Anybody bought from this eBay seller?

So, I've seen a few coins that look appealing from this eBay seller highrating_lowprice. I'm rather put off by his absurd tactic of pricing his coins insanely high and then offering a 73% discount. (Weird -- it's always 73%.)

I know his US coin lots are outrageously overpriced. Here's an example of a textbook VG 1942 Walking Liberty half, priced at $145, discounted 73% to $39.15. The coin itself looks fine, but he's trying to get an AU/MS price for a VG coin. And that's what I'm worried I'll get if I buy from him.

Anybody mind spot checking a few of his ancient listings to see if the same thing holds? For instance, this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antoninus-P...ncient-Coin-Funeral-pyre-i45200-/231417388953 .

He claims to be an expert in ancients, so maybe his prices will be more reasonable? I dunno. *sigh* I may just stick to vcoins and forvm (and, of course, CoinTalk!).

 

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Know what the coin is worth to you (from any seller) before you consider buying.

He is open to a 'serious' offer (on a coin that you want), and I have not heard of him selling any fakes. I don't think that I have bought from him, though.

 

I haven't and won't, but others here have. If you're looking to buy something from him, the thing to be aware of is that in most instances even his 'discount' prices are far in excess of what the coins are actually worth.

In any case, he's been discussed here before - I recommend that you read this thread and this thread to get a better idea of how to approach this seller.

With that crack and those surfaces, I'd say that A-Pi denarius you linked to is at best a $50-$60 coin. It's fairly common, and personally, if I were looking to pick up an example, I'd instead look at what's available on Vcoins and make an offer to buy one there and support an ethical seller.

 

Like growth rings on a tree, one might measure the age of a participant here according to how many time you have heard this question. Our friend HR-LP has a huge number of coins and many of them are really nice. He tends to ask ten times a normal price but sometimes accepts a fraction of that so he only gets double. I have bought a couple coins from him that I 'had' to have and paid for the privilege. Most coins that he has that I find tempting are so specialized I doubt he has any idea what they are but his pricing covers any loss he might have endured by missing a sleeper. Buy somewhere else.

 

highrating lowprice ...

=> his photo and his business-name say it all, no? (he's like a used car salesman)

... I've never driven anything off of his coin-lot

 

His business practices are loathsome. Steve hit it the nail on the head - he is the used car salesman of the coin trade.

I have bought from him a couple of times in the past, coins I couldn't find anywhere else. He accepted my offers, which were around 10% of the asking prices. I wouldn't have paid more.

 

Lets face it. Some of us are specialists in something and when we see a coin we don't have that we really want, we would buy from the devil himself. HR-LP has many nice coins and many junkers. He has had several coins that I would have bought for up to a quarter his price but only a couple that I actually made offers on. One on them is a gem of my collection IMHO but no one else would agree. The other is something I missed long ago and have seen only two in my years of looking because I wanted this particular item. The fact that his was an absolute junker made little difference. If you value coins for what they are rather than what they are worth, you ocassionally pay a little extra for a coin you want. HR-LP had a coin I really wanted for $1000 but ignored my offer of $300. My second offer a few days later was refused in the software. I must have offended him. You can not assume a particular percentage discount. I'm sorry I offended him but not being able to bid on his sales is something of a blessing.

 

If you know the value of a coin then he is not too bad to deal with, but you need to get an idea of how much the coin is really worth before you make an offer. I bought a few coins from him this year, including that Theodosius II Siliqua, at a good price so I can't complain too much.

 

I can only add to the chorus here - carefully research the value of the coin you're interested in, and make a market-savvy offer. He will likely accept it. On the positive side, I have never seen any fakes in his inventory. On the negative side, the used car salesman pricing shtick.

 

I don't think I ever bought any of his coins, but I have made offers he refused. And he does remind me of a used car salesman.

 

But wait...he's a Top Rated Plus ebay seller.

 

I looked at his web site and saw an interesting list of information. His discussion on the Tribute Penny is good. He gives his photo and a contact phone number with his listings - both really good things. He is listed in LinkedIn and describes himself as a self employed Marketing Manager. If you separate understands coins from good buy, you will be ok. Know what you are buying, and the market price before buying.
I did find a couple of interesting pics. The moderators can let me know if I crossed any lines.
he has plenty of coin books, or knows where to find them
a cheeky, eye catching ad
I thought of this ad for a knitting pattern I bought my wife when I saw the cheeky ad.

I found another of his web sites with good links and an interesting coin ad photo - http://www.ancientgreekromancoinsforsale.com/

 

Well obviously his advertising tactics work. I think this is 3rd thread this year about him, lol.

 

Should I throw some girly pics into my sales?

 

I have not, but a relative bought me a coin from him. There was a card in with the coin with that sleazy photo of him and a link to this web address...

http://www.trustedcoins.com/

My relative said that he "looks like a reputable person and sounds very knowledgeable". I like the coin that she got me, I just don't like the seller.

 

You know, he (or somebody) has obviously put an enormous amount of work into that website. And he's no hack - there's a great deal of scholarship there, and he sells truckloads of coins. The cheesiness of his sales gimmicks leaves me scratching my head because it's so unnecessary, but it's hard to argue with success.

 

whatever you might think he makes 109K sales every 3 month and get rid of more than 350 coins a month. That's average of 100 dollar per coin. His strategy is working...

Look around ebay and find me 15 ancient coin sellers that matched his performance..

Like JA said above, he puts enormous amount of work into his shop. Maintaining 15K listings isn't easy task for a one man team. I run a full fledged company and warehouse to do 30K listings, in comparison, given I also sell a lot more per entry...

Anyway, this guy is not doing too bad. Far from anchor, but he's at least top-rated and enjoys the entra discount. Ppl who sells on ebay know how difficult it is to maintain that status, especially when you move this much goods.

 

I tried again and made an offer on a coin at over 1/3 list but was rejected. I see a lot more good than bad in his website but being the only expert and the only trusted dealer must be a tough job.

 

lol