How much time you spent ebaying ?

Sometimes if there's a particular coin I'm interested in, I'll put several of them on my watchlist and see how much they bring. No matter what the price guides may say, an item is only worth what people are actually willing to pay. Ebay is my price guide, at least until I find a better way.

 

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to true....
ebay is a better price guide than the greysheet sometimes IMO

 

I figure Ebay is my girlfriend, since I hate them and love them. I've reduced my buying but that's because I've become pickier. I spend several hours browsing Ebay on most days and I also sell some now. Overall, Ebay sucks but I don't have many other options.

Ribbit

 

Next to nothing..I don't think I could buy a coin based on a photo..I might check every couple of weeks to see what some Morgans have sold for to get an idea of the current market.

 

It depends for me, I would say in the last two weeks before today I spent maybe an hour combined, lol and then today I spent about 3.

 

I used to be on there all the time, but a lot less now. Maybe a couple times a week. Very sporadic for me. I mostly buy from the same people and have their sites saved. Definitely more junk than there used to be.

 

I only search E-Bay with specific searches such as NGC MS67 Jefferson Nickel. Takes less than 5 mintues per day. I buy most of my coins from Heritage. Better photos, better coins, consistent service.

 

Burned ? What was the incident ? I am a new ebayer so want to make sure I dont overdo buying or anything on the ebay !

 

I purchased a few coins from Ebay with no problems. Ingorance was bliss Then I joined Coin Talk and learned about dipping and cleaning! A couple of the key date Lincoln cents that I had purchased a year or so ago HAVE BEEN CLEANED! Lesson learned at medium expence thank goodness I didn't take to big of a bath. Moral of the story? Read everything you can on Coin Talk, look at the Photos on Coin Talk, Ask questions on Coin Talk, LISTEN TO THE ADVICE from the people on COIN TALK! The folks here would never stear you wrong. They have ALL been new collectors at some point and they know what it's like to get burned. These great people don't want the same to happen to you because it hurts all of us my friend.
Anyway, if your buying from EBAY be EXTREMELY CAREFUL! I would suggest you ask here on this fourm BEFORE you throw your money out the window!

Mark

 

Wow, I could have written that myself word for word. Only I did take a bath. I spent thousands and then when I tried to resell the dipped and cleaned morgans which were so careful listed by some of these scammers I was lucky if I got a 50% return. My guess is that I lost around $3000 in total. There are people on ebay who aren't scammers, thanks to everyone here I can now spot them much more easily. Probably why I am only buying slabs now, most of the time you are safe.

Spend some time here browsing threads thevishy, there is a lot to learn from some really amazing collectors.

 

Not from or not in? Regardless you should just stick around here a lot more. ebay is probably the last resort. If you are a member here for a while you may find you can purchase some coins from members. Also, there are numerous coin forums and web sites that have nothing to do with ebay. Not sure what country your talking about, but I would suspect there are sources for US coins almost everywhere. My Son went for a while to the University of Krakow and said our US coins were all over the place in many of the countries he visited. Think you should look around a bit more depending on where your at, of course.
If you near of in China, they'll make you any coin you want.

 

I am from India and we have very limited collectors of US coins in this part of the world . Thank god we are saved from Chineese dupes though

 

I really think you would be better served by finding a couple of trustworthy dealers on the internet. You may even find them right here on this forum! If you do go the EBAY route please be very careful and know the coins your collecting inside out. Like I had said earlier, don't be affraid to ask questions here on this fourm. The people here will be more than happy to help!

 

I admit, I spend a lot of time on Ebay. But it's seldom looking for coins. A lot of the music I like is hard if not impossible to buy in the US so Ebay is my only option. Never been ripped off yet buying cd's on the Bay, and I've been buying since they first started.
Guy~

 

Ended (last 31 days)
Won 109
Amount $353.72

Yeah -- I spent a lot of time there this past month . . . but note that my average purchase was less than $3.50 per item. It's a bit harder to get burned when you're purchasing small-ticket items. E.g., I got a couple of Mercs and a couple of Indian Head cents at around $1 each, and etc.

 

What do you mean you guys are saved from the Chinese copies? Half of them are probably in the U.S. and this is where you want to buy from.

I take back some of my previous post here. There are a few bad apples that ruin it for everyone on ebay. There's more good than bad. And there are some really nice coins. Primarily slabbed. You can enter in an NGC slab's serial # on the NGC site and verify it exists and that it is the coin that's actually in the slab. It's under the research button. Most older ones aren't photographed though. But the description is there. Look for imperfections that match NGC's pics.

I wouldn't risk a lot of money on loose stuff. There's waaaayy too many counterfeit Morgans for me to consider any loose one's on ebay. Much less a Trade dollar. There's also plenty of altered coins such as Lincolns that are really hot right now. Some people like to punch their own 'S' mintmark on a regular 1909 VDB for example. Or clean them to make them nice and shiny.
Also a lot of bad, artificially toned coins around. And cleaned with bad pictures. Don't buy anything with bad pics that doesn't have a return policy. Better yet, don't bother buying anything that has bad pics and you'll avoid a lot of problems.

A seller's pics should all be relatively uniform. If some have light from one side, than the other, then some are bright/ dark, clear/fuzzy, yellowed, etc.... skip it. They're hiding problems or adding artificial light to make an average coin look better than what it is. Often times blue lights are used to tint a coin in a picture. The pic sure is pleasing but not a real representation of what you're getting. Always evaluate the picture with these aspects. I wouldn't take anything for granted.

Soon you'll see the good ones from the bad without having to think about it. It's either fully lit and clear or it's not. Shadows hide problems.

 

I spend a few hours a week on ebay. I use to buy more when the pickings were easier and not as much junk. Often, I use ebay to get a feeling for the market value of coins that I bought at auction or a coin show. The red book, etc. seem a little over priced to me. In general, I've had pretty good luck on ebay. You do need to assure that the coin is genuine and the seller has a good rating.