Another reason not to purchase from ebay

Overall for fakes I'd say more like 1%, or less, but of course it depends on the seller. From some professional sellers (who also have presence on VCoins and/or MA Shops) it's the same as on those alternate venues - close to zero. For some other "professional" fake sellers it's very high!

I'm not sure how you'd define "junk" but there's certainly a pretty low signal-to-noise ratio if you are looking for higher end coins.

There are two things that make eBay useful:

1) Because of the fakes, junk, and amount of time needed to sift through it all, many collectors stay away, so there are bargains to be had. From time to time you see nice quality rarities get bought and flipped at high end auction houses for many multiples of the price.

2) For uber-rarities, you can't be fussy where you buy from. If a coin is only showing up for sale once in 10 years and it's on eBay, then you'd better be on eBay to get it! This isn't theoretical - a number of my rarest coins have come from eBay.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

E-bay doesn't sell...you're not "buying from e-Bay." They are merely a stage...a vehicle...from which individual sellers/dealers advertise/display their wares. On the fraudulent sellers/fake coins, I really don't know of the criteria eBay uses to verify and rule (take action) on this when something is reported, but I doubt they just take it down on a whim...on a single accusation, a single report, etc. I'm guessing it has something to do with a seller's reputation and established feedback...something potential buyers need to better consider. Ask questions of the seller...review their feedback...maybe buy one or two...a few...smaller, less-expensive items from them and see what you think, how they treat you, etc. before making that large(r) purchase. It's a BUYER BEWARE thing...NOT "beware of eBay." Does eBay use/employ "coin police"...experts...? Is anyone here seriously "in the know" on this...familiar with what happens at eBay from an initial report of a fake coin/fraudulent seller...? How would you feel as a seller if someone reported your coin as fake...you knew it wasn't...but you were taken down because of a single report, or even multiple reports for that matter...? It's often like a rumor mill or a fish story with stuff like this...things start snowballing and getting bigger and bigger from person to person...even if not true. I dunno...is it our job to be policing/reporting sellers on eBay and then calling eBay the bad guy when they don't jump high/fast enough...? Things to consider.

 

I suppose I can't argue with this...

For me, the low frequency of the "uber-rarities" that I collect that appear on eBay has gotten worse over time. And this makes you have to spend(waste) your TIME looking through it all.

 

My motto is find high transaction sales numbers from the seller,make sure they have as close to a 100 percent rating,and last but least that they are in the U.S.

 

I buy from dealers all around the globe. I've never had a problem. It takes a bit longer to get here, but if I buy from reputable dealers I'm not worried. There's a whole lot of material out there that hasn't made it to the US yet (especially if you collect foreign coins, like I do). I've even made some successful purchases from dealers in China.

 

eBay's return policy is in your favor, have you tried it? I have had no problem when requesting a refund. There are many less popular sites out there that would leave you wondering what to do about it, good luck.

 

I have started collecting sets of coins, i.e., silver FDR Dimes. Thanks to the sellers on ebay, I got some really nice coins for the price. Many sales included shipping. I'm working on silver Quarters now. I like the RAW coins best because I don't have to pay the NGC/PCGS and other costs to slab and the seller can give realistic prices.

 

there are about 15 instances, out of , perhaps 800 purchases in the last year and a half , 3 coins never came, 3 coins not as described, and 2 where order was short either one to 3 coins...not many for all i have bought, and every penny (including postage on missing, or not as described) so my odds are doing pretty good, plus i do not have to pay 20% buyer premium...i highly recommend ebay and usa coin book, as well as about 40 of my regular vendors i buy from ..(write for list) all reputable, and once in a while a mistake is made, all have been corrected to my satisfaction!!!!

 

i have bought from people with 3 feedback before, once or twice the coin never comes, but you always get a refund..so?? no brainer, i care less about feedback....as a seller i know some people are never happy no matter what you do to make em happy, refund em fully , give em the one they got to keep, fire the manager and burn down the warehouse...and yet they will still leave negative feedback...and neg feedback for the slow office taking eons to deliver supposed 2-day paid for flat rate for 18.50 a box , but guess who gets the blame?? the vendor, so that is why i take feedback with a pound of salt

 

heck, i have even gotten refunded instantly from buys off etsy (now before ya-all start on that one, it was for an off center and laminated 2021 roosevelt dime, the seller never shipped and it was only 7.00, but etsy cheerfully refunded same day as i wrote em

 

I buy most of my coins on eBay (and sell some there too), and have never had any issues. So long as you're able to identify fakes, you should be fine, and it can be great for finding bargains.

A lot of reputable dealers sell on there too, with the coins being much cheaper than their "regular" website.

Actually, I just bought (yesterday) one of my best ever finds on eBay for a surprisingly cheap price. I'll make a post about it when it arrives, and I can take better pictures of it

 

Good finds can definitely be had on eBay. Just be aware that if you swim in these deep waters, know what you are doing. About 3 months back, I bought a group lot for ~80 usd. 5 of the six were junk, but the last (which I bought the lot for) was a very nice, very rare Spanish piece. If you don’t know what you are looking at, DONT GO THERE.

