Rookie Mistakes Stories

Three big mistakes (and a bunch of little ones).

1. won an auction on ebay for massive collection of coins from estate sale! silver! It cost $400 and wasn't even worth fraction of what I paid.

2. Bought chinese panda coins that weren't even real coins, just "collectibles."

3. Was taking a picture of my 1915 Panama-Pacific commemorative and dropped it. Now it has a noticeable dent at about 1 o'clock. That knocked about $150 or more off the value of this coin.

Oh...like nearly everyone, I've overpaid for one coin or another, but perhaps the biggest mistake I made (and likely continue to make) was to buy quantity rather than quality. In 1980 I went to my first coin show...and had about $50-60 to spend. I did buy a 1912-S Liberty nickel, but also bought a number of low grade common date Liberty nickels at the same time. I could have bought an 1885 Liberty nickel (fine-xf) instead of all those common date coins...the difference in value today...hundreds of dollars.

Seven years ago when I branched out
I learned two more simple facts of life

one : a simple touch by human skin will leave a "scratch" on a proof gold coin

two ; touching 100% pure satin silk to a proof silver 10 oz australian to wipe off some clouding will scar it for life

This is one you can make over and over again and I do not know how to avoid it. At an auction a few months ago, there was a plastic bin, sort of like that you would keep fishing lures in with no dividers. It had about 300 Lincoln wheat cents in it and during preview I went thru them. Typical stuff but there was a g-4 plus 1909 S in with them. It would seem that others had done the same thing since I ended up buying it for $95.00 plus 10% Buyers fee. When I got home, you guessed it, the 1909 S was not to be found. I will always wonder if someone stole it or if the auction company removed it. I do not know how you would avoid this if you are going to buy bulk lots at auctions.
Jim

Two things I recall easily:

First, when I was about 12 or so, my grandmother gave me a box of coins that my great-grandmother had saved. Inside was a beautifully toned 1926-s Oregon Trail half. Being a stupid kid, and thinking "shiny is better", I grabbed the bottle of silver polish and ... well, you can guess the rest

The other is a series of mistakes in buying coins on ebay that turn out to be cleaned, but they didn't look that way in the photos. Live and learn, huh?

My big mistake I made was selling an fake 1990 no s penny proof set that was remade using an no mint mark penny out of 1990 mint set or bu coin for that year. An person took apart proof set and switched penny out in there with an non proof penny and used an 1990 no mint mark penny in there.
1. My grandfather passed away in 1999 and I was given proof set right after he died .
2. I had it all those years thinking it was real and listed on ebay to sell as an real unit. It was turned into ebay as an fake proof set. The auction company pulled auction after ebay told them it was fake. That's when I find out unit was fake and penny was switched out in set after having for it years .
3. Serval months ago by after the first auction. I re-list it on ebay as no s proof set that is an ? mark set or problem set. I stated in auction the problems I had with and could be an fake and I just don't know. I disclose all problems with it.
4. I stated in auction there was no returns since it was problem set .
5. It sat all weak long about for less than 100 bucks since people could tell its was fake in photos.
6. In last few minutes of auction they went into an biding war and paid me over 2000 for set.
I get my 2000 from pay pal and ship item to high bidder. Since I knew it fake I would have been happy to have sold it less than 100 bucks or whatever it was it worth.
The wining bidder goes nuts and try to charge-back the in tire 2000 on pay-pal . I stated in auction there was no returns and item could be fake but there was no s on the penny. His charge back messed up my auto parts sales on ebay and I could not pay for items I bought on ebay. I almost got in trouble with ebay over items I bought I cant pay for since pay pal had an hold on me.

Pay pal demanded he fax an copy of police report and he never did. I won the case and got to keep my 2000 on proof set. If police read auction they would have ruled in my favor since it was being sold an problem set as I listed it.

I learned something about people on ebay they will overpay or get into biding wars over stuff that's not worth it like my 1990 no s remade proof set. I cant help it if start bidding at 9.95 and state no reserve like I did. If my set was real it would have sold for 5000 to 10000 easy on ebay.

The moral of story is if you have fakes or stuff that's has its problem don't list on ebay. I feel bad for the guy who overpaid me like 2000 on that set on ebay. That sale almost me messed my auto part sales on ebay as-long with my name getting messed up on ebay and with pay pal. It was nightmare for me . I was even scared and even called us government police to turn my self in to feds where we can fix that problem. The feds never called me back and guess I am free since the guy tried turning me to police or feds for selling fake us mint products.

I learned my lesson. ITS NOT WORTH SELLING FAKES OR PROBLEMS SETS ON ebay NO MATER WHAT. If not worth the worry about Jail time or getting kicked off the ebay, or problems with pay-pal, losing sales from auto parts or any problems I had to deal with over that fake proof set. After that I will never sell an another fake or problem coin after my saga with that problem set.

I told the buyer to send proof set back and he never did. I told him I would sell again for him and refund his money . He just went away and I never heard from again. I guess its over today. I still don't know why those people would overpay an person on fake item like they did me that time. I don't ever see that ever happening again with me ever again. To this day I still don't understand why they had that biding war in last few minutes of auction over that remade proof set. After that Like I said I not selling any more fakes or problem sets on ebay even I after I disclose they are fakes or whatever. Its not worth the trouble or all the the problems I created by selling that fake proof set.
Chevrolet454ss

I've always been to cheap, to cautious, to much of a worry type person to have made a coin mistake. Even as a little kid I watched money with caution. I never have used ebay so that eleminates many possible errors. For coin prices I do the following. Write down coins I am interested in. Make columns for different prices. Go to the PCGS web site and write down their prices. Go to the Red Book and write down their prices. Go to ebay and if avaiable write down their prices. Go to at least 2 or 3 on line dealers and write down their prices. Now armed with this list I go to coin shows and if I c can't find coins for less than all these prices, I just go home.