So You Bought A Fake Coin On Ebay?

You wasn´t an idiot...
You was only human, when you see an interesting coin, your brain starts to deceive you...
He starts to conceive elaborate explanations about why that "genuine" coin looks so strange and unusual...
It´s one of the main sins, greediness jejeje

This story should be posted everywhere. Thank you for sharing, and thank you for not giving up on the hobby.

Great job taking it to the man!

Great advice Caesar77. If I had read this before my coin purchase on ebay, I would have stayed clear. Unfortunately, my coin fake coin situation just got worse. I contacted the seller and returned the coin. When I was at the post office, I told the woman I need tracking, so she said register international was the way for me to go. I said I needed confirmation it was delivered. She said registered mail was tracked from start to finish and I could keep track of it all the way with the registered mail number. I also insured the coin for $190. I figured any mishap had me covered.

I soon realized registered international mail cannot be tracked at all. With no tracking, registered mail was a waste of money. Also, the insurance claim and everything else was just a waste as there is no way to confirm any lost mail or anything. It was being sent to the UK, so the seller can let it sit until the ebay 45 days is up knowing there is no way of tracking and keep the coin and the money. ebay will not rule in favor on disputes with no online tracking to view, so it was a disaster. I lost the money, the coin, everything.

I guess my only chance would be to dispute that the coin was a fake and demand a refund from ebay and I don't think they make the buyer returned forged merchandise. The coin is on the coin forgery site, but I don't know if it is enough evidence for ebay.

I have really enjoyed my first several months getting into collecting ancient coins, but this was a huge setback for me. I want way out of my comfort zone financially and got burned badly. For new people, please know that the predators are on ebay waiting and they know all the tricks. My seller has been on ebay for 6 years, had over 300 successful transactions, and I even watched the coins he sold and waited to see if the feedback was good and what the buyers said. After I kept seeing everyone pleased with their coins, I thought the guy as legit. Only now when I look at the feedback, I notice a lot of it is from the same 4-5 people several times in a row where his friends or accomplices are helping boost his ratings. If nothing else, don't buy internationally. The sellers know that with no proof, they have you over a barrel and USPS international tracking can run $50-60. Even then, packages can sit in customs for weeks unclaimed while you are dealing with ebay and they just drop by to pick up the package whenever they wish.

An instructive and informative post caesar77! It may be empowering to others.

But I just want to comment on:




In spite of the many fake sellers, there's no need to avoid ebay. You just have to be careful. And there ARE honest sellers on ebay. Not everyone there is an evil fake seller.
BUT new collector's need to take their time. Find out who the trustworthy sellers are and only buy from them. And new collector's need to put in time learning about the coins they collect. I have been seriously collecting for 19 years. In the areas that I collect I am able to spot at least the most obvious fakes. I don't pretend to be able to spot all fakes, even the experts can't always do that. But knowing your collecting area helps.
Knowledge is power.






Yes wampdog, people need to realize that 100% positive ebay feedback means little. Another thing the career fake sellers do is to give hassle free refunds. If an ebay buyer realizes their coin is a fake, the fake seller will immediately accept the return and give the buyer's money back. Almost all of these buyers will then not leave negative feedback. They're just happy to get their money back. Or they don't feel it's right to leave negative feedback since they did get their money returned.
On top of that are the buyer's that don't realize their coins are fake. And they do leave positive feedback.
Between these two things a career fake seller is able to maintain 100% positive feedback.

Caesar,
I no longer have his coin. Based on the off chance he might, like someone else said, will want to settle quickly to maintain his good rating, will pay me back when the coin does arrive. I wanted to be sure it had time to get to him.

He sent to me Apr. 24ish and I got the coin May 5. I returned it May 7---so if it is same time to travel, he would get it about Tues or Wed next week.

If I don't hear from him by Wed., as a last ditch effort, was going to open a dispute stating I received a forged coin and felt the seller was acting in fraudulence. I was going to send a photo of a real coin, one of the coin I was sent, as well as the one on the forgery database. Maybe a link to this forum where everone said it was an obvious fake coin too.

Does this seem like a logical agenda? Also, I did try to go through paypal to stop payment and they said to speak to ebay first. I have never dealt with going to my credit card company. I paid Apr 24 and now I don't have even the bad merchandise, so I feel I have a weak argument, so I am trying to give this seller a chance to make it right.

There is some very good advice here for those like me who are very new to collecting ancient coins. Thanks to all for your contributions to this helpful thread.

That's good advice. The caligula aureus I posted - the auction house says that they add 19% to the hammer price. Is there generally a fee on top of this that comes from the seller? Does 19% seem a bit exorbitant? There is an additional fee of 1.5% for online bidders.
You said that high end auctions will often take 4-5% - how do you do this? Contact them beforehand and ask if they'd lower their fees in the event that you won on a particular high end coin?