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 Replies: 24 / Views: 2,973 |
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Pillar of the Community
Egypt
3470 Posts |
Can anybody give me some tips or tricks to successfully sell or trade coins on coin auctions.  Edited by EgCollector
01/23/2007 03:54 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
954 Posts |
Good scans or pictures. Make sure you tell about any defects. Good return policy.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2600 Posts |
Start at .99 with no reserve. Ya you have to have some friends in reserve, though.  Jim |
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Pillar of the Community
 Egypt
3470 Posts |
What about shipment and payment methods?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
954 Posts |
Don't overcharge for shipping. Take PayPal and make sure you pay for delivery confirmation if the buyer doesn't want insurance. Without delivery insurance they can say you didn't ship the item. Ask that you get payment within 10 days, and take any kind of payment they want to make including checks, or clearly state in your auction that you don't accept them. Almost everyone uses PayPal, so it is not usually an issue.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
986 Posts |
I'd recommend making insurance and delivery confirmation required in all your listings. It will save you a lot of headaches if a package winds up lost or missing. Break down your shipping charges so people won't think that you're ripping them off with $4 shipping.
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Pillar of the Community
Egypt
3470 Posts |
fengk "Break down your shipping charges so people won't think that you're ripping them off with $4 shipping"
I didnt get what you mean by Break down youyr shiping cahrges
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Pillar of the Community
Egypt
3470 Posts |
And what do you think about auction timing. Is it preferable to make it running for one week or two or...?!
Edited by EgCollector
01/28/2007 4:01 pm
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Rest in Peace
United States
2684 Posts |
General advice based on my experience: openness and honesty, good images (minimum obverse and reverse), a decent, detailed, and well-written description which does not state "judge from the picture, resist the temptation to overgrade if it's a raw coin, clarity in bidding and shipping instructions in the description in addition to the ebay info, low start price (put in a low reserve only if a certain return must be realized), and a stated and very clear guarantee and return policy. On shipping, I ship EVERYTHING with Delivery Confirmation. Insurance is mandatory on sales above $50 and I ship all items over this value with Signature Confirmation at my expense. No UPS- and/or FedEx-only shipping; not everyone lives where there are street addresses. Charge only the actual shipping amount; Invest in an inexpensive (10 bucks) shipping scale to determine actual shipping costs. On auction timing, I almost always go for 7 days so that a weekend is covered. For most of my auctions, I time them to end Sunday evenings (about 6PM Pacific time) when a larger number of bidders are online. For higher value coins, however, the timing probably doesn't matter all that much. Also, for higher end coins, I'll often go the full 10 days. Fred |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1703 Posts |
Everything Fred said.  I use Conformation on EVERYTHING.It has save my hiney a few times.  I also offer a shipping discount.If three coins are won on the same day by the same bidder,I ship all three for the single coin shipping price.That alone increased my sales by 50%.I offer a full refund policy including shipping and (knock on wood) I have never had one return yet. CLEAN CLEAR PICTURES.don't try to hide anything. I run most my auctions seven days.If its a rare coin,ten days. Edited by TLS5933
01/28/2007 7:00 pm
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Rest in Peace
United States
2684 Posts |
Terry, great minds must run on the same track. I also give shipping discounts: buy more than one of my items on a single day and the shipping is only for the first item. I've only had one return (not a coin) and I not only reimbursed the buyer's shipping costs, I threw in a few extra bucks for his trouble. Got a glowing positive feedback on that one. One of my major pet peeves (very near the top of the list) are sellers who present a fuzzy image, then state "Grade for yourself from the picture."  Grrrrrrrrrr. Related are the one-line descriptions, e.g., "1890-CC Morgan. See picture."  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1703 Posts |
Fred, was it you looking for a 1891-CC Morgan. I found one the other day,from a seller I use that went for $175 and it was easily MS62 or 63. I should have bought it but my funds were very tight at that time. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7123 Posts |
Fred You cut me to the bone !! I'm not a very wordy type guy and I think clear short descriptions are just as effective as a long drawn out description. a solid gold return policy is essential as are shipping discounts !! Good or great communication is also a must ,, as a buyer I hate sitting wondering if my money order got there !! or if my Item is one way to me ! a seller that does not have the time to let me know the status of my Item is not a seller to me for long !! The best advice I can give is be a real person with real honest intentions ,, there are way to many phoney people selling on ebay ,, I dont know about the rest of you ,, but some of the ads just scream THIS IS NOT HOW I REALLY DO THINGS !! When it comes to images ,,it is sometimes hard to get a real quality pic of some coins ,,for some reason they are just not photogenic,, but always use pics of the coin for sale ,, there is little that turns me off like your coin maybe different from the one pictured !! That kind of stuff makes me want to crawl through my computer screen and get a hand full of (well never mind ) irt just really irritates me . Good luck !! Rick Edited by Metalman
01/28/2007 7:45 pm
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Rest in Peace
United States
2684 Posts |
quote:
Fred, was it you looking for a 1891-CC Morgan. I found one the other day,from a seller I use that went for $175 and it was easily MS62 or 63. I should have bought it but my funds were very tight at that time.
Nah, I'm looking for a raw 1890-CC Morgan in MS condition. I've also been looking at 91-CCs, but they are slightly more common than the 90-CC (less gain for the investment) although most of the sellers have their auctions with the problems listed above: lack of honesty, poor feedback, poor or photoshopped images, unrealistic start or Buy It Now prices, yadda, yadda. I'll look at 20 or 30 90-CC (or 91-CC for that matter) Morgans before putting one on my watch list. My first priority is the 90-CC for either my collection or for resale after slabbing. Once that need is met, then I'll go after the 91-CC which I already have in MS-60 but needs to be upgraded. I use this Ellesmere article to set my CC Morgan priorities by rank and demand: http://www.ellesmerecoin.com/articles/226.htmlRick, short is good; I was using the absurdly short ("See picture") as an extreme but all-too-common example of an inadequate description. Of course, you're right: a lot of descriptions are all fluff when they describe the history of a coin, it's metal composition and specifications, but don't say anything about the coin being sold. BTW, Rick, I notice you wax eloquent at length when (underhandedly) editing my posts   . Heheheheeeee. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1703 Posts |
OK Fred, I will keep an eye out for a 1890-CC. I recently bought one from the seller I mentioned.She started he bid at $175 and thats what I got it for.I relisted it,starting at 99 cents and it sold for $325. It was MS but not 63 grade.
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Pillar of the Community
Egypt
3470 Posts |
Thanks a lot to you all, but could anyone tell me the importance of the reserve, meaning to state or not that a reserve is present, and what price should I place for it..?
Thanks again
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Replies: 24 / Views: 2,973 |
Posted 01/22/2007 8:35 pm
