For You Copper Lovers - Ebay Sale

Scropper, I agree. I'd LOVE to have two chain cents. My bank account isn't on board yet. :P

I love copper ,but that's crazy.

I don't understand the vitriol on this thread. Not every collector got the message to "buy the best example you can afford." I did the reverse for years. Every over-eager collector will, within their means, accumulate a population of second- and third-best coins, as well as unnecessary duplicates. Even scrupulous collectors will "upgrade" items as preferable specimens come along. In this case, the collector purging this group just had a bigger budget than most.

Occam's razor.

- Low feedback? Check.
- Seller has absolutely no information about payment, shipping or policies? Check.
- Nonexistent pictures and description except the first shot? Check. (Taken from a distance, harder to identify fakes, no close-ups, no opposite-side pictures)
- Listing title does not match sale? Check.
- Inactive account for over a year followed by sudden listing of high value item? Check.
- "Test" listing right before this one won by a NARU'ed bidder? Check.
- Previous listing had unusual language, and description did not match item? Check. (Coin was definitely not "full date")

It's not vitriol, just facts. This thing has 100% of the hallmarks of a scam. Think about the kind of listing you'd make if you were selling these coins, and then go look at this one. Wouldn't you want a highly-detailed description, tons of pictures (including, possibly, the other side of the coins..?), detailed payment and shipping information, attributions, individual coin photos, etc?

From his feedback, it looks like he's sold in the past, but not an experienced seller. Selling coins worth thousands in a junk lot format is not a good way to go.

Looks like seller updated the listing earlier. We'll see what happens.

I'm not sure where that statement came from either. Just because you don't like a seller doesn't mean they hi-jacked the account, which is a serious accusation to be throwing around.

In the United States court system, every man is innocent until he is proven guilty. I see no proof in this case, only people jumping to conclusions.

I don't believe it would be constructive to continue this discussion any further; I think it is time for this thread to be locked.

It's a free market. If someone has the money to gamble, and wants to gamble, they might win big.

I don't know anything about the seller. I do know what I've learned from being an active ebay member on three accounts since 1997.

My experience is that inactive accounts suddenly selling extremely valuable coins with bad pictures and worse listings have a high probability of having been compromised. Your experience may vary. The way it works is that the would-be scammer searches for ebay accounts which have been inactive for awhile but listed the items in question, whether it's tv's, iphones, or coins. ebay stores are also sought for attack. He or she then has several means by which to gain access to the account. Once they have access, they will often make a small "test sale" of a related item at a lower price, and then use a shill to win the auction. This confirms that the account is ready to be used to scam unsuspecting bidders.

The seller's bona fides notwithstanding, there's no way I'd make that large of a financial transaction on ebay without an escrow service, unless it was an extremely reputable auction house or coin dealer and I had personally spoken to them over the phone.

Whatever the situation is, it's not productive to judge or cast blame, so I'll pray that Lady Luck is on the winning bidder's side and that the seller is honest and truthful.