Have you ever bought or sold coins/currency for less than face value?

Again, placing a bid on an item conveys information to other bidders. By sniping, you can keep your cards close to your vest.

If you saw an auction titled $4.00 FACE IN SILVER LOT with a starting bid of $85, and no bids, would you even bother to look at it? Probably not. If it had three or four bids, and was at $122, would you take a second look? Probably so. But, because I and most of the other bidders waited until the last minute, you wouldn't have had time.

I imagine that, if we'd all placed our bids a day or so ahead of closing, this auction would have gone considerably higher. Even if that 1898-S half in the foreground is only XF details, it's still easily a $150 coin; it may well make AU. I set my snipe accordingly, and won it for considerably less than I was willing to gamble.

 

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I'll be interested in knowing how this goes. I used to sell on ebay and did have some items that sold for less than I paid for them because someone bid and it didn't get a lot of interest during the time it ran or because something happened at the end preventing bidders from going in.
Snipers can now not even 'watch' the item and yet get their bids in and no one knows until the end what will happen. This is to the buyer's advantage because although it might create some situations where the buyer really would have been willing to bid up in a 'war' for an item, most items are now being set more to the limit the buyer actually is willing to pay. And it's not to the seller's advantage to not be able to see the interest or if there is a bidder's war going on. And to some degree it can prevent shill bidding to bid up an actual buyer.
Yes, you do take your chances, but overall (on different items, not coin/currency) I've seen a lot of items realize their potential in the end. But you do never know and you might lose out.

 

sooo... with all this said.. what are the best free sniping sites?

 

Exactly. Its because it prevents other to talk themselves into higher bids. If you put your best price in first, everyone can keep upping their bid until they outbid you. Way back when I did it this way, and lost most auctions, and probably overpaid on those I did win. Now, no one else knows I am interested in a lot, or my max bid, until its too late.

Plus, as an added bonus, I keep MYSELF from talking myself into higher prices. I know myself, I would do it, so by forcing myself to only set snipes and walk away I prevent myself from overbidding.

I have done it both ways folks, I have seen the positive effects to sniping on Ebay. If you don't want to do it, that is your choice, but I personally feel you are shortchanging yourself.

As to my comment about "real buyers", there are some sellers I pay attention to. From feedback you can see who certain buyers are, (that its one buyer). Almost all of the coins from these sellers are bought by a fairly small group of us, and all of us use sniping. From what I have seen, most material, at least in coins, at auction on Ebay are bought in the last few seconds. THAT was the basis of my comment, and it was not meant derisively Lettow. I honestly felt most $'s spent at auction on Ebay was from those who sniped.

 

I have bought coins at the local flea market for less than face value but thats cause the people selling them had no idea of their worth now as far as ebay is concerned I probably won't ever buy or sell anything on there cause in order for me to buy an item i have to see it and feel it with my hands and with a place like ebay someone could always just copy and paste a picture of a coin and say they have a rare and valuable coin for sale.

 

Sure, they can -- but when the coin arrives, and it isn't what was pictured, eBay Buyer Protection offers you a nearly bullet-proof guarantee that you can return it for a full refund. In fact, I'd say eBay is a much better place to buy than to sell, largely because its protections are weighted so heavily in favor of the buyer.

 

My largest and probably most memorable below face value purchase was a full set of 28 brilliant uncirculated Australian $5 aluminum bronze coins for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games complete with the three-ring binder and shipping costs.

 

Dang it...a seller just listed several tokens I'd like to own that will likely command a good price. Looks like I need to snipe. I'm still stinging from the one that got away.

 

Jeff is absolutely right. I try to buy from sellers with return policies. I've gotten some amazing deals on buy it now listings, with blurry photos. I'll occasionally get a good deal on auctions that end in the middle of the night. I've also gotten rotten deals, but got my money back. Once there was an XF 1923 $5 porthole for sale at $800. It looked completely legit. I bought it and the seller took a freaking month to send it to me. When I got it, it turned out to be a small size two piece front/back copy. The seller stopped responding to my messages and emails. I took it up with eBay, showed them photos and references. They instructed me to send it back with tracking. 2 weeks later I got my money back. Of course most sellers have normal return policies. But even in the worst cases, you're protected as a buyer.

They started to balance protections for sellers too, after a lot of outcries. I personally did an in home study with eBay researchers, and gave them a lot of feedback on this subject. They paid me $250 for an hour and a half of my time. It was pretty sweet living in Silicon Valley.

At one point, buyers were scamming sellers big time. Someone on this forum got in a dispute with a buyer over a coin or note. The buyer decided to return it, but instead sent a box with a rock in it back to the seller and demanded a refund. He sent the return package with tracking and eBay reversed the funds back to the buyer, because it showed the package was delivered. Buyer got the coin and the money. Pretty sh!tty.

 

eBay did finally figure this out, that the attitude that buyer protection is more important than seller protection makes as much sense as saying the right wing of a plane is more important than the left wing of the plane lol... scams can and do work both ways, and to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers, both sides need to be protected from the other trying to scam them.

I'm not fond of competitive bidding for items myself and almost everything I buy from eBay I do by "buy it now." I just don't have the time or inclination to keep up with ongoing auctions.

 

As a seller, I would have to disagree with you over them starting to better protect sellers. I've been scammed a few times with no help at all from ebay. It does not help that their customer service is now outsourced either.

 

how do you get scammed if you have tracking numbers and have proof of sending the item?

 

The buyer claimed an empty package and filed a claim. Ebay essentially told me I would lose if he upgraded the claim, as it was his word vs mine. They also said if I fought it and lost (which they said I would) it would ding my account, and it was better to issue a refund. Well, I issued a refund, then ebay found out he did this to several sellers, so they said I WOULD have won if I fought it, but since I gave him a refund myself, I was out almost $300.

 

sorry to hear that

 

As a buyer, you have almost nothing to lose on ebay. Sellers on the other hand... Now with the new ebay "defect rate," ebay is finding new ways to screw me. I had a $400 package go missing in CO, the buyer wanted to just ask me about it, but the way ebay has messages set up now, it opened a claim against me, without the buyer even realizing it. I immediately issued a full refund, but ebay still counts this against me since a claim was open, even though it was resolved the same day. Oh well

 

moral of the story? feebay is filled with problems. Use at your own risk.

 

Which still has nothing to do with whether a person uses the watch function. Your comment was that "real buyers" do not use the watch function and suggests that those who do are somehow beneath you.

 

Dang it seems like I started another conversation all together with my opinion about ebay.

 

What did the auction ultimately close for?

 

How does it not have anything to do with the watch function? I said that I never watch an auction I am interested in, since it may alert others of a good coin. About everyone else I know who buys quite a few coins on Ebay do the same. So, as a group, everyone I know who are willing to spend hundreds or even thousands on a coin do it stealthily, not using watch function and only sniping so as to not alert competition. If you look at the "most watched" coins on Ebay, its almost never a $500 coin, its uncleaned ancients and similar lower priced material.

So, if this bothers you and wish to believe I feel superior to others then I cannot stop you Lettow. Sorry you feel that way.