Coin Auctions (Not Ebay).....are They Really Worth The Time?

Scotts as a new member I believe you shouldn't be posting your ebay account...

Exactly. I'm currently waiting to receive a coin I bought in an auction last Wednesday.

Between 1999 and now I know of only twelve others like it that have come up for sale. Three were on ebay (all real poor quality), two from a dealer and the rest were all auction house sales.

That's why I buy at auction.

Never used any except coin shop. I should have used ebay though, my coin shop is kind of a ripoff.

Mom and Pop, brick and mortar coin shops are soon to be a thing of the past. More major coin dealer that once owned a walk in coin shop with a full display of Collector coins are soon to be a thing of years gone by. Dealers in the near future will be speaking to customers by appointment only, you'll have a limited time to sell or make buys of coins that you have interest in.
Dealers are now seeing the money Coin auctions are bringing in (via 20% buyers premiums). Three major dealers I've spoken to in the past 5 years have confirmed my above mentioned writings and feel it is a greater venue to list on icollector.com / ebay / or their own private website to make sales.
One dealer I spoke to this week said, "Glenn, if I had a $2,000.00 coin in a brick/mortar store, it would take 5 years to sell it. Whereas, here on the Net, I can do it in a matter of weeks".

Glenn

There is a new coin store opening up in Toronto... in November...

I have to agree with Glenzy and his comments on local shops. Except in Victoria BC where there are seven count em seven shops serving 300k population, they are going the way of the dodo bird. I had a shop for years and expensive coins took forever to sell at a local level. Not having a shop is certainly the way to go these days and personally I have NEVER done better! We sell lots of better stuff at shows and on ebay at a decent markup. The only advantage to a shop is you have an advantage to buy from the public.

Reading ebay seller forums the "do not return" doesn't wash if a buyer opens a not as described case. What will happen is Paypal will refund the money, and the buyer IS NOT required to return the item. After reading a discussion thread concerning returns and item not as described cases, I changed my setting to accept returns. Also just because you say you accept returns, you are still able to reject the request. It is all kind of confusing, but I've spent a lot of time reading the different buyer. & seller ebay forums, it's very educational.

Yes, there are lots of horror stories on the forums, just like when you read reviews / forums for any product or service, mostly you get the "negative" reported.

The vast majority of ebay transactions take place without a hitch.

Unfortunately there are some unscrupulous sellers with little or no ethics doing business on ebay that look to take advantage of buyers.

Many of these are in the category of sellers of coins.

It's really frustrating to watch novice buyers who are new to the hobby of collecting get scammed.

Here are some ideas to help prevent this:

• Buy only from sellers who have an established track record that shows a history of excellent feedback.

• Be carefull about falling prey to the "lure of shiny objects" some coins sold by some sellers have been polished or "whizzed" to make them appear more shiny -- this is not true lustre, and in fact damages the coin and greatly reduces it's actual value as a collectible.

• Do not make purchases on a listing unless it offers no-questions-asked full money refunds.

• By all means... DO NOT leave positive feedback if you are unhappy with your purchase (you'd be surprised how many unsatisfied buyers are reluctant to leave neg feedback) -- help to warn other prospective buyers if you have bought a coin that you don't think is as good as was described / pictured.

• BOTTOM LINE - " If it sounds too good to be true... it is! " :)

Scott's Canadian Coins