My Ebay Experience Buying Coins.

It's been a while since I posted here, but I wanted to post my experience in buying coins on ebay. Instead of making this 10 pages long I decided to make it a question and answer type post with my experiences on ebay. I believe it was close to over 300 purchases. (most purchases were $1 - $75 but there were only a few over $50 purchases)

Q: Do sellers switch coins on ebay?
A: To be honest it is really rare, I believe it happened about 2 times, one time with a Uncirculated Eisenhower Dollar and what I got was it was stapled back in its holder and the coin was circulated, another time it was a Uncirculated mexico coin set, when I got the mexico coin set it was horrible (like it fell in mud) and nothing like the picture, to be fare the seller refunded me and let me keep the item. (So I was bit lucky)

Q: Do coins sent in standard letter envelopes get stolen?
A: Yes it has happened about 8 times so far. I got my money back each time. Also it is not my local post office since I bought coins from new sellers on ebay and they literally threw the coins in the envelope and put a stamp and my address and I got them (you can easily hear them rattling in there and can tell there are coin in there. It happened 3 times when I ordered coins from canada. I had a seller who thought I was lying but I had submitted the email I get from USPS Informed Delivery (they send you pictures of mail you are getting today) and it showed the envelope was clearly opened and I got a refund.

Q: If a seller offer's me more coins (maybe a little cheaper) after messaging them or after a purchase and they offer to make a paypal invoice should I do it?
A: It is against ebay TOS to do that, before they updated there TOS to include that I did get great deals, I got 10 franklin half dollars for $40 and got 4x bicentennial sets for $10 each. But like I said I would not risking doing that now - there is also a trust issue, I was lucky but you can get scammed like that since it is not covered by ebay moneyback guarantee.

Q: Can you get coins under spot price?
A: Yes I have gotten them many times. A month ago I bought a pre 1964 dimes for $1 and pre 1964 quarters for $2.75 from a seller (he listed the items as having just 1 each but I guess so everyone can have fair chance) I have also bought 1 ounce silver bars/coins under spot. You have to be super quick though because that $17 coin which is listed for $9.99 will sell within seconds, I get very lucky with these.

Q: Do some sellers honor the price when you buy a buy-it-now listing?
A: 99% of the time if the price is a mistake they will sometimes message you they need to cancel it (even if you paid, in which you get refunded) but I notice they just refund and cancel with no message. But as I said that is 99% of the time, the 1% that do are usually low feedback users in my experience, I have gotten 2x silver quarters graded ms69 for $2 total (free shipping). I have gotten a 1 oz silver bar from the 70's for $3 total and the last one I got was a ms69 graded silver eagle for $4 total.

Q: Have I ever been scammed (In the sense I never got the item and my money back?)
A: I almost did once but this one is mostly rant (sorry), this guy had about 600 100% feedback, It was for a mispriced item and he messaged me when I bought saying it was a mistake and I said it was no problem to just cancel it. Well 2 days pass and nothing. Then he finally canceled the order. Two weeks later I did not get the money back which I messaged him, his reply is "I was on the phone for 2 hours with paypal and it was sent) I did get a email and he sent the refund using a echeck. A week goes by and I get a email from paypal saying the echeck did not go through - so I am getting pissed at this point. I send him a message and he says "it's not his fault - take it up with paypal I have nothing to do with this problem" so that was the last straw seeing as he was not going to help. I gave negative feedback. Two days later the negative feedback I left was gone and he just message me to "leave me alone I am old and sick" - So I had to do charge back with my credit card company which I won. It took 2 months and till this day the feedback I gave is not there on his account.

Q: Do some Sellers try to trick users?
A: Yes I seen many of them where the sellers put silver in the title and the coin is not silver at all, I made some mistakes in buying coins before reading on the internet. I use ngccoin to see a coin is silver or not before I make a purchase. I never fell for these tricks but be careful: There are sellers selling "rainbow toned" coins and those are done by them, not done naturally - I don't recommend buying these as they don't have no where near the value they are listed for. The Eisenhower "Silver" dollar is another trick, some of them have no silver but are listed as 40% silver. Also 1942 silver war nickel - many of these are not with 33% silver.

I will wrap it up with this, I have gotten quite a few good deals but for the most part I believe I over paid for many of my purchases. Like a $12 coin I thought was a great deal I could of gotten for $4.50 - $5 at a coin shop/show - Sadly my only option is ebay and I do not do it as often now, I only buy where I get coins under spot

 

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some people get coins switched or not as described. I have been very lucky with buying coins of Ebay. 1 thing I do for sure is I always message the sellers asking them to package the coins very good and to use tape all over it so it will not fall out or not be stolen by the mail carriers. it makes sense reading the total description of the coins being sold on Ebay.

 

Sorry I pressed space and my post was submitted.

Anyway to continue on:

If I would of known and read information about silver coins before buying I would be in a decent profit, but because of my mistakes I think I over paid but I learned my lesson.
With that said, I am slowing stop buying coins from ebay mostly since the holidays are coming and I think buying half dollar rolls from the bank now that I have a account there would be more profitable and seeing if they have any old silver dollars. I was told by christmas time "we get weird dollar coins" so I hope I get lucky.

All in all I do not regret it and I am happy with my purchases.

 

Although I got hit a few times with that, I feel lucky since I thought the missing coins or switch coins would happen a hell of a lot more often then it did. I started messaging sellers with that same message about
2 months ago, but they sometimes say "its already in the envelop" and I just don't feel like arguing.

 

I am surprised that the "stolen" percentage is so high. I guess I have been lucky.

