Disturbing Trend - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 7 / Views: 1,273
texasmick Pillar of the Community United States 751 Posts	Posted 01/20/2007 10:32 pm I have observed a disturbing trend on ebay lately: auction descriptions containing text to the effect of "Needs to be cleaned" or "will clean up nicely". I don't believe I have seen much of this previously, but I've noticed it in three different sellers' auctions today. These are people who are listing multiple coins. I wonder if this is out of ignorance or if they are purposefully attempting to look like rubes. Might be a new tactic to make buyers believe they have an edge. Report this Post to the Staff

SsuperDdave Moderator United States 23522 Posts	Posted 01/20/2007 11:15 pm Or they're spreading the concept that cleaning is OK, allowing them to sell cleaned coins that look "better" at higher prices. Report this Post to the Staff
bboudrot Valued Member Canada 61 Posts	Posted 01/20/2007 11:24 pm That's common with ancient coins. They give you instructions for cleaning the coins when you receive them. Report this Post to the Staff
texasmick Pillar of the Community United States 751 Posts	Posted 01/20/2007 11:44 pm Thanks for pointing that out, bboudrot. That didn't occur to me, but I suppose those auctions wouldn't be out of place if they were selling ancient coins. Unfortunately they were 19th Century US coins. Dave, that's another good point. But these sellers were peddling original-looking coins. Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16846 Posts	Posted 01/21/2007 04:10 am I would ascribe it to ignorance. If it's a deliberate strategy of false naivety, then I'd imagine it might backfire badly. Personally, I'd run far, far away from anyone putting that in the description, just in case they'd already had a go at "improving" it. Many "real coin collectors" would probably react the same. Why deliberately alienate the very people most likely to pay the big bucks for a coin? Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
Spider5689 Pillar of the Community United States 2269 Posts	Posted 01/21/2007 08:28 am I don't think I would be interested in a coin that "could use cleaning". It must be one ugly coin if the seller feels the need to give advise. Report this Post to the Staff
AuldFartte Pillar of the Community United States 830 Posts	Posted 01/21/2007 11:07 am I've seen similar phrasing in some British auctions ... "could use a good polishing", etc. The problem is that a lot of older European collectors actually polish their coins Report this Post to the Staff
texasmick Pillar of the Community United States 751 Posts	Posted 01/21/2007 11:15 am Here's an example with it actually in the auction title: NICE-1865-INDIAN-HEAD-CENT-NEEDS-A-GOOD-CLEANING http://cgi.ebay.com/NICE-1865-INDIA...NG_W0QQitemZ 130069108542QQihZ003QQcategoryZ41085QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Unfortunately, Spider, some of the auctions I saw were for 2c pieces. They were very dark and the photos didn't show much detail, but they didn't appear to be candidates for conservation. Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 7 / Views: 1,273

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