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 Replies: 20 / Views: 2,789 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5855 Posts |
Heh. I haven't received the coin yet, but the seller keeps sending me messages telling me what an amazing eye for coins I must have to realize the value of the coin, that a coin dealer once told him it should sell for $375-425, and that it has AU "details." So, now I know two things for sure: The coin has definitely been cleaned and I definitely overpaid for it...  |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
You'll be OK. Your sense of humor remains intact.  |
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Valued Member
United States
154 Posts |
I absolutely love this coin and would love to have one with this much detail (the best one in my collection is VF). Arrows and rays - they should bring them back. Anyway, I believe this one to be XF quality at best due to some of the wear, esp. on obverse in 12 o'clock (forehead hairline is worn smooth, one of the coin's high points). Still, at $275 ( Red Book list from Jan. 2011, the so-called 2012 Edition) you have a beautiful and quite valuable coin. Congratulations. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5855 Posts |
Thank you, cinemabon! I'm excited to get it in hand and see if it's as nice as I think it will be. I certainly don't think I got as great bargain as the seller seems to think, but I'm happy to have paid a fair price for it.
Edited by barryg
12/13/2011 12:16 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1151 Posts |
I like it, nice details, too bad its been dipped.
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Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
Yeah its not a bad piece by any means, you paid high by my standards, but I don't think really by a modest retail standard. I'd want to pay a lot less personally, but then again I often try to get stuff real cheap.
Edited by coinguybrian
12/15/2011 11:47 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5855 Posts |
Yeah, well, as I said, I had originally hoped to get it for a maximum of $187 before bid fever took control. I'm hoping to get the coin today or tomorrow, so I'm reserving judgment on just how bad (or good) I did until I have it in hand. I will, of course, post pics!
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Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
Yep, definitely post pictures. I'd be interested to see how it looks. As for bid fever, use a sniping service...that eliminates most of it. You're more likely to win anyway and for a fairer price. I often just enter a huge number of bids into the sniping service, all low ones, and rely on statistics to pick up stuff at a low price. That is, unless I really want something, then I'll go up but I still use the service to put the bid in at the last second for me automatically.
I have actually had plenty of times where I won something for my EXACT high bid amount because I try to hit the exact increment in order to not have a situation where my high bid is one cent too short, but usually I was okay with it because I decided long before what I wanted to pay and I was willing to pay the maximum. In many cases, the stuff turned out better than expected, so it offset the higher bid. Using a sniping service is just challenging when you have limited time left, so figure things out the day before at least.
Edited by coinguybrian
12/15/2011 12:24 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5855 Posts |
Yep, as I said, I usually snipe to avoid this sort of situation. I prefer to do my sniping in person, however. Using a service just seems so... I dunno, cold and impersonal? That's just me, though.
And, hey - suddenly I'm a "Pillar"! When did that happen?
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Rest in Peace
United States
10625 Posts |
I would think the extra couple bucks were well spent to not have to look at the replaced coin. With luck the auction scanned images will reveal an even better looking coin in hand. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5855 Posts |
Well, I just checked the mailbox and the coin has arrived! As I suspected, the coin is much shinier in hand than is evident from the seller's pics (I've noticed this happens when you try scanning a coin instead of photographing it). It looks really nice in hand -- almost like a proof -- but when I took a high res picture of it, it became really obvious just how much cleaning/polishing had been done to it:   You can clearly see areas around the various fields that are not as shiny as the fields themselves, and there are telltale scratch marks all over the surface. I don't know enough about the process to know whether this has been "whizzed" with a brush, but I hope this is just the result of being dipped and polished with a cloth. Overall, the details are really sharp, which is what I was hoping for, and it does look really nice in hand as I said. So, yeah -- I definitely paid too much for it. I'm happy with it, though. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
I would return it, a polished coin is worth far less than even a cleaned/dipped coin. I realize that you may feel bad about returning something like that, but you should definitely get a better one for less. You won't regret it later since you won't be able to sell it for what you paid...not by a long shot.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5855 Posts |
Thanks for the feedback, Shadow! I'm probably a fool, but I'm going to keep it. As I said, the problems really aren't visible to the naked eye (other than the fact that it is too shiny) and I have no plans to ever resell it. The seller only had 22 feedback (most as a buyer) so I'm willing to entertain the belief that he didn't know there was a problem with the coin. Again, I'm probably deluding myself, but so be it. Since the seller kept sending me messages praising me for my keen eye and asking me to add him to my list of favorite sellers, I decided to send him the following in response: Quote:
I just wanted to let you know that the coin arrived safely so you don't worry about it.
You mentioned in your description that the coin had "a nice light antique tone," but didn't say anything about it having been polished within an inch of its life to a mirror finish (destroying any original surface it may have once had in the process) and the pictures you included in the description definitely don't show this (I'm guessing you used a scanner instead of a camera, which explains the lack of reflective surfaces). The coin does have a nice amount of detail, which is the reason I bought it. I wouldn't have bid nearly so much had I known how polished it was, however.
I seriously considered sending it back for a refund and/or leaving negative feedback, but in the end I've decided to keep it and just leave no feedback at all. I'm hoping this was an honest omission on your part with no intent to deceive, which is why I'm telling you all this. I see you don't have much feedback a a seller and am hoping you will be more careful about this sort of thing in the future. And if it wasn't an honest omission on your part, well, I guess I'll never know, will I?
I trust you'll understand if I don't add you to my favorite sellers list. I'd be a lot less forgiving if this were one of the professional coin dealers with feedback in the tens of thousands. Ah, the joys of buying on ebay... |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
Quote:
...but didn't say anything about it having been polished within an inch of its life to a mirror finish... I bought a high grade bust half on ebay a few years ago for around $150. The pics did reveal a light cleaning (which I had no problem with) and it was advertised as AU+ details. When it arrived the "light cleaning" was actually a thorough polishing in an attempt to simulate luster. It was a polished XF coin. That piece remains to this day the only coin I've ever returned from an ebay seller. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
10625 Posts |
I have to agree with shadow. You should return this coin for a refund. I would understand keeping it if it were maybe a $30 coin worth melt, but not this.
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Replies: 20 / Views: 2,789 |
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First Page
Posted 12/13/2011 11:52 am
