Is eBay a hot mess when it comes to buying coins?

I'm glad you're enjoying this hobby. It's quite interesting, especially if you enjoy history.

eBay can be a hot mess, but it can also be a good resource. Knowledge is the key.

What do you like to collect? Do you have any books on grading coins? I like Heritage Auctions for market pricing. They have a wonderful archive that you can access for free. All the coins are graded though. So if you have "raw" coins, you'll have to self-assess a grade before you can compare them to Heritage realized auction prices.

If you share your near term goals (they will likely change as you get into the hobby), we might be better able to guide you to what you need.

 

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Excellent thread without the usual negative put-downs, snide asides, and "superior" master experienced folks side tracking (hi-jacking) the OP's new question. Nice.

 

I noticed you're comparing prices of current listings. You should really be looking only at sold items.

 

eBay is perfectly fine as a buyer, it's the seller side the complaints really exist.

The place where people get in trouble on with eBay is when they try and get things for pennies on the dollar thinking they're getting a great steal/rip. Most buying problems on eBay are self inflicted looking for flips or too good to be true deals.

You'll hear a lot of nonsense from people that haven't been part of the coin market for over a decade, but at the end of the day if you ignore eBay as a buyer at this point you are missing out on a lot of material unless you are a strictly high end buyer.

 

Pretty much it in a nutshell.

 

I have done both on eBay, but I stopped selling when I sold a graded NGC Morgan Dollar when eBay allowed the buyer to return the coin because he said he didnt like it.... it was a graded by NGC goin.... and they made me pay the return postage.

Bottom line was, they were going to make the seller eat the costs for any reason the buyer came up with. My scans were crystal clear, the guy claimed they were not, but they were perfect.

I have gotten great buys on eBay, but I would stay away from hotly contested items unless you are very sure of the price.

 

I was gonna say I wouldn't call it a mess but as I was typing.... I came to agree with you. It is a mess. The only way to view it is to search for an item and then go up to the top and click on sort. Sort either by lowest to highest price or highest to lowest. Then you can usually scroll through a page of moon money coins to get to the decent quality, "common man" stuff that'll be nicer than the next 15 pages.

There are many, many intricacies that go into pricing on some coins. CAC stickers inflate everything. To me, having ebay, you have a 24/7/365 global yard sale at your finger tips that you can scroll through in your PJs. Most stuff I want can ONLY be found on there. There's almost no point for me to go to the local shows anymore because it's highly unlikely what I want is there. Maybe 1 or 2 examples if lucky....

This doesn't mean that everybody knows how to price things on ebay or that it's all quality stuff either. Even graded stuff. Once you look at thousands and thousands of coins over a period of years, eventually you notice everything and it takes a lot more to impress you. You start to realize how much junk is actually thrown on ebay. I saw a dime that somebody wanted $500 for that shouldve been melted decades ago. It was garbage.

There are many problem coins in slabs with clean grades. Many coins have been in slabs a long time and improperly stored. Some silver coins have developed black spots that can turn a clean mint state grade into a coin nobody wants and nobody wants to send to NCS to get cleaned up due to cost.
I've been seeking a specific coin for a while and I went to a local dealer to try there. They had two examples. Most people feel NGCs price guide is "way too high. Well, the dealer was asking north of NGCs price guide on both examples. One had black spots on obverse. The other wasn't that attractive but got a CAC sticker so it was priced well above NGC's price guide. Most like to acquire coins at least somewhat below the online prices guides if not well below. Well, let me tell you. Depending on what you're looking for that may or may not work. On ebay there's a $200 spread for the same coin in the same grade I've been looking at and most are right around NGC's list price. They're also higher quality. One is $100 below and it's nice. But I had to look at pages of them to find that one.

IMO, every coin collector should be banned from ebay for a period of 5 to 10 years. Then if they're still interested and they've been around the block a few times, THEN go to ebay and see what you think. There's quality stuff mixed in with a bunch of junk and if you can't weed it out, you're gonna get screwed. And that's just graded material. If you're only looking at loose coins, then it really becomes a mine field. You better be able to identify cleaned coins because most are! Or they've been re-toned to hide cleaning. OR they're fake to begin with.

If you're just dinkin around purchasing $5 to $10 coins to enjoy, go for it. If you're looking to work on something higher end and looking to drop serious cash, then knowledge and experience matters. You can't obtain this over night. Even seasoned collectors get stung once in a while.

