Buying on eBay? is it wise?

Recently, I have made a few purchases on eBay by using the best offer option. Some people seem to be fairly reasonable however I am not so sure? Also how can I ( or anyone) be sure they're not getting a fake coin..... I know as well as the rest of you that there are plenty of fakes on eBay. All accounts I buy from have %100 feedback so hopefully that makes a good difference. I will post a few coins for second opinions on price and authenticity.
#1. 1885-O MS 64 PCGS (Received coin, seems real)


#2. 1880-S Morgan MS-61 ANACS (Do they really fake soapbox holders?)


#3. Feuchtwanger Cent ( yeah its holed... so what?)


#4 1836 Bust Half Dollar


#5 1886 P Morgan Dollar MS-64 PCGS OGH ( kinda frosty)

 

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@Noah Finney You could ask the good folks here who have memberships in different TPG's if they could look up the provenance of a particular slab and see if it matches the coin, you might be interested in.

 

I make quite a few purchases from e-bay each month.. If you stick to the well known sellers and 99/100% positive feedback you should be ok. I admit, I have had to return more then a few coins for misrepresentation but between ebay and paypal have had no issues with returning those items... Like anyplace else, if you take your time and do the research you will do ok... it's the "impulse buys" you gotta watch out for

 

No memberships needed... Anyone at anytime can verify a slabbed coin through it's slabber (pcgs, ngc, anacs and icg) and I do recommend always running the verification before purchaseing slabbed coins.. No match for the ID or other issues... don't buy it PS I like your feuchtwanger cent and the morgans.

 

Don't buy from any sellers with foreign or "weird" addresses....should have lots of good feedback.....a return policy is also nice.

Some CC's and online payment systems have a protection policy if the coin is lost or counterfeit.

 

I pretty much do all my buying on ebay. One thing you can't go by though is sellers feedback. They have the power to get negative removed. If they're selling many coins and the coins are in slabs and they look like they been on eBay a long time you can fairly figure the slabs are ok. Make sure the cert comes back. If it doesn't for any reason don't bid. I knew someone who bought one and it didn't come up. He called pcgs and the coin was reported stolen in the past. He won it and I didn't bid because the cert wouldn't come up. I told him after the fact and that's what pcgs told him. It was an old rattler and the coin otherwise straight. Don't buy anything raw unless you really know what you are doing. And DON'T and I REPEAT don't trust the feedback. And stay away from auctionkings. Before you fall into his trap of juiced enhanced photos

 

This one really burns me. Look at this fools spelling... and people still bid astronomically...

 

Here one of mine in that slab.
Is your ANACS logo a deeper green?
also notice a 7th number in the serial.

Here's the reverse. Yours looks to be the right silverish gold.

How is the ANACS emblem at the bottom right. Well upper left in the photos?

 

ANACS OWH's have been faked, I bought a fake Trade Dollar in one about 10 years ago. That said, eBay is generally a safe place to buy coins, especially with paypal protection.

 

eBay is by far the biggest marketplace for buying and selling coin. It dwarfs all others. But it's a minefield if you are not careful.

 

I’ve been buying and selling on eBay for years. The advice above is sound. I’ll add two more thoughts:
...if it seems too good to be true it probably is
...if it is a raw coin that probably should be in a slab but isn’t beware.

Mike

 

I used to buy on eBay if I knew the dealer. I don’t bid there any more because of the sniping. Life is too short to be made unhappy because of unfair auction rules.

As for what you have purchased, it all depends upon what you paid. I am not a fan of the 1886 dollar as an MS-64. It looks to be too dull.

And no, I would never buy a Feuchwanger cent with a hole in it. Getting a decent one is too easy.

 

I don't have a problem with bid sniping on eBay but I do have a problem with shill bidding by crooked sellers.

 

A long, long time, I used to buy though ebay and I would bid on items. I was taught how to "snipe" and I got just about everything I "bid" on. I quite doing it because I felt as many of you might. Now, all my purchases are "Buy it Now". I'm 74 soon to be 75 and I have learned a great deal in those years.

 

Yes, that happens. Back when I was a dealer, another dealer asked to bid on some of his eBay stuff. "You won't have to buy it if you won," he told me. I passed.

The question is when do you know that there is a shill bidder? You don't.

 

A dealer had a piece in his inventory that I had considered buying for a long time. It was a Lincoln token. I was on the fence about because of the price. I thought that it was "all of the money" and then some. He finally put it up for bid on eBay. I followed it all the through to the end. When the lot closed, I was the high bidder.

Then the snipe cut in, and I was not allowed to bid any more. I was angry and upset. I had this happen to me twice, and my attitude is "never again!" You can take your eBay auctions and shove them where the sun doesn't shine.

I don't like auctions in general because I feel like I always over pay. But the way eBay runs their auctions is the worst.

 

Amen and Amen!

 

Yes, it is. As with everything else involving people, do your homework beforehand. People lie and cheat, but in many years of buying on eBay Have had only one issue over three cents totaling $8. The money was refunded. The site has allowed me to build a very nice collection, always using the buy it now or make offer options.

 

It’s really simple, if you know what you’re doing, eBay is fantastic ;-) if you don’t stay away.

 

When I was buying a lot on eBay, I mostly camped on new BIN listings looking for good deals -- you have to pounce on them quickly, or someone else will beat you to it.

I did go through a phase of bidding on auctions using a sniping service. Believe me, I know the disappointment of losing at the last second -- but if you bid any other way, you're just volunteering additional information to your competitors, and that's NOT the way to get the lowest price.