Looking for online Coin dealers

Good advice. The biggest thing I can say is, while its fun to think you got a deal on a coin under market value, its pretty darn hard to do without superior knowledge. Most US coins its about impossible to do.

Buying a quality coin is expensive. No way around that. However, I believe you will find that you tend to "forget" the price you paid over time and appreciate the quality more every day. Those two coins you posted Adiorio are just fantastic specimens that every collector on this board would love to own, and almost every US collector in the future will love to own. Those coins will be top dollar to buy, but its because they are and will be so demanded forever. You are a collector and get pleasure from collecting coins, and I simply believe these coins will give you much more pleasure than cheaper examples.

Sounds like I am trying to make a sale for Mark, but I am not I am just commenting overall about quality. I own tens of thousands of coins, but the older I get the more I pull out the few outstanding quality coins I own and admire those more than all of the rest.

Adiorio, also, I love your plan on doing circulated type. Wonderful idea. Gets your fet wet, lets you have in hand the various coins, and I think type collecting is just a great way to start. My only suggestion would be to make sure you buy nice problem free examples. The longer you own a coin the less you worry about how much you paid, and the more you appreciate the quality. There is considerable quality and value in higher end circulated type coins.

Just my opinion.

Chris

 

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Thanks adiorio110 for creating this thread.

I now have 4 or 5 new sites to potentially add to my coin search engine (see 'sig' below). I'll have to see if I can include their listings. I'm always looking to improve the search results.

 

I'll address that. Ignore the feedback. That's no indication. I've made now about a dozen purchases from GSC on ebay. I've mentioned this elsewhere here. I posted both positive, neutral and negative feedback on ebay about the transactions. I tried to be fair. Most coins I purchased were altered or undergraded. GSC then complained to ebay. And ebay removed all of my neutral and negative feedback and would not reinstate it. So--GSC feedback does NOT accurately reflect its buyers' experiences with that company. And ebay did a disservice in that it arbitrarily removed the feedback I'd posted (posted to help the ebay community).

 

Yeah,

Feedback isn't "absolutely" worthless. I got over 700 feedback, 100 percent positive. I'm an honest seller and do my best to be fair and accurate. My feedback reflects my practices. In considering feedback, also look at several of the comments to make sure many different people made them. you can get an idea how genuine feedback usually is. Sure, there are exceptions, but feedback is helpful and not something to overlook. I am still cautious and look at item description, pics, etc. I've also made a lot of purchases and can't think of any bad buying experiences, maybe one or two, and their feedback wasn't stellar. There's a lot of good deals to be had on ebay; just be knowledgeable about basics, what you're buying, and don't let others scare you about all the pitfalls of ebay

 

You're right, Joe, it's not. Poor wording on my part. I should have said it's not 100% reliable as ebay can and does remove neutral/negative feedback. GSC should have 5-7 negative feedbacks from the last 30 days. Instead they have 0. So now buyers are less well informed about GSC than they would have been otherwise.

 

Joe, Just reread your comment. I agree with what you say. But now I think there is a major ebay pitfall. Ebay removes feedback when a seller appeals, even if feedback is fact-based, not personal, and only left to inform the ebay community. This isn't fair to the buyer, to others on ebay, and really to the seller (who faces no 'consequences' and who can continue to sell deceptively). So we have ebay buyers who can't really get an accurate picture of a seller. Not good.

 

Unfortunately that happens. I've experienced it once by mentioning feedback in email to the seller and violated a dumb ebay policy so they removed my feedback. It is indeed troubling. Overall, the feedback system needs improvement then. It may be hard to strike a balance from pleasing consumers vs profit generating sellers. I'm surprised it functions as well as it does. Many buyers and sellers flock to ebay so they're doing more right than wrong

 

http://www.collectorscorner.com/Coins/

 

Enough people on here have reported problems with GSC that I'm scared off. Something about going to the same dry well and expecting a cold drink of water comes to mind.

 

This guy also has 100% positive feedback. When a metric can't tell the difference between an honest seller like yourself and that guy, I would say it's fairly useless.

 

There are exceptions. Does he sell fake coins or something? His picture looks slimeballish

 

I haven't seen or heard of him selling fakes. He just jacks the price on his coins up to 10x market value, then offers them at like a huge discount (like 73% or something -- which still ends up being 2-3x market value), hoping someone will bite.

 

If a seller can have any less than stellar feedback removed, those that will be hurt are the buyers and the reputable dealers. The buyers will not know who to trust and the good dealers will have the same ratings as jerks.

 

FYI, Ebay removed about 10 neutral and negative feedbacks I'd left for GSC. they only left in place the positive feedbacks. As I've said, and as you're saying, this makes ebay less safe, and buyers less well informed

 

I have bought coins from GSC, keeping some which graded or crossed fine. I returned a few $5 gold Indians as cleaned but did not leave negative feedback. GSC fairly advises that they guarantee authenticity only and that a buyer needs to be knowledgeable - a useful trait on eBay. Photos are almost always difficult as a representation of a coin's condition. GSC's return policy in my experience is solid with no questions. Both of the latter are reasons I would not leave negative feedback for a coin I returned to them.

I hesitate to mention RCNH as I now work for them after having several great experiences as a customer. Rare Coins of New Hampshire should be considered. This dealer thread is old from 2006.

 

Thanks for the post. Will look into RCNH. I told the folks at GSC that the line: 'we guarantee authenticity only' implies that they can't guarantee originality. It's like saying, 'the coin is authentic, but may be altered'. I told them that that line wasn't a strong selling point. I want to be fair as well. but when a coin i advertised as Gem BU++ and it comes back from the grader ' Unc. details, improperly cleaned' what does one do? Yes they have a good return policy, I'd agree. But IMHO, they aren't pros and don't really know how to graded the stuff they sell. Almost all coins I bought were cleaned/undergraded and not as advertised.

 

When I bought the 3 gold coins from GSC I brought them to RCNH immediately. Warren Mills told me they were not original and cleaned. I returned the coins promptly and received my refund. It is important to have raw coins you purchase looked at asap by a numismatist whom you trust so you can decide what coins to submit for grading or to return, all within the refund return window, and not submit them without sound advice.

 

I did after Lou's post yesterday. Eclectic mix of grades/values, small but sharp images which struck me as honest to the coin. Found a couple I'd have been interested in were I in buying mode, and there's no guarantee I won't shift into buying mode.