Ebay can be used if you know what you're doing or are just casually collecting.

 

Sorry for my short novel but just thought I'd add.... Don't assume the bidders know what they're doing either! Number of bids is meaningless. Many people over pay. Late at night you don't know who the drunk you're bidding against is or what they know. If anything.
A lot of stuff seems to be flat out buy it now or make an offer. The fees are too high. The sellers can't afford to get low balled on every coin they list or have time for the back and forth. You want an education, list a few coins some time and see how it goes. lol! Meet the general public. It's not a picnic for sellers either.

 

What a coincidence! I bought a bag of garbage that should've been melted decades ago. One of the coins was that holed, engraved proof Trade dollar that I resold on eBay for about $700.

Yes, eBay is a hot mess when it comes to buying coins! But if you're really patient, you can find some treasures.

 

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That's a great way to end up with a low end collection

So essentially what you are saying is that you want premium examples for a cheap price and don't want to pay for quality.

 

Who doesn't? I want my exorbitant privileges, and I want them now!
Actually....
I put in about 50 max bids on eBay listings every year, and almost NEVER win an item. I win about one or two every YEAR. I'm not worried about losing, I'm just making a no-lose gamble that other bidders on eBay won't pay attention to a certain coin allowing me to win it. And they're never premium pieces...

Yes, sir. You rang?
At your service.

 

I like Ebay, although there are risks. Starting out with circulated common coins on Ebay can be a great way to start to get a feel for the market without much risk. If you're winning the majority of things you're bidding on, you're bidding too high. Certain scarceish world coins are almost always listed Buy It Now and rarely auctioned, and so the prices are (usually) less attractive. And for very high-end stuff (over $200), you might do better on a place like ha.com.

 

Which is fine, everyone would love a rip. Just rubs me the wrong way when people get upset they can't get one or think they're entitled to the best coins at low end prices.

 

No, I'm saying that's how it comes across on this forum most of the time. I don't think you're going to get premium quality stuff well below price guides and I don't expect to. I also won't post most of what I get anymore because I don't need to hear, "Well, if the purchase made you happy that's all that matters" comments. (Implying that you over paid). I try to save as much as I can but I'm not unreasonable. The few occasions I've been a seller on ebay, I wasn't impressed.

It's no different than anything else in life. If you're a buyer, people expect you to PAY! If you're a seller, weeeellll, (insert excuse #1,547) so it's only worth $X amount. You go through this with everything. Most sellers have a price and they're not gonna budge. If you want it you pay. If not you don't get to have it. Period. Not many true auctions anymore because people are too cheap.

I'll give a quick example. I threw a batch of brand new store bought T-5 fixtures on craigslist. Over $100 worth with bulbs. I said screw it. $50 takes it all. 50 cents on the dollar is a pretty good deal most would say.

Some guy contacts me and wants to give me $30 for it all and wants me to deliver them to him. lol! The trip would cost me $9 in gas plus my time. They're still sitting here.

 

Thanks for decoding that coded language!

I always took "if it made you happy, that's all that matters" quite literally.

So, translated, it actually means "Nice paying too much, Ding-Dong."

Good to know!

Sometimes I've paid too much for coins, sure.
But I love my coins.
I take them out and look at them. And admire them.

 

LOL! ^^^

 

Completely agree. Too many people over focus on price. Ironically the "cheap"/underpriced purchases are often the worst ones. Far to many people are overly concerned with price guides and don't understand that things are usually a bargain for a reason.

Every purchase that I later came to regret has always been something that was "a good price".

 

Personally, I like eBay a lot. I agree with @Vess1. It's the worlds largest garage sale. You can find almost anything on there. I just bought Big Bang Theory Season 2 for $8.50. Arrived at my house is 3 days. I ordered it off my phone.

I have found some coin dealers I really like too. There coins aren't cheap, but they are nice and their pictures accurately reflect the coin. The coin prices aren't unrealistic. The sellers just know the value.

I agree with @baseball21 about an over focus on price. Yep, I get it, you make your money when you buy the coin, not sell it, but most of my regrets in this hobby have been the coins I didn't stretch and buy. I am willing to pay premiums for coins that I must have. Simple as that. In some collectors eyes, I over paid. But in my eyes, it's my disposable income and I did what was necessary to get the coin.

 

I think some of us remember a character named "McDuck".