Where Do You Buy Most Of Your Coins?

Hello,

I find ebay is good for commodity-type coins - coins where it is not important for the buyer to ascertain the exact condition of the coin. Usually this mean slabbed coins from one of the reputable grading services, proof sets, modern commemoratives coins, or coins purchased primarily for their bullion value. Morgan and Peace series silver dollars in particular are good commodity coins; the coin grading services allow them to be graded at much lower prices - as a result, there are often lots of coins at $30 and above that are slabbed - something not seen as much in other coin series.

Otherwise, trying to grade coins from the seller's photo or relying on his/her grading seems a bit dicey, especially for valuable coins. The difference between an MS-64 and MS-65 coin can often be at least somewhat subjective, so even a well-meaning seller may disappoint. For that reason, I pretty much stick to slabbed coins or commodity coins on ebay.

I personally find ebay's "Completed Listings" feature quite useful; if a particular date/grade is going for less than it should, I pay more attention during the end of the auction.

For buyers who frequently check the Morgan and Peace auctions hoping for good prices (like myself), I've put up a small website with links to Morgan and Peace dollars by grade (e.g. MS-65 only), mintmark, and key dates. The idea of my site is that frequent bidders who rapidly conduct alot of searches will find it more convenient to click on links rather than retype search terms. The site, called Silver Dollar Finder, is at http://silver-dollar-finder.com. Please feel free to visit the site and offer me any suggestions.

I voted ebay; however, I have gotten some great buys from my coin store bid board. It closes every two weeks. As an example, I just won a MS-64 FBL 1955 Franklin half for $16.50. That will be a nice upgrade for my album and lists for substantially more than that in Coin Values. Never would have gotten it for that bid price on ebay.

I use ebay a lot...you can get some pretty good deals there if you know the value of what you are buying ...I just bought a 1995 prestige set for 125 and it books for around 250 to 300 so that seems like a good deal....besides bidders are driving the price up on it by the hour. I could probably resell it for the 250.00, but I will sit on it for awhile. Bargains can be had but be careful!
There are a few online stores and a few private dealers that give me really good bulk deals if say I want some kennedys and I buy 10 or so...and of course there is the US Mint too...

Jim, ebay is the place. A few very important things to remember:
Check the sellers FEEDBACK. Look for 100%, 99.9%. 99.8%. etc. I almost Never buy from sellers with lower than 99.6 feedback.
and KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BUYING!
errrror

I found that one funny. My son sells a lot of stuff on ebay. So do a few people I know. All have freinds, family, neighbors send in great feedbacks.
I only buy from coin shows and flea markets. Nothing like seeing a coin, no postage, no shipping, no insurance charges. No worries that you won't get what you saw. No lost in the mail. It's just there. And if you don't like the price, haggle for a lower one or move on.
Of course that is all due to a minimum of 3 coin shows a month within about 14 or so miles. One is only 10 miles. And the really big ones about 2 times or more a year are within 3 or 4 miles. Flea markets everywhere. So don't need ebay.

I have a small time dealer who I buy from or who will buy me coins at shows or from people who bring him coins. He makes a little profit and I get nice problem free coins with out all the trouble. I havent bought any coins off ebay for a couple of years. The last few were graded by ngc or pcgs.

I voted for none of the above.
For the last few years, I have been buying almost exclusively from the big auction houses (Heritage, Superior and Goldberg). It just seemed that the dealers I was buying from were getting a lot of their inventory from them anyways, and some of the mark-ups I was noticing pushed me in this direction. I really miss the old days of ebay.

Coinmap,I'm with you. I use to deal some with e bay "not coins" fishing reels..I started getting notices from PayPal that I owed money for things I didnt buy or know anything about..