So You Want To Buy Ancients On E-Bay...

Never meant anything bad toward him.

 

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Since I was specifically talking about e-bay, does MA-Shops sell on e-bay? Are you part of MA-Shops?

 

MA-Shops is a market with many different sellers, like V-Coins. I assume that some sellers are on both MA-Shops and Ebay.

 

I kind of knew that, but my question was about MA-Shops as an entity.

 

I don't mind recommending dealers on Vcoins but I like to keep my ebay sellers to myself!

 

I can relate to this.

Being a perpetual bargain hunter, It's likely in my own self interest to discourage people from bidding on eBay ancient coin auctions.

Less competition for me. Mwuhahahaha!

 

Yup, understand, but I really don't want anyone to buy trash.

 

I agree with you... some collectors keep the information close to the vest - I do understand why (I get it!). However this makes it very difficult on new collectors. I prefer free sharing of information so that our hobby is not closed to new members, is welcoming to all, and good sellers get more business (and thus stay in business).

Thank you for starting this thread and to all who shared. Hopefully this will help someone avoid getting ripped off (which damages the hobby to no end).

Here are a couple more that I like:

coin.ages
toshiba63

 

Heartily AGREE! Nice job pulling this together.

LOL, although, sometimes, this is what I feel like when picking through bags of LRB's that I give folks...

 

A dirty little secret in the business is those Vcoin sellers who buy some of their coins on Ebay marking them way up, all the while telling people it's foolish shop for ancients there.

I'm relieved that some of my favorite Ebay sellers didn't make your list!

 

I've personally NEVER had any problems with NumismatikLANZ.

 

An interesting thread.

Well, I buy almost all my ancients on eBay. And I almost never buy from the good sellers listed in this thread. But I do agree they are good sellers - good feedback, nice photos, full descriptions. The problem is, such sellers attract a lot of bids and the prices go out of my price range! Being a good seller is good for the sellers, but not so good for the bargain hunters.

And this is how it should work - premium service from a vendor should be rewarded by increased business and increased prices. But when auctions get bid up to full retail and beyond, I might as well go to Vcoin or some other retail site.

As for my own buying habits on eBay, I do have a few favorite sellers - they usually feature auctions with poor descriptions and bad photography. I've come to find that ancient coins almost always look better in hand than in photos anyway and most of the time I am pleasantly surprised. Also, trying to figure out unattributed coins has become my favorite hobby (and a great opportunity to pester CT members for assistance).

Of course most of my coins are pretty shabby, a bit infra dig for a lot of collectors. When I was a young man, I was pretty picky about my coins, but not anymore. But for reasons I do not understand, I just don't care about condition that much anymore. Or, to put it another way, I hope they don't find the Venus de Milo's arms, or, if they do, I hope they don't reattach them.



By Unknown author - Paul Carus: The Venus of Milo: An Archaeological Study of the Goddess of Womanhood. The Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago/London, 1916., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=375078

 

Hey! I liked shopping at K-Mart. You didn't have to dress up like you do when you go to Walmart.

 

..it's the old 'new & improved' method...

 

LOL.

 

I agree with you, my main "fear" was the dealers outside of North America.

 

Looks like new Avatars for the
Anyone else tire of members posting personal images? thread.

 

Err I think worrying about dealers outside of North America is somewhat Parochial unless you can inform me of any ancient coin ever made in the USA? I have a Caurausian coin that came out of the ground last year and will form part of my Usurpers collection and no doubt will end up with a dealer when I pass. It will go to a UK dealer but because he is not American does not mean he is not to be trusted. Denant are good and reputable but charge top dollar, Lodge Antiquities are also good as are a plethora of other people such as Michael Trenerry who only works from printed lists in the UK but is erudite and his grades are fair and below most other dealers but realistic. At the end of the day it is Caveat Emptor and I have bought bad coins and usually greed enthused my decision but fortunately I was not so stupid in recent years not to ensure I had a fallback position and could return them. If it is too good to be true it usually is and Ebay is a good example but bargains are to be had if you do your homework.