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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Penny Lady®, post: 514430, member: 16948&quot;]Hi All, I have been reading this thread which is very helpful to all coin buyers, but especially those who don&#039;t have a lot of experience buying coins on Ebay.&nbsp; I have been buying on Ebay since early 1998 and have encountered all sorts of unscrupulous sellers, have gotten burned a few times, have returned many, many coins over the years (of course, eating all those shipping fees along the way!), and have developed my own personal list of sellers I will NEVER buy from.&nbsp; However, I hesitate to list those sellers since they have often changed their user name, and others may not have had the same bad experience that I did.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>But instead, for what it&#039;s worth, I thought I&#039;d share a few things that have helped me reduce the chances and occurrences of bad coin buying experiences on Ebay:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>- Don&#039;t buy from sellers who have a &quot;sold as is&quot; or &quot;no return&quot; policy.&nbsp; I even include on this list sellers who charge a &quot;restocking&quot; fee.&nbsp; And if they don&#039;t post a return policy, then take the time to email them and ask them what their policy is <b>before </b>bidding.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>- Don&#039;t buy from sellers who have less than 98% feedback rating, and it is helpful to read a seller&#039;s negative feedback before bidding to gauge the types of issues they may have had (i.e., slow shipping, poor communication, etc.)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>- Don&#039;t buy raw &quot;red&quot; copper coins - it is too hard to tell whether they have been dipped or cleaned from a photo, and many of them have been at least dipped to &quot;brighten&quot; their color.&nbsp; This includes coins in slabs from so-called &quot;third world&quot; grading companies....</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>- Don&#039;t buy coins from sellers who charge unreasonable shipping fees - they are usually trying to recoup their Ebay and Paypal fees by charging high &quot;shipping and handling&quot; fees, which Ebay had tried to control, but hasn&#039;t been very successful.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>- If you receive a coin that is unsatisfactory, even if it is slabbed by a reputable grading company, do return it, even though you have to eat the shipping fees, since you will never be happy with the coin and will probably lose more money in the long run by keeping it.&nbsp; Recently, I have received a few certified coins by PCGS and NGC with unsightly spots or dings that were not evident in the photos, in particular, an NGC 1859 MS64 Indian cent (from &quot;Make an Offer&quot; where I thought I got a pretty good deal).&nbsp; I paid over $15 to ship it to me and another $15 to return it.&nbsp; It had several carbon spots that, to me, were unacceptable in this grade, and though the seller was very professional in sending me a refund for the coin, of course I had to eat the shipping fees.&nbsp; However, it was worth it as, to me, the coin was not of the value that I paid and I would have lost money trying to sell it.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>- Keep a list of sellers (or mark them on your favorites) who you have had good experiences with and continue to bid on their auctions.&nbsp; I have developed a list of sellers who have been on Ebay for a long time, even keeping their same user name, that I respect - not just because they have decent coins, but also because they have not hesitated to take a coin back if I wasn&#039;t happy with it.&nbsp; Just because I returned a coin, doesn&#039;t mean I won&#039;t bid on that seller&#039;s coins in the future.&nbsp; If a seller will stand behind their coins, then I give them a second chance.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Any way, sorry for being long-winded here, but I thought some of these thing might be helpful to the novice Ebayer.&nbsp; You can get some good buys on Ebay, but being a savvy bidder will help keep most of your experiences positive!&nbsp; Charmy[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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