Do you guys buy from eBay?

There are some on eBay I think are fraudulent sellers. This is one seller that seems to have a lot of what looks like cast fakes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2959381986...lFbXWGjssG82P7Q/lNsyPnlg==|tkp:Bk9SR_qYt4XXYg

 

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As the seller is located in Morrocco, I wouldn´t go near it with a bargepole. JMO

 

Pretty much everything they have for sale appears to be suspect.

 

That was my opinion. They all look cast to me. No detail too many perfect strikes.

 

I don’t even look at that website. Lol

 

It's been a long while.

 

There are plenty of good sellers on ebay. Just use common sense on ebay. If it is too good to be true than it probably is. I don't buy anything from outside of the US but there is a decent dealer out of Canada I used to buy from. I think he is/was a member here before.

 

When I first started collecting ancients and medievals, 5 years ago, I bought some ancient coins and medieval coins from Ebay. I didn't know about Vcoins back then. I bought 1 fake, but I also bought some nice coins. 1 of the ancients was an NGC Ancients slabbed Aegina turtle coin. 1 of the medievals was an NGC slabbed Richard I The Lionheart coin. All of the other ancients and medievals, which I bought on Ebay, seem authentic to me. I recently searched Ebay for a coin type, for the 1st time in several years. It was a rare coin type. All I found, were coins from Ebay sellers who are known to sell fakes.
Here are some useful links, which contain lists of Ebay sellers, who sell fake coins, according to the links.
1. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=18502.0
2. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/fakesellers.html
3. http://www.lateromanbronzecoinforum.com/index.php?topic=1218.0

 

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-hidden-gem-from-ebay.407582/

 

That site appears in the following list:-
https://www.reddit.com/r/AncientCoins/comments/14kntj2/exhaustive_list_of_ebay_fraudsters/?rdt=60692
which although not exhaustive may be worth consolidating with the forum and Augustus lists, and any other black books you use.

 

Yes. It looks like haelot_82, the seller of the OP coin, is in this list.

 

I buy from eBay at least a few times per year and check it regularly. I wouldn't really recommend it, per se, because I do think it's a call you have to make about your ability to spot good/bad coins and good/bad dealers but there are lots of good dealers on there who only sell on eBay. Just like the rest of the market there are more good coins than bad coins on there IMHO but there are a lot of bad dealers there and eBay does nothing to police them and the fakeseller lists rarely get updated when new fakesellers pop up, change names, etc, not to mention they rarely include the names of the dealers who mostly sell good coins but sell too many bad ones to ignore(though they'd have to expand their list of venues from eBay and might make a few people get defensive and angry if we start listing all of the ones in that category).

 

Hey @red_spork good to see you

 

Before covid, frequently. Since then, about 6 times a year. For ancients anyways. My other hobbies, all the time.

 

That seller from Morocco has been junking up the eBay listings for a while now, and I'd agree that they all look fake.

I buy virtually all my ancients from eBay - so far this year I've been fooled about three times by fakes. But the others (and there are lots of others) seem to be fine - when it comes to bargains, eBay really seems hard to beat. If you don't mind sifting through fakes, and (there's waayyy more of these) grossly over-priced genuine listings.

 

No, because of the snipping after the lot has closed. Life is too short to spend it angry and upset.

 

I have purchased a lot from ebay, but only from a small selection of trustworthy sellers. A general rule of mine is to steer clear away from countries like Morocco that are full of fraudsters. There's also plenty of lists detailing fake sellers to avoid as well as people have already posted above.

 

It's not about the platform. eBay doesn't sell coins. Individual sellers do. eBay is perfectly safe if you buy from known trusted professionals.

 

But, Ebay seems to do nothing, to police the sellers of ancient and medieval coins on its platform. Ebay seems to do nothing, to try to prevent sellers from selling fake ancient and medieval coins. That's why, there are so many fake ancient and medieval coins on Ebay.
Vcoins, on the other hand, seems to police the sellers of ancient and medieval coins on its platform. That's why, there are so few fake ancient and medieval coins on Vcoins.
However, I agree, that there are some good sellers of ancient and medieval coins on Ebay. I occasionally search Ebay for ancient and medieval coins. Know the seller, or know the coin.

 

I buy lots of numismatic literature on eBay (especially old auction catalogs if they're cheap).

But occasionally I also look on eBay for things like this Constantius II rarity for my Fallen Horseman "mint set" (Amiens/Ambianum). Very hard to find, so I was especially excited to find one for $10! (Still need Trier/Treves/Treveri...if anyone happens to have a duplicate!)





When I bought this next coin on eBay -- an Athens New Style Tetradrachm -- it was the third time I had seen the same coin for sale within a year and a half. This was a totally fluke encounter while I was looking for books on Greek coins.

(1) I was outbid at the Stack's auction for part 1 of the Mark & Lottie Salton Collection at NYINC in January 2022.
Not surprising -- the sale was highly anticipated & bidding was ferocious!



(2) Shortly after, it appeared in the VCoins / MA-Shops inventory of a seller I've bought from on a few occasions over the past 15-20 years. I felt it was a reasonable markup -- but if I couldn't afford the bid, I couldn't afford the fixed price!



(3) Finally appeared on eBay a couple months ago -- no mention of its important provenance, though you can see "Salton Collection" on the NGC tag in the seller photos (edited collage below) -- where I was able to buy it for almost 40% less than the original auction price & about 60% less than the MA-Shops price!

(By then I had also found additional prior listings of this coin in two catalogs from the 1950s -- Glendining's 1955 Auction, Count Laval Collection; Salton FPL 27 in 1958!)