Have you ever bought coins on e bay, If so has it been a positive or negative experience.
I have in the past few months started buying coins on e bay. If you are proficient in your grading you can find some great buys if you can get through some of the muck and overgraded coins being sold. I have in the past bought my coins from a few dealers I trusted, coins shows, and auctions for higher end material. I recently started a collection of walkers and I have gotten much better deals on e bay then I was able to get at coins shows. Although there are many people selling overgraded coins, if you know how to properly grade and the scans provided are good, you can get some very good deals if you are patient. If I did not trust my grading skills I would stay away from e bay.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul Chappel on -
I've had great luck on eBay. I made some mistakes, but they were my mistakes for not being careful enough. I've found one or two dealers whom I trust, and I've had a lot of fun. I also found having a dealer in my country (Canada) made all the difference in shipping. When my favourite dealer ships, I know I'll have it in only a few days. I don't have an extensive collection, so I've also found some fillers on eBay that I can one day replace when I have more money. I'd recommend others to spend some time (a sick day, awake in the night, or other time) and check the other eBay countries - like the UK.
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Permalink Reply by Lureuin on -
I agree with your statement, that if you know what you are doing and don't trust what the sellers say; but trust what you see in the pictures, you can get great coins at prices that are better than anywhere else.
I have built quite a collection from eBay and out of 400+ purchases, have only had 3 negative experiences. I was able to resolve all 3 bad deals, and more blame myself for not trusting my instincts.
There are a few scam artists, but there are lots of great deals to be had. Just make sure you understand grading and be patient. You will be outbid many times before you finally get the coin, and the price, you are looking for.
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Permalink Reply by Toad on -
I agree that Ebay is a great place to buy coins but only if you are knowledgeable in what you are buying. I, for instance, will not buy Trade Dollars on Ebay since so many are fakes and there are some fakes I can't tell are fakes, so I stay away from them and anything else I am not knowledgeable of. After getting taken several times, with different coins, I finally realized I needed to narrow my field down into a range I could handle learning how to tell what was good and what wasn't and since I did that, I haven't had any problems but I still get that impulsive feeling about certain coins and sometimes end up the winning bidder so they are not wise buys but I seem to have been lucky lately and haven't been taken but I am also trying to curb my impulsive buying since I know it's only a matter of time before I will be had.
If you stick with what you know and learn as much as possible about your areas of intersts, Ebay is a wonderful place to buy but for the uneducated, it's a scammers paradise. So it's up to you!
Also, the old rule of thumb comes into play - If it's too good to be true, it more than likely isn't.
Ribbit :)
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Permalink Reply by Roy on
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One thing that I have found helpful is to look at the responses from winning bidders to their experience with that seller. If I am bidding on a coin from a seller I am not familiar with this is important. I also look at how that seller graded some of the past coins he has sold. However I almost never listen to a sellers opinion of the grade but always trust my own using ANA grading standards. Knowledge is power and its essential to have a working knowledge of proper grading, otherwise you are going to overbid for coins.
Also I never buy any coins from China as they are almost 100% of the times fakes or replicas, especially trade dollars but they also have faked NGC holders that look pretty good as well as early bust dollars. As always buy the coin not the holder.
Roy
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Permalink Reply by Coin Blogger on -
What is the best way to learn how to,
1. learn grading so that you can grade coins pictured on ebay?
2. find good deals on ebay?
I would love to hear your thoughts.
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Permalink Reply by Jim on -
I agree with everything that has been said in this thread - it's all spot on. If you want to buy certified coins, or know how to grade coins yourself, there are good deals to be had on eBay and I've had many positive experiences - many more positive than negative. You need to look carefully at feedback - not just ratings, but comments. Only deal with sellers or bid on coins that seem above board - if it feels too good to be true, or looks fishy, it probably is. There are certainly people on eBay that are trying to take advantage, but there are reputable people too.
I'm just now learning to grade coins myself and have found many books that are very helpful. The official ANA Grading Standards Guide is very nice - it's full of pictures and descriptions. The Scott Travers Books are helpful too - check out "One Minute Coin Expert" and "The Coin Collector's Survival Manual" - you should be able to get all those at any Barnes & Noble or other big, chain bookstore. There's a newer book I want to pick up called "Grading Coins By Photographs" that looks very nice, but I have yet to see it in a store.
As for finding the deals, you have to be patient and let yourself get outbid by folks willing to pay too much - if you wait it out, you'll get your coin. Search in all categories, not just coins. Also, try searching for things with multiple/different strings of words - you never know what someone put in the subject line of their auction.
I don't have any good local coin shops, so I've built a good deal of my collection on eBay too - if you're careful and patient, it can be done and you can have fun doing it!).
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Permalink Reply by Roy on
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Coin Blogger said:What is the best way to learn how to,
1. learn grading so that you can grade coins pictured on ebay?
2. find good deals on ebay?
I would love to hear your thoughts.
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Permalink Reply by CraigL on
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I don't consider myself expert enough to buy ungraded coins on ebay. I have stuck with NGC and PCGS coins and have a few reliable dealers whose auctions I bid on. I have been very satisfied so far. I just don't trust myself enough to bid on a coin from a picture.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Murphy on -
I have had great luck on ebay also and have had no problem using paypal. The idea is to do your homework on a coin and do not buy impulsivley. I have done that and tended to be disappointed but that is my fault. I studied the areas of my interest for a while on ebay ( a few weeks) to see who was the top seller and had good feedback then started buying. I have only had 1 coin have an issue out of about 200 and the seller was a gentleman about it. As is true with all thinkgs in an unregulated market (and EBAY is) caveat Emptor.... But a well educated consumer can do quite well on ebay...
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Permalink Reply by Roy on
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Like anything else the more you know the better informed decisions you can make. As for buying raw coins I think they give you the best bargains on e bay if you know what you are doing. It is so important to get a good book on grading with good pictures and then go out and look at as many coins as you can. Go to shows. I have had the opportunity to examine countless number of coins at auctions where they let you examine the lots a few days before the auction begins. I think its relatively easy to grade coins from extra fine on down, where is takes some experience is from AU to Mint State grades. Books will help, but there is no substitute for experience. How do you know if the coin has been dipped or cleaned, or whizzed. How can you tell if the coin is an AU58 slider or a true mint state. In mint state coins you may want to stick with the grading services like PCGS, NGC and ANACS, and ICG is not too bad, as for the rest I would avoid them all.
As a collector of large cents one of the things I had problems with in the past was identifying coins that had been strengthened or re engraved. Sometimes it was obvious and other times it was done rather expertly. I had to learn to spot this and could only do this by examining countless number of pieces. The point is that you can make yourself proficient in any area if you read and examine enough coins in your area of interest. One of the great things about this hobby is that there is always more to learn.
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Permalink Reply by Syruss on -
I’ve been buying from E-bay for years. Only ever had one problem, and it was on such a small item that it was really no big deal. E-bay can be great for picking up a filler coin, as long as you know what the coin is worth and have the control to resist potentially expensive impulse buys… for anything of real value, I only use E-bay if the seller is a dealer that I already know and trust.
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Permalink Reply by Phil C on -
Hello everyone, this is my first post. If you read the string there's great advice. Notice almost everyone agrees that you have to be fairly competent in grading and that you can get some great deals. The other comments were true as well. I might add that after 9 years of buying and selling on Ebay the key coins are better bought slabbed. They are the most faked, altered, and counterfeited coins on Ebay and they've been passed around alot, and 90% or more of collectors aren't good enough to tell for sure, including me. Even with my Counterfeiting books like the one from PCGS a lot of thieves are better than me.
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