Coin Prices- Ebay has made them irrelevant?

As a newcomer to coin collecting, I don't know what the market was like before ebay. Do you think ebay has done more to raise or lower coin prices in general?

Also, have coins always traded at the same percentage below their printed level in publications like coin values, or has ebay affected this too?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Right off the bat, Ebay has done wonders for the coin world.

i check out ebay everyday, among other sites, because not only do they have a variety of coins, but they have lots, and lots of stupid people who sell coins for cheap. Everything is well organized, and bidding is fun.

Prices are a mess. Many different places mark many different prices and so a coin may be worth "$3600 book" but selling for $350. I think the big prices are a bit of an exxargeration <SP?> used to attract you to the value of the coin, but im sure someone would buy the coin for the highest price....

it's a mess. Make sure you research who you are buying from, the coin, and the price/location.....

 

other times, the prices are a joke.....

 

Ebay has certainly done wonders for our hobby. Alot of the coins that are in high demand are more readily available and like TIM said, sometimes even in lots or rolls. Of course being more readily available and meeting the demand in turn makes the value of our collecions go up .

 

Ebay, and the internet in general, has resurrected the hobby. Prices are now more readily established by free market forces instead of being controlled by a closed dealer network. I think that as a result, there is a greater demand for coins, which tends to push up prices, but also a more efficient market, which tends to push down prices. It's basically just a better and larger market than existed prior to the internet when local coin shops and mail order houses controlled prices.

 

You can readily find usually at least a few if not very many of key date mm coins. The problem is that usually they tend to be lower quality specimens and a lot of them spend their lives auctioned from person to person on e-bay because of their filler quality status.

 

Ebay is fun, I bid on some items to attract people to my site, and sometimes I win auctions. I won a MS- 64/65 1884-0 morgan for on $30 the other day and a 1879-0 in ms for $51, not too shabby!

 

Ebay has really made coin collecting and selling big buisness. The trouble is so many times I hear if you can't sell that thing, just put it on ebay. They'll buy anything. One freind of mine did something I still can't believe. He bought a $5 Gold coin on ebay for $5. The stupidist thing about it was the seller paid for the postage.

 

Thanks for the responses. I also collect classic video games (been doing that much longer than coins), and many people in that community despise ebay because it decreases the chances of finding games cheap "in the wild" because of their perceived ebay value. I guess with coins, which have had a substantial buying and selling market for a good half-century, ebay was welcomed with open arms as a way of leveling the playing field.

I know I like it- I won these today



$9.50


and



$3.25

 

It must be a fake, right?

 

Well not really. I've had stuff on there (like car parts) that I relisted 3 times and still no bids.

 

But if you have a piece of bread that looks like Jesus, you're golden!

 

I think that with the usual "caveat emptor" (which applies everywhere!) there has been a large opportunity to sit back and review more coins from the comfort of one's home than would have been possible otherwise.

I'm not sure what this does in terms of the "official" price guidelines though. There are a lot of different things that can affect an eBay transaction that might not influence an over the counter buy or sell at a dealer; e.g. time of the auction, amount of interest, quality of description, quality of photos, reputation of seller (feedback), newness of seller, etc. But can't the same be said for live auctions and mail bids?

My/our personal experience with eBay with respect to coins has been limited mostly to "window shopping" but I see that hasn't stopped anyone else! The sheer volume of material listed at any one time is a bit overwhelming. Well, that's what searches are for.

A sidebar: In my other hobby, by the way, the authors of the several price guides on collectible N Scale model trains have declared that eBay is not a legitmate venue for inclusion because there are too many variables including but not limited to mis-representation of condition. Interesting point of view, although not one I agree with. But then again I've been a bit of a radical in that area anyway.

 

I'm also a videogame collector, actually, and yeah, a lot of collectors find eBay to "cheapen" the hobby, but I'm not one of them. I specialize in Japanese imported games, so they're harder to find as it is eBay or no.

 

Ebay is a mess as far as prices go. 80% of the stuff is overpriced IMO, Doctored and/or a scam.You have the people selling large lots of slabbed coins guaranteed to be at a certain value and they turn out to be graded by unreputable tpg's and mostly modern coins , then the hand full of people with 'unsearched' coins. Yeah right. The majority of major sellers on ebay do so because most of the buyers are unknowledgeable. Every once in awhile you will find a legit seller not trying to rip people off. The old adage 'if you think your getting a deal you probably aren't' holds very true. I also love your buffalo coins going for 1,500 dollars. You get a group of people to list some bogus auctions and drive up the price amongst themselves then turn around and sell the coins they already had at enormous prices. Most reputable auction houses watch stuff like this and throw up alerts when the same clients bid amongst themselves.

This is just from my experience browsing through EBay's auctions. I've bought a few nice coins off of eBay , but pretty much stay away. As far as pricing: to me using EBay as a indicator of a coins value is about as silly as when people pay enormous fees for slabbed modern coins because of population reports. That only reflect low numbers because no one bothers to send in a coin that was minted in the hundred millions and where it would cost more to slab it then its worth.

I feel EBay does a disservice to the industry because many of the buyers on ebay are those new to coin collecting , but many will also have a bad experience from Ebay and quit the hobby. Hurting the industry more then it helps.

Don't let me keep you from buying on Ebay though. Just my opinion. There are plenty of good sellers on Ebay many frequent this forum and are collectors. Its the ones just trying to make money that usually make a bad name for others.

 

I wonder what, if anything, the just announced boost in "eBay Store" fees will have on the coin collecting categories?

Apparently eBay is worried that the majority of listings have gone over to eBay stores (I think they said 84% of the total items now are there) and that it is detracting from the "core auction business".

I rarely find any good deals in the eBay stores regardless of category, although a friend says that half.com has some bargains.

 

Well said.

Which brings us to the other major factor which revolutionized the industry : standardized encapsulated grading.

I suppose we could mention the imperfections therof, and there are surely some negative anecdotes.

But it seems that it has drawn in a lot of folks who lack technical expertise, but will trust the top-tier grading services. They are confident they aren't getting counterfeits or altered pieces.

That, coupled with the Internet, made "sight unseen" relatively safe.

 

The same thing can be said for coin dealers operating out of a storefront. Great care must be taken by collectors no matter what they buy or from whom. The rules are loose, the ethics are "flexible," there are more opinions than facts, and everything is negotiable. Buyer beware.

 

I have been collecting coins for over 30 years and have never gone into a coin shop and seen 20 1921-D WL half dollars at one time. You can do that on ebay any day of the week. Of course many are low grade and over bid but there are good deals if one takes the time to look. I have also found some of the better dealers sell some nice coins off ebay.

AL