The sight unseen market

So, when I bought coins from Coin World advertisements back long ago, I was "a fool"?

 

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Back in the day, my first eBay sale was a written description of a Draped Bust Quarter. No pics. It sold.

 

So which is the nicest?

As I said, I only spent a minute in a dealer’s inventory.

 

They're all nice!

 

As arranged in this post (which is different than your first post), the top one is definitely the nicest in my opinion. The 3rd one is next, and the middle one is the last.

Granted, these are only in my opinion.

 

As I stated earlier, I buy the coin not the slab. If I had to choose from these three coins I would choose the top one from your last set of photos. However, upon closer inspection of all three coins I would not be interested in purchasing any of these. They either have a weak strike or too many bag marks to suit my personal taste.

 

I am 1 2 3 on this one, going only by contact and luster not eye appeal. It could be the way the coin presents itself, or the way you photo'd it, but number three looks to me like a slider and should technically be called AU.

 

1. NGC MS-64
2. PCGS MS-64
3. NGC MS-63

 

Graded by dealers for dealers.

 

Thats well said CBD .

 

Almost coin purchase over the internet is sight unseen. Unless you’ve seen the coin itself, it’s sight unseen. I don’t buy photos. That’s why return privileges exist.

 

If you've seen a picture of it, it is not sight unseen.

And if you have a return privilege, it is absolutely not sight unseen. You see it, you don't like it, you return it.

"Sight unseen" is commonly misunderstood these days because it is less common, especially among collectors. Buying a coin sight unseen means: 1923 Peace NGC MS-64, and that's literally the only information you have.

 

I always thought only coins with a CAC sticker are presently viewed as buyable “sight unseen”. It appears none of the coins listed in this thread CAC’ed. CAC‘s entire purpose was to close the gap the OP is trying to bring attention to. It would be much more interesting to see three CAC’d coins with this same approach.

 

Always happy to explain something you don’t understand

You see, my first post was me venting that the OP was participating in baiting an argument.


You chimed in and stated that some see it being as about stimulating the acquisition of knowledge.



To that I replied that the (OP’s) framing suggested otherwise, and that it was pushing a personal agenda. I also said I was happy to agree to disagree on what both of us thought the intent of the post was.

My comments about being constructive and personal agenda were directed at the OP. If you can recognize my first post as being directed at the OP, then it shouldn’t be hard to recognize that I was STILL talking about the OP when I talked about intent.

It seems your “pursuit” ends the moment someone points out you’ve made a mistake. Just like when I demonstrated that rounding can be manipulated, just like now, when I explained to you that I wasn’t talking about you when I mentioned personal agenda or being more constructive.

Of course NOW we are talking about your personal agenda, which which presently seems to be something other than pursuing knowledge... it wouldn’t hurt you to (recognize and) admit you’ve made a mistake.

 

"1922 Peace Dollar PCGS MS64" is "sight unseen," yes. It's how Teletrade used to work, and how some mail order sales still work. (Side note: Teletrade had a 5% return fee. Dealers might accept that, but I don't think that would fly with most collectors.)

Nonetheless, when buying on the internet, even with a photo, you're not buying the photo, you're buying the coin. We all know photos can be manipulated to hide things. I'm not talking about Photoshop. Lighting can be deceptive, for instance. Even good photos often don't give a full picture of what the coin is like in hand.

If I don't get to see what I'm buying, and the photos don't show me what the coin looks like in hand, I am buying sight unseen, period.

Yup, that's exactly why internet sales typically have a return privilege. Those that don't won't get my business.

CAC will buy any and all CAC coins sight unseen. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.

 

No you aren't. Photos or lack of photos--regardless of their quality--have absolutely nothing to do with whether a purchase is sight seen or unseen. As long as you have a chance to look at the coin in person prior to buying it then it is sight seen. If you have a return privilege then you had a chance to see it in hand before finalizing the purchase. This is a sight seen purchase.

Sight unseen purchases are just exactly that...sight unseen. There is no way to see the coin in hand prior to to buy it. There is no return privilege once you agree to purchase it.

 

There was a return privilege on Teletrade. Does that mean it was a "sight seen" market? No. The return privilege exists precisely because it's a sight unseen market. You can buy sight unseen without a return privilege, but I would expect to pay a significant discount for that.

You are right that photos have nothing to do with it, but that's only because you're not buying a photo; you're buying a coin, and you don't get to see the coin.