Great Southern Coins

It's actually pretty easy to figure that out. Estimate how many graders they have on staff (G), look up how many coins they've graded (C), calculate C/G and then divide by 2000 working hours in a year. That should be accurate to within a factor of 5 or 10. I'm pretty sure it'll come out to under 30 seconds no matter how you do it.

 

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All good points. Before reading stuff here, it never occurred to me that I couldn't sell certain slabbed coins because they were duds. So thanks one and all for the education. Incidentally in 7 years of dealing I've only had 2 slabbed coins returned. And I've sold hundreds in that time. No one has returned a raw coin or raw rolls. And a good number of my customers are professionals (which of course doesn't necessarily make them savvy coin buyers). I use a Canon macro lens to take all my shots, so folks can see what they're getting, though I have yet to learn the special photo techniques for really bringing out nice toning. Need to learn that.

 

Turn your research attention to "axial lighting." It's a very good start for toners.

 

Thanks. Will do. I know you mentioned that earlier.

 

I have had no success in buying from them in their auctions, always outbid. I bid on certified material for my rare coin business so I am not some high buyer or one putting in nuclear bids.

 

Forget about their feedback--or feedback elsewhere on ebay. Feedback on ebay doesn't always reflect buyers' experiences. Here's what I posted elsewhere here:

I've made now about a dozen purchases from GSC on ebay. I posted both positive, neutral and negative feedback on ebay about the transactions. I tried to be fair. Most coins I purchased were altered or undergraded. GSC then complained to ebay. And ebay removed all of my neutral and negative feedback and would not reinstate it. So--GSC feedback does NOT accurately reflect its buyers' experiences with that company. And ebay did a disservice in that it arbitrarily removed the feedback I'd posted (posted to help the ebay community).

 

Ha I had a "suggested post" come up on FB and guess who it was GSC. I saw people commenting and I put in my two cents,along with a few articles from a couple different websites. They had posted up a grant comm half dollar I believe and said "gem bu". I replied back with looks like someone took a piece of sand paper to this coin and you guys are trying to pass it off as gem bu? Funny,they blocked me and deleted all my posts.

 

Sounds like GSC has mastered the same art as the Clinton's have been doing for years. Any time anything 'bad' surfaces, have your friends in the media make it disappear!

 

Bought a 1923 Gem Red BU Lincoln. Needless to say it wasn't RED but it was BU. Still learned not to buy from them again.

There's a few of them that I won't bid on. GSC is one.

 

Before any of these threads about G S C, I suspected that many if not most coins from this seller and a few others are of undesirable quality (always a tick or scratch, cleaned or blemish, etc.) enough to lower the eye appeal and value. I believe these sellers buy large lots of problem coins and sell them with enhanced photo methods. I wouldn,t want most of these coins in my collection.

 

Glad I read this. I've watched a few - even bid on some. Never won any - someone is paying big premiums to buy from them. And now with the feedback "skew" being noted - I see how and why it continues.

 

If anyone's interested, here's a note I just sent to Great Southern Coins:
Bobby/ Jacob, I am looking at my latest and last batch of coins purchased from you on ebay. Most were altered. I gave you positive feedback, reluctantly, for the ones that weren't. A full 50 % of the coins I have bought from you had been altered. And virtually all were overgraded. Keep up the good work. With all due respect, you guys don't know what you're doing. Again, if your customers did what I have done and sent their purchases to NGC/PCGS, you'd be out of business.

 

Ehh... I think you meant "overgraded."

 

Thanks. You're right. Just edited post.

 

I approach buying coins a bit differently -- screw me once and never again. Apparently this dealer has had an inadequate amount of exposure to that stand.

 

Depending how you define your terms, this is how I operate, too. I don't care if someone sells me a fake if they're willing to take it back. If it fooled me, I can believe it might fool them, and, as long as they make good on the mistake, I'm fine with it. Sell me stuff that's "overgraded," but for a reasonable price for what I consider the actual grade, then, ok, as long as I'm still getting a good, honest coin at a fair price.

But, try to sell me cleaned coins and call them "BU", well... that's another story.

 

And basically, Paul, this is what I think greatsoutherncoin on ebay is doing. I set out to find what GSC was up to. and I believe I found out. Actually they might be unaware of what they're doing. It might not be intentional. Boy, there are so many uneducated coin buyers on ebay--and probably elsewhere. BTW, GSC has banished me, won't respond to emails etc. And they somehow are able to complain to the powers that be at ebay, who remove any and all neutral/negative feedback I leave.

 

Nice operators, for sure.

 

You don't have that many returns w/o knowing EXACTLY what you are doing. What makes them smarter than the average bottom feeding scum is that they don't make a fuss about the returns. They just relist it until somebody doesn't return it. By accepting returns they keep the # of negative feedback down and stay off eBay's radar. Because they generate huge fees, eBay let's them get away with it.

 

My guess is that most of their coins have already been through TPG services. The raw coins that are up for bid are the REJECTS from TPG service.