 

Consumer protection laws in the good ol' USA are weak compared to other countries, like Germany for example. Ebay may not be a criminal enterprise but they certainly enable some serious criminals, so one has to always be on high alert! That said, I still get the best deals on Ebay. No other source comes close.

If you only knew how many times I've been burned by Vcoins sellers you would be shocked. (I buy a lot of coins.) The plain truth is that we live in corrupt times and there seems to be an integrity deficit across the board. I got into the hobby because it was fun and relatively cheap. Now there is so much arrogance, greed, and fakery that I'm tempted to call the ancient coin biz a racket! I feel sorry for newbies. It's not a good hobby for the uninformed beginner.

 

Occasionally I take a look at Roman Republican coins on ebay. All I ever see is page after page of vastly overpriced slabbed coins, by multiples of twice or three times what I would pay for a raw coin of the same type from a reputable dealer. Mr. High Price Low Ratings is far from the only culprit. The raw coins sprinkled in? Forget about it. Most look like chopped liver, with descriptions and prices more suited to filet mignon.

Antiquities? A sea of fakes.

I haven't bought either antiquities or coins from ebay in a long time. A far cry from the late 90s and early 00s, when I built a substantial collection of British historical medals primarily on ebay, without ever being concerned about fakes or ridiculous pricing.

 

eBay is still great in my opinion IF you have good knowledge of the coins you are seeking.

Agreed - pages and pages of junk and fakes.

I maintain a trusted seller list and I only search for coins within that list. Occasionally i add to the list when i find a new seller who looks ok.

Using eBay, I have been able to add to my collection without paying Heritage prices.

 

I would agree with everyone's comments on the thread so far. Like others, I have gotten some of my rarest coins (typically misattributed) on EBay. However, the best of these were, like @DonnaML mentioned, acquired in the 1990s and 2000s. These days, I am finding fewer bargains, and am also noticing fewer quality coins in the mix in general. Still, it pays to be patient and yes, I still slog through it all once a week to see if another elusive rarity (or even something more common for my collection) emerges.

With regards to junk and fakes, that depends on which EBay site you're searching. The US Medieval site probably has something like 50+% fakes if you count all the Slavic reproductions and fantasy UK Saxon & Viking coins. Fakes are also plentiful, although maybe ~15-20%, on the US Ancients site. On European sites, it's lower, maybe because of the wealth of genuine coins that exist in everyday drawers and cupboards through turn-of-the-century collectors, farm finds, or modern detectorists. That being said, you need to be extremely vigilant, as the fakes are getting much better. I'm a lot more selective these days in what I buy and tend to stick more to my core areas of expertise. Caveat emptor.

Love it or hate it, EBay will continue to be part of many people's coin acquisition strategy moving forward. There's a much higher probability that auction houses will sell you genuine coins, but with the ~20+% buyer's premium + shipping costs added to the current market frenzy, anyone with a limited budget hoping to make progress this year will inevitably be drawn back, like a moth to the flame

 

How many reasons do you need not to buy from ebay?

They routinely ignore attempts to call out fakes or attempts to deceive, preferring instead to route enquiries to the customer service dept, aka the recycle bin.

They automatically incorporate Global Shipping into listings resulting in huge shipping costs for the buyer, leaving the vendor the hassle of removing the option. A quote this evening for shipping reduced the price to the buyer by 75% because they use a courier instead of the post.

The charge VAT on imports to the UK, but use the standard rate of 20% instead of the 5% applicable to coins over 100 years old. I would be interested to know if they pass on the full amount or have done their homework and pocket the difference.

ebay is plagued with fakes of all description which are listed in their thousands to trap the unwary. When they cut off the ability to communicate with others several years ago, it meant you could no longer warn people they were being ripped off.

From a seller's viewpoint, their attitude of buyer good, seller bad means you can be taken for a ride and ebay will support the buyer.

The quantity of listed material makes checking the lots virtually impossible. 17 or 18 years ago when I first used it, there were 2-3000 British coin lots meaning you could quite literally check every listing. As I write the total is 218000 approx. Sorry, but I have a life.

Auctions are a thing of the past. The number of listings means relatively fewer people view them these days and there is little competitive bidding in consequence. To get a fair price it is necessary for sellers to list as BINs, with prices increased by well over 10% to cover fees.

I could go on.............

 

Another tip for eBay - since there is so much garbage to sift through: search for specific things. I'm on the market for Henry VII and Mary I groats at the moment. A search for these terms produces a small number of hits. Of these, it's easy to discern the fakes, then sort in price order. By this method, I still find some eBay auctions worth fighting for, and hammer prices are usually pretty good compared to the big auction house / vcoins venues.

 

Let me know when you decide it's time to dump your wheat cents into a CoinStar Machine.

 

One side-effect of having to sift through so much garbage is fighting the temptation to bid higher than I would otherwise. After spending hours to find that needle in the haystack it can be hard to let it go over anything as mundane as hammer price.