I saw a seller that had a Carson City Morgan Dollar that look questionable. I took a screenshot of the listing last night. It is here: I checked back to that listing this morning and Ebay has taken the listing down. The same seller also has two more I believe fake Morgan Dollars listed. The auction is here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/134866739679?hash=item1f66af21df:g:tIUAAOSwBPVli5yn&amdata=enc:AQAIAAAA4PGEz2CVyJWf53hrTz54OW9Dwae7qK0rp1grs0ik30NN2eBRXWlQlc4BOmI8F1+ccyAfCyAYxDobmjqBPyoD60+ruKU7cy1cr+8eumTSFHYnwQk+bjpDHr+HTR1LxLjOKveGGq73wS3a+YjBWCkaWXSSf88mbmc1zQjPYEbQyTgrW/R+ovncT7HMlBAMqr66WPmfXbxP7AfneqFhXBytGzr3EH/MhmfLoyi/mjJ8PIEXnjpStmpSDfPyqSszUeyDgiM9vE6QGAtln3nWpGlzgSPu9iPSgj59ld2e1a1D7gNq|tkp:Bk9SR7b_7JiVYw&LH_BO=1 I like to bring attention to fakes when I find them to help others be aware of the counterfeit coins out there. Also, if others give there perspective of what they see when checking out these coins I learn from there observations. I welcome your comments on what you notice from these.
eBay has gotten pretty bad. You can still find good coins, but there are so many counterfeits, doctored photos, damaged and common coins offered at stupid prices, and other such nonsense that I rarely look there anymore. For the fees eBay charges, I would expect better service at keeping the merchandise legitimate. We are in a capitalistic country (for now, anyway) so people can offer what they will for whatever price they want to stick on, but I do wish for more seller accountability. Actually, I wish for more accountability in the world period. There is my rant for the day.
While I wish eBay could do a better job of weeding out these listings, there are an insane amount of items listed every day on eBay. It's impossible for them to verify each and every one. So I get that, and accept it. What I am seeing that's concerning that they CAN do something about is better accountability for the sellers. I'm not sure exactly how you do that, but repeat offenders purposely deceiving buyers should be penalized as such.
I just buy from my LCS and a few trusted online dealers. Ive never bought off of EBay and have no intention to do so.
I think that repeat sellers of fakes do get shut down. Cleaned and AT coins with an entertaining story about "grandpa kept these in his secret wine cellar vault", not so much.
Fanciful stories are a red flag for me for that reason. I used to get a kick years ago reading listings of things like an empty jar with a "captured ghost" and a big long story. LOL, some people will buy anything though. Deception and misrepresentation are an issue that seems to go somewhat unpunished unfortunately though.
For the lack of monitoring, I stopped purchasing from eBay over a year ago. I haven't missed a thing. I stay local and shows only.
I lack an LCS anywhere nearby and so far have had decent experiences on eBay but I only buy low end stuff. If I was looking for something nicer/pricier I'd travel to a shop or buy certified most likely.
These days I keep a pretty tight circle of those that I buy from, though I have bought from Ebay and not had a bad experience..... The one thing that just eats me inside out are those unfortunate buyers of these fakes that may have enjoyed a long affair with the hobby are probably supplied once they find out they have been duped.
For the record, when you post a link you don't need anything from the ? to the end. Just itm/number...
Yep... everything else is either a cosmetic link (from the title) or tracking data. That hash= probably tells them who you are and how you navigated to that item. Which makes you my "referer" if I click the full link. I'm sure you're a fine upstanding individual. But there are a lot of people who have search histories that I just don't want to be associated with. You see a lot of that where people post entire emails to mailing lists including the "click here to unsubscribe" if you never want to hear from us again. Dishonest people might click that "for you"...
Counterfeiters tend to use common reverse dies for the fakes; to my eye there are some common ones between the 2 examples in the 2nd listing:
I just saw this 1911 Barber Half Dollar counterfeit on Ebay. The seller has it listed as a "Hobo Nickel" to try and sell this coin. It is not marked "copy". I have turned in the listing to Ebay. Here is the link to the auction. https://www.ebay.com/itm/145325528872
That is great news! It would seem that Ebay is active in responding to when you report counterfeit coins.
I just saw this Ebay lot today: https://www.ebay.com/itm/364653547535 The Morgan Dollar looks fake to me. I would appreciate other opinions on this before I contact the seller. I also checked the seller's recent sales and they sold a 1878 Morgan before in another lot and that one didn't look right to me either. Please let me know if this seems suspect to you also. Thanks for your help!!!
Here is the link to the other 1878 Morgan Dollar in a lot that the seller sold: https://www.ebay.com/itm/364638254293