There's a certain auction on Ebay, being held by a seller who styles themselves a "rare coin dealer," identifying a 1921 coin as having an "O" mint mark, and then waxing enthusiastic about how much fewer New Orleans and San Francisco coins were minted than Philadelphia that year. It's identified as a New Orleans coin in the Ebay Description field. Do I point out this person's stupidity, in less direct language of course, or not? What would you do?
I would write them....I did almost the same thing to a person like this... Their ebay item of a Morgan Dollar said that the detail was soooo good it could be said it had a Full Bird!!!! This person who calls themself a collector and is on some coin forums really didn't like it when I wrote and said that with Morgan and Peace Dollars a Full Bird wasn't something like Full Split Bands or Full Bell Lines. They wrote back to say that some of the top names dealer and people at show used this and that it was right...I asked who it was and they wouldn't say...only that with Washington Quarters you used the same term ....call me a NUT...but I wrote them back and made their day!....since they wern't listening I just said...Oh...now are we talking about Washington Quarters or Morgan and Peace Dollars??...they didn't write back....they were nice and said to be sure and shop at their store!....NO THANKS. Speedy
I used to always tell them, and I still do if it's someone I know that made a mistake, like listing a coin as MS instead of PR, etc. But I rarely do any more, so many mistakes, so little time...
I'd correct them. Occassionally I have made mistakes, like saying a coin is NGC graded, when it is pcgs graded, or listed the grade wrong, and when people correct me, I couldn't be more grateful.
It may be better to just stay away from that auction. I have corrected people when they post the wrong picture for the coin.
A polite request for a clarification should be no problem. Typos do happen, and honest sellers are usually happy to correct the listing. I have also asked sellers why they sell obvious fakes, such as 1805 U.S. silver dollars, and I also report them to eBay. Those listings usually disappear quickly.
You'd be amazed at how much of this there actually is on Ebay. I look at maybe 1000 auctions a week - at least 4 hours a day, every single day - and every day I see half a dozen candidates for the Night of the Living Dead passing themselves off as coin dealers. It's a rhetorical question for me, because I see far too much of it to waste my time trying to prevent it all, but I'm left with the hypothesis that there are a greater number of ignorant sellers than there are malicious ones.
Here is a seller to avoid ... he talks about his coins being MS-65 when his photographs scream circulated: http://cgi.ebay.com/1882-o-Morgan-S...379708682QQcategoryZ39465QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
This is either a part time job or you need to speak to someone about obsessive compulsive disorder. Ruben
The only way I can finance my collecting is to turn coins at a profit. Half of my time is spent looking for things I want, and the other half looking for things to pay for it. Guilty as charged concerning the OCD. IMO the proper treatment for such a condition is focus - I'm less scattered than most in my shoes - directed properly, I see myself becoming something of a force in my chosen specialty within the next year.
