Mikescoins1, Hard Times

You did offer a nice pic of "a" coin and I'm pretty good at grading my own. The coin pictured was at least an MS64 with a chance of 65 in hand. BTW this was about two years ago ... I haven't dealt with you since and won't in the future. But I do still review your listings. I haven't seen any change in your modus operendi. When I start seeing "Stock Photo, This is not the coin you will receive" prominently displayed in your listings, well then you've taken a step in the right direction. Then there's the problem of delivering a coin that is within at least two grades of the coin pictured. From my one experience with you, that may prove insurmountable.

Yes, I personally discussed the issues with Keith regarding the free shipping. That statement about the free shipping was due to an ebay glitch that will post that wording in the bottom of some auctions if you offer free shipping on ANY item in your ebay store. ebay is aware of this issue and is supposedly looking to correct it. Normally, if it was something light we would waive the shipping charge. But he ordered a number of heavy plastic cases of State Quarters, some of which won just above face value and to be shipped in two flat rate boxes and the total postage was almost as much as his total bids. In addition, he also asked for free shipping on lots of Indian Head pennies where nowhere in the listing did it say free shipping. He never asked us about the shipping while he was bidding and only asked when he was invoiced. We reduced the shipping charge from $30 to $22 (which was just above the actual postage). He still complained about this and therefore we agreed to let him out of the deal. He told us no, he wanted the coins, and he accepted the lower shipping charge, and also agreed to not leave negative feedback. When he received the coins he left a bunch of negatives, and now is waiting until a page of positives goes up before leaving more.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree that I deserved 18 negatives given what happened in this case.

And, to answer the question about staff and our volume, we have doubled our staff since you bought from us. We are answering questions quickly, we have phone support, and we ship the items quickly. If you look at our positives you will see this. If you only concentrate on the handful of negatives you won't see this.

The money I lost is small potatoes and I'm willing to give this seller another try, given his honest attempts to make amends and improve things. This is, after all, what we'd like to do in this forum is to try to get sellers to improve how they do things so that eveyone who buys coins will have a positive experience. I, too, will add him back to my favorite sellers list.

It is also important to note that sellers should remain professional at all times, even when the buyer gets downright nasty or issues profanity or threats, blackmail, etc. Why stoop down to that level? It only brings you down to "street level", makes you appear unprofessional, and gets your own blood pressure up. Just politely respond and move on.

I do agree with SeatedNut, about putting a disclaimer in all auctions in which you use a stock photo. Simply say, "Stock photo shown, not meant to be the exact coin you will receive", or something to that effect. And it should be in an area that the buyer can readily see.

I was going to stay out of this until Mike wouldn't respond to my emails.

I emailed Mike asking what happened and never got a reply. I asked Mike if he got one of those 30 day suspensions or if it was a permanent restriction.

Here are the facts.

If you go to Toolhaus.org you can view sellers 30 day performance on ebay based on feedback (I have no idea how ebay weighs DSR's) ebay used to monitor sellers on a rolling 90 days, but now it's 30 days.

if you have a greater than 5% buyer dissatisfaction rate, ebay will sanction you with either restrictions or suspension.

According to Toolhaus.org. Mikescoins1 has a 6.47% Buyer dissatisfaction rate.

ebay likes to brag about how many active users they have to their stockholders. It looks bad to the stock holders when people are getting suspended (No longer a registered user) so instead of suspending people, they just restrict people that way they can still call people "active users" until eventually their feedback rolls off.

As far as Paypal performance goes. A sellers buyer dissatisfaction rate has always consisted of Negatives/Neutrals, Buyer Complaints, and Low DSR's. Considering how integrated Paypal and ebay is and how 2 or 3 months ago you can now view your Paypal disputes in ebay, I find it hard to believe that this Monday was the first time they used Paypal performance.

The bottom line is ebay has minimum standards. You've gotta maintain a greater than 95% buyer satisfaction rating and starting in October you've gotta have at least a 4.3 on all your DSR's in order to sell.

Last year they'd put a selling restriction to where you'd only be able to sell 75% of your normal volume. Now they just boot you.

The bottom line is I don't think Mike is leaving ebay because he wants to, he's leaving because he *has* to.

Mike, regardless of the reasons for the restrictions placed upon you, there are ways to insure that this won't happen again.

I don't know what your numismatic experience is, but I have been collecting and/or selling for 35+ years. In this hobby, quality is almost always preferred over quantity. I understand that it takes a lot of work to picture the actual coins you are selling, but that would make the difference in your sales. Saving time by using stock photos is asking for trouble.

The fact that most sellers on ebay overgrade their coins is not a reason to fall into that trap yourself by using stock photos of coins that are in a different grade than what your customers are buying. Again, this is just asking for trouble.

There are many ways to enjoy this hobby. There are collectors who collect certain varieties of different series, toned surfaces, BU, heavily circulated...the combinations are endless. For this reason, stock photos will limit your profit margin on your coins. Even if you don't know about the differences, by picturing the actual coin for sale, you let your customers reach their own conclusions on grade, variety, etc.

The other problem is that different people grade by different standards. Market grading and technical grading are two completely different animals. The only way for someone to know which standard you are using is to see the coin pictured and be able to formulate his/her own opinion.

I hope that you take this in the way it is meant...as helpful advice.

The bottom line is there are simply way too many sellers on ebay to bother with any who use stock photos. There is no excuse for the use of stock photos, final answer.

Kena Mikescoins yesterday had about 1200 feedbacks and I think he had 2,000 feedbacks a few weeks ago if I'm not mistaken. Don't make ignorant comments that it's easy to sell on ebay unless you've done it.

When you do that much volume it's a lot of working trying to maintain your DSR ratings. When your business takes off the way Mikes did, it becomes a machine and you have no control over your life. It's a lot of work shipping out orders, replenishing inventory, responding to emails, etc... It doesn't sound hard but it's very difficult (and stressful) when you become a platinum, or titanium powerseller.

ebay of 2003 and ebay of 2008 are two totally different worlds. There was a time when you could ship within 7 business days and if the buyer got a good deal he was happy. Not anymore, people want there merchandise shipped out within 24 hours and if you don't they will leave you negative feedback. Sellers have to deal with that, but don't take cheap shots at them calling it "easy".


You can criticize Mike and certainly he had a lot of unhappy customers but there also needs to be some buyer accountability.

Mike doesn't hide his feedback. Everybody who bought from MikesCoins1 should have read his feedback and known what they were getting.

I think I bought something like 800 V nickels from Mike about three or four years ago. I thought the coins were overgraded and it took a few weeks to get them but I knew from reading his feedback I was taking a gamble so I left him a positive and got on with my life.