Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 3084875, member: 44316&quot;]As an observation, yesterday I took the time (a lot of it) to look at the 5500 &quot;Byzantine&quot; hits on US eBay. The vast majority will never sell because their opening levels are far too high. Over time, the overpriced copper coins dominate for at least these reasons. </p><p>1)&nbsp; Sellers with a supply of Byzantine copper coins may want to make them look more valuable than they are and are happy to have lots of high-priced comparable coins, so they list them at high prices.</p><p>2)&nbsp; Any ignorant seller wanted to sell a Byzantine coin on eBay can look around and see high-priced comparable coins, so may think that&#039;s what they are worth and list his coins that way.</p><p>Most importantly, by far:</p><p>3)&nbsp; eBay fees are based on coins sold, not coins listed. So, if there ever is a genuine auction of a well-priced copper Byzantine coin, it sells and is no longer listed. On the other hand, overpriced coins don&#039;t sell, are relisted, and stay offered on eBay forever. Still more high-priced coins are continually added whereas well-priced coins disappear in at most 10 days.&nbsp; Even if well-priced coins are replaced by others, they become a smaller fraction of the total number of Byzantine coins. This has been going on so long that well-priced Byzantine copper coins are now a very small fraction of Byzantine copper coins on eBay.</p><p>4)&nbsp; Most Byzantine copper coins are not worth much and sellers make little profit for the same overhead of selling a $300 coin, so the major fixed-price dealers need to mark them up a lot, or choose not to sell them at all. </p><p><br /></p><p>Some of the major dealers put 10 or 20 or 50 Byzantine copper coins (even fairly good ones from collections) in a individual large lots. The per-coin price is then a small fraction of their individual prices. Of course, wholesale should be, and is, less than retail. For Byzantine copper, which is low-value to begin with, the difference on eBay is huge.</p><p><br /></p><p>I solicit your comments on Byzantine copper coins and their prices.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in