When I first got connected to the internet in 1995, there was a great auction house for coins named numismatics.com . Sometime in 2000, the site closed down saying another auction house had sued them for using a stolen auction "engine". The old site had very reasonable fees but more importantly, complaints of forgeries and fakes were dealt very much above the table. Better yet, its members and dealers policed the site themselves. What I liked best, was everything was sectioned off...foreign, Roman, medieval, cents, lots, sets, etc....there was everything from cheap lots to five digit coins. Maybe its time to shed ebay's oppressive ways, and someone come up with a new auction house. Thoughts?
A worthy idea, and one that has been tried many times. But when you compete with an 800 pound gorilla, you usually lose
I buy tons on ebay and have had great success. The key though is that I learned the hard way on lower $ coins what to watch out for and what sort of auctions to avoid. That being said, I would support an auction site as described.
new houses I checked out ubid.com because I heard the fraud free guarentee, but was a little dissapointed. They have a lot of overpriced starting bids and a lot of stock photos for coins. Also without paypal, it would make it a little harder for me to purchase items. I to would love to have a viable alternative to ebay.
If ebay's lawyers aren't working on shutting coinbay down, they will be soon. 1. Auction site 2. "bay" in the URL 3. similar colors in the logo So what's listed... They have *one* listings in ancient coins (verses 5,602 on ebay not including the 200+ listed as "other). They have *two* listings in Paper Money: US (verses 10,424 on ebay) Same for goldbay (#'s 1 & 2 above), but at this point there's no real worry about it being shut down as they have *one* coin listed. One... not even worth mentioning IMHO. Anyone can put up an auction script on a web site. I could have one ready in 30 minutes (or less). These aren't viable alternatives IMHO. Yahoo runs auctions, at least there's some listings on there, and someone already mentioned ubid.
I looked at the sites listed, but they are lacking by far. What is needed is an auction site for and by collectors but backed (at least superficially) by a larger firm. The site needs to be policed well. I'm very frustrated with Ebay too. I've been a member (buyer) for almost five years. As of late, their policies only favor the seller...especially the power sellers. Here are my specifics: 1. Won and paid for an item. Item never received, and the seller never provided the promised tracking number. Ebay said the issue was between buyer and seller. 2. Bid on an item, and 20 min before the end of auction, the buyer pulls the auction. I reported the incident, but received the note that the seller has this right, but when I asked why its not okay for a buyer to pull their bid, they stated its in the rules. 3. Ebay is good for non-specific items. They don't know coins and don't want to understand (or want to) the complexities of the hobby. 4. Limited user intervention. Ebay needs to take charges of counterfiets and fakes seriously. Action taken needs to be visible and transparrent. Right now, Ebay doesn't allow any release of information if action was taken. So, this allows the perps to re-register under a new name. This is bad business. As I mentioned earlier, the old site was great. They had lots of offerings: both US and foreign, and everyone in the community policed each other. There were numerous foreign sellers, and I never had a problem with any. When I did, the site had its own mediator that resolved any disputes, but this rarely happened. Communication between buyer and seller was superb, and the prices realized were great...depending on the rarity and desirability. Basically, it was a site for collectors.
Such is life with a monopoly... until there is a viable alternative where sellers can get a good deal, the site with the Critical Mass of buyers wins. Seems like "the only winning move is not to play"? I tend to window shop only there these days, and I stopped selling after eBay owned Paypal tried to shove a Premier (pay for all money received, credit card or not) membership down my throat.
I have bought from Heritage several times and found them to be very professional. I have never had any problems with them. The thing to be aware of is the 15% Buyer's Premium. Factor that into your bid, and throw down accordingly. If you're looking for something specific - a little off the beaten path - they have everything. They are definitely a Power Player.
I second Heritage and as for their 15% buyer's fee, just add that (or they add it for you) to the cost of the coin when you bid. As a member, you can inventory your coins online where they will show you the wholesale and CURRENT retail prices for your given coin. I can look up past auctions for a given coin to see what the market is bearing and their website is very easy to navigate. Their photographs with the zoom feature are first rate and if I were to design my own coin auction online service, I can't think of anything else that Heritage doesn't already offer. BTW...the only coins they auction/sell are those graded by PCGS, NGC, ANACS and ICG. You will never see a "raw" (trust me) coin on their site. If there was a runner up, I would have to go with Teletrade.
Those Heritage photos are excellent, you can zoom way in, and can even change the shading if the coin is too dark to see all the details. BTW, I just bought some raw coins on Heritage. They were not US issues, however, I have not seen a raw US coin yet for sale on that site. With Teletrade, if you are doing research on past auction prices, keep in mind that the BP (buyers premium) is not shown (15%). For Heritage auction archives, the BP is incorporated.
I buy and sell on ebay. I kind of have a love/hate philosophy about it. The good thing is that your auctions get a lot of hits (exposure). The bad of course is their fees, which are going up at the end of the month. I am lucky that so far I have received every coin I won and the buyers have received every coin I shipped. I did get one damaged coin that I bought. A silver eagle that probably was run through a postage machine. Another silver eagle had some bad tarnish on the reverse that was not shown in the pictures. Whatever. I find I can buy on ebay for less than most dealers charge. Also it usually beats the prices I see at the local coin shows. And that includes the shipping charge. I registered and listed coins on coinbiz but nothing sold and it seems like a stagnant site. So I'm using ebay due to the sheer volume of potential buyers and also because I can easily find what I want to buy. The problem comes when I want to sell a cheap coin. Let's use a common date AU Kennedy half dollar. I can only ask about 99 cents for these. Well the ebay listing fee is 35 cents, the final value fee is a few cents and if it doesn't sell I am stuck with a fee. So the coin cost me 50 cents to begin with. What is the gain? Only to reduce inventory and maybe build up my positive feedback, that's it. And again I must ask you all, why don't more people use the open forum here on coin talk?
Good point Victor, I think it will take time...most don't even know of it. Ebay is a great marketing device, it is however, relative. Such as spending $3 Million on a Super Bowl ad. You'll sell something, but how much and is it worth it? JMO
