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 Replies: 10 / Views: 13,934 |
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Valued Member
United States
356 Posts |
I bid on some coins from ebay and they told me an Ilya Zlobin would authenticate? Is this guy above board? Is Highrating_Lowprice legit? Any experiences would be appreciated! |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
905 Posts |
He is notorious for his ridiculous high prices. For authentication, it is only worth the experience behind it. A lot of people on ebay offer authentication as a means of seeming more legit and/or getting more money for the coin. |
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Pillar of the Community
1121 Posts |
I bought from him (and I paid too much) but now I continue to get emails from him asking me to buy more.
Good for him (I suppose) but annoying for me.
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Valued Member
 United States
356 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
356 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
905 Posts |
The coin you linked to is a perfect example of his tactics- a buy it now of $100.00 for a coin worth about $5.00...of course he will take your best offer. For me, it is a question of ethics; of which he seems to have very little. I block him from my ebay searches. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2480 Posts |
I've posted my experiences with him on the forum before, but to recap: He has a massive volume of coins, undoubtedly purchased cheaply in large mixed lots. It is possible to find interesting coins in his store and it is also possible to buy them at reasonable prices. Use the "Make Offer" button. I've purchased two or three from him that way. The coins are not going to win any beauty contests but they were very uncommon coins which I happened to be looking for. In each instance I submitted an offer which I felt was reasonable, erring on the side of generous, and the offers were ~15% of his stated already-reduced sales price. With my offer I sent links to comparable coins and their sales price or hammer price. Since the offer acceptance emails came within minutes, he appears to have some automatic or preset threshold for accepting or declining offers. I was satisfied with the purchases and he shipped them immediately. He may come across as cheesy and his tactic of offering coins for sale at 8-10x reasonable value may be distasteful, but I have no problem him. Just be an educated buyer. Also, I've randomly checked his attributions on a few dozen and they were all correct. That's more than I can say for many ebay sellers. As for his and other eBayers' COAs... yeah, those are pretty much meaningless unless it comes from a renowned numismatist such as David Sear. Edited by ThisIsFun
09/18/2014 8:40 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3439 Posts |
For some strange reason there will always be people who for some reason actually like paying top dollar.
I remember a dealer (whom I shall not name) who would infuriate the other dealers at the big local coin shows by buying up their better coins before the start (they always quoted him high too !) and then ask double ! Every show he had his loyal high end clients who would walk past the other tables to reach him down in the corner. While they were making small talk and waiting for buyer he would be writing out 5 figure receipts !
Must be nice to not care about how much something cost.
Apparently they were all very satisfied customers !
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New Member
United States
26 Posts |
As a newbie, I always looked at him as an expert. When searching for answers, a lot of his articles come up. He makes coin collecting seem fun and in some. w ays, becomes a lot of collectors' (at least new ones like me) first coin teacher. It is interesting to see this perspective from all of you. He has smart marketing tactics and at least his stuff is legit, while his prices are ridiculous.
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New Member
Canada
1 Posts |
So far I have purchased two ancient coins from Ilya Zlobin for a total price of about $77 USD. I also recently bought a Roman coin through a Catawiki auction for $67 USD. The Catawiki coin expert is Willem Knapen. I think I probably overpaid for these items and would like to discuss the actual coins themselves in another part of this forum. I am new to collecting ancient coins but I have otherwise been accumulating interesting coins for many years.
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Moderator
United States
34410 Posts |
@brian032352, first welcome to CCF. Second, best practice is to take nice close-ups of both sides of your coins and post each coin in its own separate thread. There are plenty of folks who can help you with your coins' attributions.
"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Replies: 10 / Views: 13,934 |
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Posted 09/18/2014 8:21 pm
