As someone who browses coin auctions a lot on eBay, I've noticed over time that certain sellers consistently sell their coins for many times what other sellers could get for the same coin. I can list a coin for 99 cents and get no bids, but you put one of these sellers' names on the same coin and it would fetch $10. These sellers usually have nice stuff but I avoid them because I know I will rarely get a bargain. One example is a seller named "LegalEagle" with some numbers after his name. His stuff always shoots up in price. Here's a good example too. This seller, MeridianCoin, has had several Brazilian coins I wanted over the past few weeks, but they have sold for astronomical prices. This 1886 200 reis sold for $300! I'm fairly confident that someday I will snag a similar coin from some less-popular seller for under $20. http://www.ebay.com/itm/111397762538?ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1435.l2649 Do you pay more for coins if it's a seller you like? Is good service really worth that much, or is it some sort of strange psychological process where just knowing it is a particular seller makes people willing to pay more?
they could have a high number of positive feedbacks. making them a very reliable seller. I always look at a sellers feedback rating before I buy any coin.
That Brazilian coin is no surprise, key dates like this tend to go for big money in this kind of condition. For $20 you would be lucky to snag a VF. As far as paying more for coins from certain sellers... I pay more when there are clear pictures that leave little to uncertainty. I think the quality of pictures often gets mistaken for the seller "name" as the big selling point.
Images make more of a difference which of course translates to certain sellers who know how to take good pictures. I just purchased and received an Ancient coin for $40 which is also being sold by another seller for $300. The images of my coin were just Ok with even another well respected forum member commenting on the fussiness of the image. In all honesty, $300 would be much too high, but $150-$200 is the value. In this case, it was a combination of image and a lesser known seller.
I always look at the feedback when buying on ebay, that's what really determines whether or not I buy from the seller and the price I am willing to go. There are a few sellers in particular that I bid on regularly because I know they're trustworthy and I'm always trying to get a bargain.
it also helps if you have bought more pricey coins from the same seller you trust that has a larger selections of coins to choose from that you have not seen on the market for a long time.
I know nothing of Brazilian coins but this is a major factor with Ancients. There are three factors that come to play. Variety: Are you sure that the cheap coin is the exact same variety or is there some little thing that some people pay extra for? To some people and coin is a coin. To others, one struck by a certain die set carries a big premium. Grade: Just because two sellers both say a coin is the same condition does not make it so. Is one of the coins simply nicer? To people who do not know what detail is lost in the first days of circulation, a VF coin can look very nice. They might say 'like new'. eBay limited the use of standard grading terms to TPG coins for a reason. People who know a particular series might pay a lot more for little details (full horn, full steps etc.) that others might not see as significant. Who is buying and selling: Ancient coins are bought and sold by a wide variation of dealers and collectors. Some collectors are willing to search for years to find just the right coin at just the right price. Others want it and they want it now! Some dealers handle only very expensive coins and have a minimum price for which they will sell any coin. They cater to buyers who have the money and appreciate the hand-holding they offer in exchange for higher prices. Others have no customers who spend large sums for a coin and would be unlikely to get a fair price for a rare beauty so they rarely will have such coins in stock. To balance such stock problems, many coin sales are between dealers with some coins changing hands many times before they find a long term home in a collection (if they ever do it would seem in some cases). Many collectors are (rightly!) concerned about fake coins and are quite willing to pay extra to buy a coin from a dealer that they trust and believe that knows enough to protect his customers from ‘problems’. Others like to play a game in the hope of paying 10% of a fair price for a coin they believe has a 15% chance of being as described (genuine, original surfaces, natural tone etc.). Just like ‘dealer to dealer’ transactions, ‘fool to fool’ deals make up part of the market. The fact that such transactions occur does not mean that they should be taken into account when estimating a proper price in a more mainstream sale. The range of price differences between major auction houses or the highest end private dealers and the bottom of the market can be several times. I have seen virtually identical coins sold for $5 and $50 on the floor of the same coin show. Both were equally genuine and equally desirable except that the more expensive one came with hand holding by an expert while the lesser would only get an envelope if you bought several coins and made a point of asking.
greattoning and kryptonitecomics consistently fetch several times market value for their coins. It may be the same reason some people have that "Apple fan craze."
I would echo what Doug says in general. Specifically to Ebay, I know many people like myself check Favorite Dealers quite often. Therefor, those dealers who offer a lot of good coins will get many more views and higher prices. Its the nature of retail. Most major dealers who are known to offer a lot of quality coins start to net higher prices than others due to many people having limited time to shop so they go to dealers they know offer good coins.
Thanks for the perspectives. I think what Medoraman says makes sense. A while back I was selling a coin collection for a family friend and so it included some better coins than what I usually sell. I noticed that not only did the better coins start to sell for more, but some of the lesser coins also sold for higher prices. I had a 1941 Tunisia 1 franc fetch $10 I think. People start to follow the seller and then they bid up everything.
Interesting perspective. I've never been too interested in grading so I'd be happy with a VF for $20. It usually seems to me that for many world coins the grade affects the price a lot less than it does for U.S. coins.
That's certainly true for a lot of the more crude types, where condition is not as important because the quality is poor regardless of grade. It really depends on the country and series.
Inclined to agree, the photography has more to do with the price realized than anything else, all else being equal. This is especially true if the coin is exceptionally nice to begin with. Some of the other factors that influence the price realized: Location of the seller. I have bought coins from sellers in Greece for half what they are normally going for simply because many people do not like buying from overseas sellers, especially from certain countries like Russia, Greece, or Italy. If the sellers feedback rating is good, then there are some great deals waiting for you to bid, if you have the courage to bid on them. Especially using PayPal, the risks are not nearly what they were 10 years ago. Obviously, bad feedback or lack of feedback at all, will usually result in a lower price. Another huge factor is when the item is sold. If it is listed in an auction (as opposed to Buy-It-Now) and the auction is scheduled to end in the middle of the day on a weekday, --or worse yet in the middle of the day on a day like Mother's Day-- the price realized will be a fraction of what it might otherwise have been. Without question, for auction listings, the best closing time on eBay (from the seller's perspective) is Sunday night around 10:00PM -CST.
Yes, to me, buying from a country which forbids export of coins and with which the US has an agreement not to allow imports is more of a risk than I consider worthwhile. While I do not agree with their laws, I choose not to flaunt them. Obviously they do not open every package that goes through customs but there are plenty of coins to use up my budget from countries that allow commerce in coins and have a better chance of arriving.
