Buying on eBay? is it wise?

I will leave eBay to the snipers. It’s no fun at all to work with it as a buyer or seller. As a buyer, you deal with snipers and counterfeits. As a seller, from experience I know that it’s a lot more work than simply selling something at a show. I’ve heard stories about a dealer getting return boxes that had rocks in them instead of the item they shipped.

 

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One tip I learned recently- if you get a coin that doesn't look like the photo and you need to return it, don't try to be nice and select the "just didn't like it" button. It probably won't let you return it.
Gotta go with the "not as described" option.

In general, orders from overseas have more fakes and other issues, you need to be really careful there. But I've had many good ebay transactions.

 

When I was new on eBay I was also frustrated with the snipers, then with time I joined them. Now when I see a coin I want I will put in a small bid to get in que and then at the last seconds of the auction I will shoot in my final bid. What I will NEVER do is bump up my bids during the days leading up to the end of the auction.

 

I see that you didn't grade your 1836 Capped Bust Half Dollar. It looks kind of worn. I got an 1833 from my father years ago. It's a little (very little) better than yours. Thanks for showing us your coins.

 

Thats not a tip, thats how buyers scam sellers into free returns treating them like asking a dealer to see an item at a show. Yes there are cases where a seller does a bait and switch, but there are more cases where a buyer uses that because they changed their mind or are forcing a return on an item that had no returns. If there are returns allowed selecting that you didnt like it will allow the return.

 

Thanks all for the advice. No i will not be sniping but i have been purchasing mostly slabbed coins with some raw coins . Shown below are some recent ebay purchases.
1863 AU 55 Indian Head Cent - i think its nicer




1829 Bust Half- Cruddy on the front , nice on the back.


1824 Bust Half - Historic coin

 

Snipe bidding is fine. Theres no reason to not bid last second if thats what you think is the best strategy. Youll miss some but thats fine. Its wild for a "seller" to say extra bids for a higher price is bad or for a buyer to be upset they got outbid. Dont let people complaining influence how you bid. If the bid is in before the auction ends then they should have bid higher if they didnt win.

 

I can understand how eBay's fixed-end-time auctions could be frustrating to someone who's used to "real" auctions, where the auctioneer keeps things going as long as there's further interest. It's a different paradigm, and requires a different mindset, strategy, and tactics.

 

Either a bid extends the time or there’s a hard finish. Just bid what you’re willing and see what happens with a hard finish. There’s auction houses that use the same format.

Complaining about last second bids that are higher than the bidders bid is one of the worst complaints in this hobby. Someone can’t get sniped if the bid is higher than the snipe. If someone doesn’t bid their max that’s on them same way if someone else wanted it more.

If anything the hard close actually hurts the sellers not buyers as it doesn’t give a chance for bidders to get into a bidding frenzy.

 

Just relating what happened to me...won a lower grade bust quarter that looked quite nice in the seller's pics...it was buffed when I got it, I got stuck with it.

 

Screw it! EBay sucks. Never ever again! It stinks to high heavens.

 

If purchasing raw non-proof coins on Ebay, I assume that the coin is a details grade and bid accordingly. I buy them to fill an album slot. Love to know how many of you have purchased raw non-proof coins on Ebay, sent them in for grading to ANACS, NGC, or PCGS, and received a straight grade.

 

Oh, I have (bought on eBay, sent to ANACS, got a clean grade). But it was never something I'd count on doing consistently.

My strategy for managing expectations was pretty much the same as yours. I assumed everything would be details. If it didn't look like details to me, that was a nice surprise, and I sent in a few of those nice surprises. A couple of those did grade cleanly, which was a further nice surprise (it's always a bit of a crapshoot, at least for me).

 

I assume a raw ebay coin is details and will bid/buy accordingly, if I don't see an obvious problem. I don't worry about resale value because I'm not a flipper, but figure if it's good enough for me, it'll be good enough for somebody else down the road. I also don't buy into the "if it's raw, it's been submitted and rejected" stuff. Early on I fell into the sniping trap a couple times, but now I just bid what I'm willing to pay and forget about it. If I get an outbid notice, I might reevaluate, but I'm not on there thinking I'm going to steal something with a lowball bid and then fight over it at the last second with everybody else doing that. You're just asking to get screwed by shill bids. That said, I rarely buy there anymore. There's very few true auctions for the coins I'm interested in, and the buy it now prices are stupid high. Occasionally a make offer satisfies both me and seller, but rarely.

 

Yes that's part of ebay I guess, I've wound up with a few I never would have bought if I could have had an in hand evaluation, and that includes top TPG'd coins.
But on the other hand sometimes I've been amazed at the quality coin that arrives.

I feel it kinda evens out. I'd probably use eBay less if I didn't live in the boonies.

 

I’ve purchased hundreds of raw coins on Ebay and if I recall only 2 got Gennied. 1 they said cleaned 2nd they didn’t like the color, both were varieties.

 

I purchased many coins on eBay and had problems with three. One was a fake and I refused to even send it back because it was not worth the postage. eBay cancelled the purchase when notified and banned the seller (who returned shortly under a different name.)

The second was an error by the seller because of a wrong photo. Though it was a slight overpay, I decided to accept it anyway.

The third was returned and the order cancelled. It seemed like it took a bit to come off of PayPal, but I do not know whether it was eBay or PayPal which cause the delay.

So I must say my experience was good overall. However; most of my purchased were of rare varieties which are unlikely to be used by counterfeiters simply because they are rare and a source coin in acceptable condition even rarer for those varieties.

I have a Hawaiian with much the same protection. It is a heavily counterfeited type because even the originals don't look professionally prepared. But I chose one of the rarer varieties of that type and the only counterfeits I am aware of are from the two most common varieties.

But I also have to credit it with helping me obtain my rarest coin, the reverse of which you see as my icon. I was high bidder, but did nor want to be sniped, so I made an offer of 3 times the price to close the deal in time for Christmas and the seller accepted. I could never see as many coins in my area of specialization without eBays volume. Fortunately I have never had the crazy money that is required to purchase coins that are often faked at higher ends.

 

I agree 100%. eBay for me is the only way I can find rare pre-1800 Sicilian coins. At large coin shows I might find one if I'm lucky, most of the time none. In the past I have found some on eBay that the seller was not familiar with and they were not labeled and described properly .

Funny thing is, Ancient Roman and Greek coins from Sicily are not hard to find but the coins from 1600 to 1800 Sicily are rare.

 

Ebay is a numismatic playground. Although there are a few other venues with the occasional deals none are as consistent as Ebay.

 

It’s really a pleasure to read your posts, Jeff. Always great thoughts and comments. Contrary to the posts of others, who mostly start arguments and believe they’re always right.