I have just seen the most beautiful coin

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I think all three of those did or do belong to tradedollarnut. Probably the best set ever put together.

 

I couldn't afford it 'ever' either.......

 

Could you explain what you mean with your statement? 67s (which are still scarce, but sell a couple times a year) regularly sell in the $6k to $7k range. Based on that, $9k is perfectly reasonable for a highly original and extremely attractive 68.

For those curious, much better pictures of this coin can be found on Heritage, here: http://coins.ha.com/itm/seated-half.../a/1228-98512.s?ic4=ListView-Thumbnail-071515

 

Oh the magic of photography. It looks like two completely different coins.
The guy that buys this based on the Ebay picture is going to get a big surprise.

 

Nobody would ever buy this based on the Ebay pictures. Anyone who is advanced enough to be able to buy this would do extensive research, find comparative sales, explore provenance, understand the series, and have a well formed opinion of the coin before they finally buy it.

My very first action when I start to look at a coin is to go to the Heritage archives and search for similar coins. Doing that would reveal the price history and photographs of this coin in about 1.5 seconds (depending on your internet speed).

In all likelihood, it will sell in an auction or at a show, where the buyer has had a chance to examine the coin in-hand. *Very* few high end coins sell to people sight-unseen.

 

...or they are sent on approval. I've bought many pretty high end coins that way.

 

It's still a beautiful coin. I like how a warm glow seems to emanate from the figure of Liberty.

It takes experience to be aware of the vast range of appearances a coin can have based on how it was photographed. I'd say the background of this coin is even a bit darker in hand than in the photos you like. You really need to compare a lot of photos and, ideally, see the respective coins in hand in order to gain a dependable understanding of how photography can portray coins.

As physics-fan said, Heritage is a great resource for photos and sales data.

 

I'll post one, I had the pleasure of holding this piece: Ptolemy III

 

Those are truly some of the most beautiful coins posted. I would never sell these and try to keep them forever in my collection. I am jelly.

 

By the same token, I've never bought a coin (regardless of price) sight unseen from Ebay. If you have the ability to look at a coin in hand and then decide whether to keep it or not it is a "sight-seen" purchase despite the fact that you may have already paid for it. I don't particularly like the dollar (I simply don't care for proof coins), but if I were to buy it I would actually be more likely to buy from an Ebay sale than from a Heritage auction--where unless I attended the sale it WOULD be "sight unseen" as Heritage doesn't allow returns on auction lots.

 

Your interesting post prompts me to respond.

It's been years since I've bought anything on ebay but, at that time, used to take part in their coin discussion board (until, it seemed, every other thread devolved into a political argument; then it was time to leave).

I more or less had the same approach you're describing: If I didn't like a coin, I figured I could return it—provided the seller had a return policy, of course.

When I casually made known my strategy on the board, however, I was surprised to hear, from many dealers and in no uncertain terms, that I was abusing ebay because, according to its terms of sale, it was emphatically not a buy-on-approval venue. The only grounds for a return were if the item were clearly misrepresented in the listing. The dealers argued that, if you couldn't discern the quality of a coin to your satisfaction from the photos, you had no business bidding on it. They more or less considered buyers with my attitude the enemy. (Frankly, I came to agree with them: where do you draw the line? Some people are never pleased and will send everything back.) Needless to say, it made me reconsider my comfort level of purchasing on ebay.

I have no idea if any of this—policies or attitudes—has changed. But I soon gravitated toward Heritage and have been very pleased with their professionalism and generally great quality of photos, even if you can't return lots.