined shipping on smaller coins. I only buy PCGS slabbed Morgans if intrested and that is done with alot of seller searching. I am far more comfortable driving somewhere and viewing a coin in hand when dealing with older coin purchases.:goofer:

 

In a nutshell, it's been great, bad and in between. When I started, I pretty much wanted everything I saw. Couldn't properly identify problem coins including cleaned ones. Ended up buying some that I wouldn't buy now.

Have had to send a couple back. One over funny lighting that hid the cleaning it had. Another auction, I got something different than was pictured. It had a nick in it that had been filled. Wasn't mentioned or pictured. So it went back too.

Much more pickier now. Now I have a very hard time finding anything halfway decent on there. Really. For a while I was just looking for an average 1914 buffalo nickel with a clear date. I didn't find one for a long time. Every one I looked at had problems I didn't like.

On the other hand, I got one just recently off there that may be my new favorite of my collection. Very, very happy with the purchase. You just have to know how to search for the good stuff.

 

I had a nice score on a silver plug 1795 flowing hair dollar I bought off Ebay awhile ago.

Oops, it should read off-Ebay (shhhh, or the ebay cops on this fourm will stampede us all with righteous indignation).

 

Welcome back Major! It's good to see you've been able to "let it go"