 

I've been fortunate and have had no real problems, but, then again, I don't buy raw coins off eBay and haven't gotten burned by a fake slab (at least yet, knock on proverbial wood. They are out there).

I suppose I've also been real lucky with shipping -- no postal thefts (knock on wood again).

 

@Muzyck
I thought I was lucky at that percent TBH I have heard way worse ratio's - Although I did not lose money I do feel for the sellers. Thankful they were under $10 so its not a huge loss.
Would you be willing to post approximate orders made on ebay vs how many missing packages?

 

I haven't had issues with ebay, but I did get burned here recently by @goldcollector who posted in the "for sale" section. Cashed my bank check for $115 and went ghost.

 

About 200 so far in 2017
About 100 in 2016
About 100 in 2015

I would say about 95% of these items were shipped with tracking.

I had a couple go missing for as long as two months, but nothing I can recall that I would consider theft. I am more concerned about carelessness than I am about theft with the U.S.P.S. Strange that the two items eventually did show up.

I am assuming that only your stolen items show up in your informed delivery because I never see any items other than letters on the informed delivery dashboard in the MYUPS site. Any envelopes with coins never show up due to the limitations (local distribution center?) of the scanning devices.

I generally only purchase coins from sellers with a good feedback history with many deals before I purchase so that may have something to do with it. Every once in a while I get a coin that is not properly taped or secured in the envelope. Those sellers don't get positive feedback and I don't purchase from them again.

 

Notice he's been a member since 2007. Wonder how many times he's pulled that.

 

If they do a proper invoice the losing the eBay protection wouldn't matter, there would still be the PayPal protection. It's only if you do it as a gift do you lose all protection

He was referring to coins just sent in an envelope with a stamp, the percentage will be much higher with that method especially if no cardboard is used to hide the fact money is rolling around in it. Tracked packages it's very rare.

 

Got it. I think I have only had about one, maybe two sent that way in the last three years so I can't give a percentage. Even an item I got this week that I bought for $2.99 with no postage was taped into an envelope in bubble wrap.

Mail with loose coins in envelopes are going to disappear in the mail system. Not sure how one can determine that it was "theft" vs. a coin that shot through an envelope going through the sorters.

 

If he cashed your check, he has to endorse it, and you should get a photocopy of his signature and the account # he used. You should be able to do something through his bank, or your bank you wrote the check on.
This kind of thing is despicable. I have no use for people like this, who think they are slick and get away with violating someone's trust.

 

I'm actually the most surprised that so many are still selling things on there that just get sent as a letter. Between the theft and buyers just being able to claim they never got it without tracking to me if it cant cover the cost of a bubble mailer with tracking it just isn't worth selling unless they're just using it to pump up their feedback

 

Fully agree. If it's Ebay with no tracking, the seller will lose a case every time.

 

By no means am I endorsing the behavior and do believe an item should be shipped as soon as the check is cashed, but the bank would likely just tell you to contact the police or take them to court

 

Well you can't contact the police until you have documented evidence of him cashing the check, his signature and account number.

 

I understand if I am buying a silver coin worth ~ $3 and pay $2.75 that it will be sent in a envelope with stamp - but there is quite a few time I bought a $20 or a few coins around that price coin and paid ~$3-$5 shipping and they still mail it in a envelope with stamp. That's when I get a little urked but there is nothing I can do about and I really don't feel like arguing about $3-$5 lol.

There was also this time I bought one of those small dollar coins - nothing special except it was $1 with free shipping and it was a new user so I bought it - they shipped it flat rate for it think $8 I felt bad so I sent them message and they were sorry they are new to selling - I said don't be sorry, just don't way over pay :-(

Its strange (I guess im lucky) that so far I bought quite a few coins from under 10 feedback and even 0 feedback users for coins that were worth more then they were selling it for and got them. I guess everyone overlooks them but I understand why - there are so many scammers.

For the most part just see there feedback, I usually buy first and search later because its for $5 or so items but yea I don't recommend doing that - I been lucky but I won't push my luck lol.

 

Too bad that this wonderful hobby is too often contaminated by common thieves.

 

@Muzyck

Sorry for the misunderstanding yea I have gotten around 150ish envelopes with stamps with the coins I ordered, also USPS now shows packages you should be getting but from what I read it is a limited amount of post offices doing that. My post office does it but I never seen 1 package in the daily emails they send me, I think you need to login but I been too lazy to check that lol.

@Garlicus
I am so sorry that happened to you, this is why I do not send checks or anything like that when buying online. I hope you are able to get a refund and that guy gets arrested, I hope for the best for you and please keep us updated.
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Yea I figure quite a few customers would take advantage of sellers sending with envelope + stamp, I never have nor would consider taken advantage of a seller but I know there are tons of ebay "customers" who do this, I had to contact a few sellers and tell them its been a week and I did not get the coins, they said please just wait a few more days and most of the time I would get them and message them that I did get it - they were relieved and told me story of quite a few charge backs from other customers.

There was this seller who had like 24 feedback and I bought a coin and then saw another coin set I would like but only if it were combined in shipping. He said he will make it free shipping but he does not combine anymore because another ebay "customer" bought a $5 item then asked if a $100 item he was going to buy can be combined and the seller agreed and shipped both items which were purchased separately with same tracking number when the "customer" got the package he opened a dispute for the $100 item and said he did not get it. The customer won the dispute and he was out the item and the $100.

In my experience the sellers were 98% of the time very nice and helpful, there were a few I was messaging for a few days just exchanging stories and was such a pleasant experience but that 2% really gets you pissed off to where you are like f*** ebay lol.