I sometimes wonder if I'm accumulating a karmic burden by taking advantage of people who don't pay attention to what they're listing, or don't bother to describe lots clearly. Exhibit 1: Lot of (2) Whitman Nickel Collection Books AS-IS I don't even know what made me click on this one; it looks like just a pair of used folders, and I don't especially collect Jeffersons anyhow. But I saw that the thumbnails appeared to show some coins, so I thought I'd look for silver. As I went through the images in order, I saw enough war nickels -- maybe 10 or so -- to make the lot marginally profitable just on a silver basis. But apparently I got to the last page ahead of any other potential buyers -- the page that appears to contain TWENTY warnicks. So, thirty or so war nickels for $13 shipped. Exhibit 2: Nice Collection of Silver Proof Coins This one is from our friend mel-ko, purveyor of psychedelic purple crayoned, er, "toned" coins. There were quite a few bids on it already when I spotted it, which led me to believe it would be no bargain. But then I started studying the photo more carefully. You can clearly see eleven state quarters, five 90% halves, two 90% dimes, two 40% halves, and what looks like a 40% quarter. That would add up to a melt value of $150. But look more closely. The two boxes on the left do NOT correspond to any of the displayed cases -- so, unless the lot includes two empty boxes (which would be out of character based on feedback), there are ten more quarters here. And, finally, what's that tube at the bottom? It appears to contain... <squint>... 23 or 24 90% dimes. I calculated the silver value here at somewhere north of $260. So, I sniped with a bid a bit over $200, figuring that if I didn't win I wouldn't feel much regret. I ended up landing it for $121.48. So, what on Earth happened? Well, the same seller had several other lots ending within seconds of this one, including one with some older and more desirable coins that went considerably higher. I'm thinking that the casual drive-by bidders just overlooked the rest of the items in the photo, and the "study this seller" bidders got pulled in by one or more of the other auctions. But I was still really surprised this one went so very low -- less than half melt. As long as I can get deals like these, yeah, I'm still accumulating silver. But I really do need to start taking profits on some of the undesirable stuff -- even with the recent correction, I think I'm getting to the point of being a little overweighted.
Got the first lot today, and my color-based count was right -- 33 war nickels total. Heavily circulated, but I won't turn up my nose at that price!
Nah, who needs luck when you've got that contest-winning skill! Spend enough hours camping on the newly-listed Buy It Nows, and you'll land some bargains, too. I'm still not sure what the deal was with the second listing, which was a regular auction; that's the second or third time I've landed a lot for well under its actual value, but they're few and far between, and I haven't yet come up with a good strategy for zeroing in on them.
Jeff, It's hard to say what Karma tosses back. I think we all have made a score at one time or another. I have bought a few mint and proof sets for less than the value of one of the individual coins in the set. I have received error coins on a couple of occasions from dealers who either were not aware of the value added by the error, or the coin was an error. I have also had things sell for far less than I thought they would have. Teaching me to start bidding at a price I am comfortable selling at. But no matter how you slice it, eBay is the greatest thing to happen for a good number of us who want to buy, sell, trade, etc and don't have the resources available otherwise. Congratulations on the finds ! gary
You can definitely find some deals on poorly described bulk listings. I think these sellers do themselves a disservice when they lump stuff together and don't tell you what it is. I am collecting more world coins now, but I'll sometimes find listings where someone says "10 foreign coins" and they'll have a blurry photo and their description is something like "I'm not a collector and don't know what these are." If I can see in the photo that the coins have recognizable older British monarchs on them or other styles that are distinctive, sometimes I'm the only bidder and really come away with a bargain. This is why when people tell me I should sell coins in bulk I don't think it's a good idea. Sometimes they sell for much less than the sum of their parts.
You did great. I don't think you're taking advantage of these sellers, they're just not making great descriptions. Another area I've made some phenomenal deals on is foreign silver. I've purchased Canadian and France coinage from earlier in the 1900's for "clad" cheap. They are 80% silver, so I felt like it was a great alternative to US silver coinage. A highly overlooked area in my estimation.
Got the second batch today... Yep, the two boxes contained five silver quarters each, and the tube contained TWENTY-FIVE silver proof dimes, mostly 1960's, with a couple of 1950's and a few 2000's. But the big surprise? This really was nice stuff. Yeah, it's all commons, and there were a few clinkers -- a couple of the dimes have tarnished fingerprints, the 1964 Kennedy had a spot or two, two of the plastic proof cases were cracked -- but most of the coins look flawless to me under mild magnification. Nothing at all like the "proofs sold at melt" I've gotten from eBay in the past. I had figured to dump this lot pretty much intact for actual silver value, but there are definitely some keepers here. $10.45 of 90% silver and $1.25 of 40% silver for just over $120, shipped. Unbelievable.
Heh. One of those lots of "older and more desirable coins" apparently bounced -- seems as though they weren't as "old and desirable" as they were originally billed: Coin collection: better dates and grades [] The AU 1925 dime ($20) actually turned out to be a 1935 ($5). The 1864L cent ($51) turned out to be non-L ($8), and the "AU" 1859 quarter ($180) turned out to be scratched ($melt). Looks like the lot won't get bid up quite so high the second time around. So why didn't I get sucked in on that one? Three reasons -- I was busy with the one I did bid on, I wasn't confident about my ability to valuate IHCs, and I never, ever, ever trust the grade written on a 2x2 or make assumptions about a side that isn't shown. Meanwhile, though, her garish purple AT coins are still selling like hotcakes -- butter- and blueberry-syrup-slimed hotcakes.
