I recently joined this forum because my eBay omniture service showed that several visits to my auctions were referrals through this site. Naturally, this piqued my curiosity. I wondered what people were saying about me. Through eBay over the past year my coin-collecting hobby (and passion, occasional mania) has turned into a growing part-time business, depite myself. I feel at this point that there are possibilities on eBay for persons who are as concerned about coins as they are about making money-- that there is a chance that honest folks can dominate this scene if they get together and use their numbers and purchasing power to drive out the unscrupulous mercenaries. Anyhow, I'd like to discuss these topics, but being new to this forum, I'm not really sure where I'm at. so I'll throw this out there and see if anyone can help give me some direction. --andyj107
Hi Andy, you can take any questions about e-bay selling or topics about selling/coins etc, in the main u.s. coin forum. This Forum is where someone would place a link to their auction etc, not very many discussions go on here
Andy, Why not pick one idea about ebay refinement and start a thread about it? Something like "Can there be a subculture of quality created and maintained on ebay?" Good luck and welcome to a really neat site.
Thanks, Penny. It seems that there is the makings of a discussion going on here. Here's a question for you: How come I seldom see a woman in a coin shop or at a coin show, but a sizeable percentage of the buyers I see on the internet are women? Historically I'm sure that numismatics has been a male-dominated culture, like most everything else, but I would be interesting in learning something about the psychology that makes coin-collecting interesting to a woman. For me, what drew me in as a child was the magical quality of coins--that the dumb and inert flat piece of metal in my hand could turn into something fabulous-- like an ice-cream cone! Back in the fifties there were all sorts of different varieties of design on the coinage then in circulation--this made it natural to want to start collecting, and eventually to want to learn about the history behind all of it. Anyhow, if this isn't the right place to start a discussion, I'll try to navigate to the place you suggested.--andy
Art-- This does seem like a neat site, but a little overwhelming for someone who never touched a computer until about a year ago. It looks like I could spend quite a bit of time trying to learn how to use all the buttons and whistles. But I do think that the internet has a future for serious hobbyists, collectors, numismatists of all stripes. I guess it has to begin with a "subculture"--the overriding culture would always remain primarily mass-mercantile--which is a shame. I wonder how many budding collectors are turned off from the hobby after their first negative transaction with an unscrupulous merchandiser? I'll be poking around this site from time to time, and eventually I'll get the hang of it. Thanks! --andy
OK, we all need usernames. You can do a Google on M MAROTTA NUMISMATICS and get enough hits to figure out which of my cousins this Mike Marotta is. Who is Andy107? That is the problem with eBay: anonymity. On the other hand, these are the guys who own CIVITAS, just one of about 25 dealers on the VCOINS "ring." Benjamin R. Bell studied coins throughout the last 21 years, during which time he interned at the ANA museum and catalogued for 3 years at Classical Numismatic Group in Lancaster, PA. He holds an M.A. from the University of London, where he produced a dissertation on Eastern imitations of the Venetian ducat in the British Museum. Bell is an A.N.A. member whose collecting interests include medieval imitative gold and classic stamps of the Indian Princely States. Joshua Moran has been collecting coins for the past 15 years. After receiving a B.A. in Anthropology from Beloit College, he participated in two field seasons of excavation on an Etruscan archaeological site in Italy and has been involved with contract archaeology in the U.S. Moran is an A.N.A. member whose collecting interests include Roman Republican, Roman Imperial and United States variety coinage. ---------------- You see, Ben and Josh are real people. Even though they do a lot of business electronically, they do so as real people. That builds trust. More to the point, they specifically cite trusted partners: The Classical Numismatic Group and the ANA museum and Beloit college. What do you get when you click on a seller's username on eBay?
Well since Josh and Ben do often sell their wares on ebay - you can get the very same level of trust as you do in their shop or their on-line web site. Your point is well made Michael - I do not disagree with it. But what has not been pointed out is that quite often - those self same owners of retail shops and web sites - who happen to be highly respected, trustworthy individuals and pillars of the numismatic community - also sell on ebay. Ebay is wondeful venue - it not only allows sellers like Josh & Ben to reach a much larger portion of the collector base and thus increase their profitability - it allows to them even increase their stellar reputations. It also allows collectors the buy from trusted individuals instead of scam artists. There are many, many sellers on ebay like Josh & Ben. You just have to know who they are. I could list a dozen or more just off the top of my head - and those are just the people I know. Ebay can actually be a safe place to purchase coins - as long as you either - 1 - know what you are buying. By that I mean know enough about it to determine for yourself, at least to some reasonable extent, that the item is genuine. 2 - know and trust your seller. And I don't just mean read his Feedback. You must know this person's reputation. And you can find out by asking questions about them in places like this. Ebay is not the problem - it is but a venue. Unscrupulous people who sell coins are the problem. And you can find them just as easily in a coin shop or at a coin show as you can on-line at ebay.
