I'm contemplating buying a couple of advertising tokens from an eBay seller who typically sells old advertising materials. This person seems reputable within his/her specific niche, but has never, as far as I can tell from eBay history, sold a coin or token before. The pictures aren't the greatest, but I can tell the detail is there. I'm a little concerned that shipping is specified "in a bubble mailer," which sounds like I'll probably get the tokens loose in a bubble envelope with not much additional protection. Anyway, I'm contemplating pulling the trigger on these tokens because I've been looking for them off and on for a while, and they're not high dollar items (under $20 apiece). What has your experience been buying from people who don't typically sell coins, particularly on eBay?
My experience is similar to 'rooman's. I like to find the 'craft' type who has one 'unknown' Roman or Greek coin for sale. Not always, but if they are 'dodgy' they usually have a history of selling one-offs. I did find one seller who was selling a (hard to get and expensive) Julius Caesar campaign (Elephant) coin, but he had previously sold six of them, and no other coins. Red Flag!
I've gotten some nice buys from sellers who normally don't sell coins. I mostly collect pre-1859 Sicilian and Italian coins and I've been able to find some of these coins by accident from seller's who didn't know what they were and didn't describe them very well. However, I've also seen some fake coins being sold by sellers who might have believed they were real.
What rooman9 said. As far as I remember, all "non-coins" sellers always shipped quickly, properly packaged, all items as described. Got some of the better deals on eBay from such guys. ...And got 2 best deals ever of eBay from a large coin shop. Looks like they relied heavily on Krause, ignoring errors or current actual market prices for some coins. They could have earned extra $450 for one item I bought if they did their homework before listing.
Sellers like this are by far the best source of cherrypicks. You have to increase the level of due diligence, of course, but if it all passes the smell test you're a winner nine times out of ten.
My best buy was from a seller which normally sold antiques. S/He was offering a group of IKE's in some old 2x2's. I bid, won and picked up 4 or 5 1972 Type 2 IKE's. If you are cherry picking, then your looking for coins which have been over looked for a specific variety or type. Folks who do not normally sells coins is a very good source of coming out ahead in the game.
Yeah, I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger. It would only be like a $30 investment for both varieties of this token (the same seller has them both), and if I were buying 1930s era advertising, I don't think I'd hesitate to buy from this person. The only thing that seems a little iffy is the kind of bad pictures: they do show the detail is there on the coin, but the color is way off from what I'd expect from a brass token. The seller does say the picture is not true to the color, so I'm probably going to go for it.
Without seeing listings or the seller, it would make sense for a seller of advertising material to sell advertising tokens if they came across them. They may not generally deal in coins, but that is the same subject they generally deal in
Here is a photo of an Emerald Green card (background) I just took with my 'Point and Shoot' camera. (I am going back to using grey card fo the backgrounds.)
Haha, that's funny... the rock (I assume that's a rock, right?) looks greener than the background. The background looks like a nice shade of blue.
"The Rock" is an English King John penny from 1204 - 1209 photographed (badly), by me A better photo would be
WHAT! You didn't know that was a bust of King John? It was the "HENRICVS REX" (King Henry) around the bust that threw you off, wasn't it? - - - - - - - -(Only joking!)
Well, I did it. The price was right, the detail is there, and the seller says the tokens are a brighter brass color than the pics indicate, all of which seem like good signs. Token 1: And token 2:
Thanks! These tokens are not incredibly rare (typically one or two come up on eBay every 3 months or so), but they're hard to find nice looking. I got the pair for just a little more than what I've seen some single examples with the approximate amount of wear go for, so we'll see what they look like when they arrive.
Got the tokens today. The packaging was a little interesting, but they arrived in good condition. They're pretty true to the pictures in terms of detail, and they are a nice brassy color. The hairlines on the reverse of the first token are not nearly as prominent as they are in the picture. It might be very lightly cleaned, or it might be from a little bit of "circulation," but I don't mind. Either way I think I came out nicely: paid just over $30 shipped for two tokens I've been looking for for a while that typically sell for $20-25 apiece in this condition.
