Did I just make a rookie mistake...1909 VDB cent

Your seller is in many cases using images that have the different dates superimposed over photos of the same coin. Whether the seller is changing the dates in the images, or happens to be capturing the images from another source where that has already been done doesn't matter. What does matter is that we spread the word that the coins in the listing are definitely not well-represented by the photos in the listings.

Compare below the seller's images of two distinctly different dates . . .

1916 in eBay Item __



1928 in eBay Item __

 

That looks more like it!

And I note that the seller of your second purchase says you’ll get the exact item pictured. No more stock photos! Yay.

 

That is truly bizarre. That “NEA” seller of the first coin in the OP is definitely one to avoid. I dunno if he’s just lazy, or crooked, or both, but either way, I’d avoid him like the plague from now on!

 

The coin in the OP did indeed look fake, though that might have merely been because it was whizzed to death. Dunno.

 

I’ve done that. Bullion is bullion.

But hey, why not include them in the collection? They can do double duty that way.