Question - Finding Coins On Ebay & Elsewhere

Two things you need to get a really good deal on ebay nowadays, luck and patience. There are so many other people looking at the same things you are it's hard to find that killer deal.

When I was very active on ebay four to five years ago I would take the keywords I used for the items I was buying and then think how could someone misspell this word and use that in my searches. I was amazed at how many things I found and was able to buy at much lower prices because the competition wasn't finding those items in their searches.

I NEVER placed a bid on anything I wanted to buy before the last six seconds before an auction ended. Why let other bidders see there is someone else seriously interested in that item, it only drives the price up because they'll place higher bids.

Ed
ANA LM-3175

So you are the ONE who beats me out in the last 2 seconds!

ebay is great for those that have no access to coin shows or independant dealers. I've watched ebay for many years and so far never saw a coin that I couldn't find cheaper at a coin show. And at a coin show, no lost in mail, no postage, no handling, no insurance charges. No wrong coin sent and no photo of a different coin. Just what you see is what you get. No ability to meet other coin collectors or dealers on ebay.
Many do not have access to coin shows or just don't want to go so for those ebay is one of the only places they know.

I totally agree w/ the statement that buying on E-Bay takes luck & patience to get the best deals. You'll lose more than you'll win when it comes to getting the truly best deals.

I also agree for the most part w/ getting better deals at coin shows, but not always. E-Bay offers a more broad spectrum of available items as there are definitely more sellers on E-Bay than at coin shows. I collect CW tokens and there are ALWAYS items for sale on E-Bay. Most coins shows I go to have only a very limited amount of tokens and are usually higher in cost than on E-Bay...

Don't forget to check the newly listed "buy-it now" listings, as you can often find good deals there.

Many members here on CCF that have viewed my posts know I had stopped my eBay/PayPal experience back in early 2006, prior to that (1997-April-2006) when my collecting error coins expanded to World Error's, I would visit the ebay Global Sites (links at the bottom of their home page), and locate some nice errors that were not available on the ebay USA site as they were listed only in their Country.

When I found something I was interested in, I would contact the seller mentioning that I was in the USA and asked if they could ship at my location, and reminded them that I would most likely place the high bid, resulting in more money for them.

All my requests resulted in the seller being more than happy to ship outside their Country.

On the non-english ebay sites, I purchased a 8 Language "Lingo" from Radio Shack that let's me translate English words to Italian, German, Chinese, French, Spanish, Korean & Japanese.
This allowed me to enter key words on their ebay "Search" , and have found some great coins.

I did get burned from a seller in Germany that would only post one side of the coin, and let's say that can be a thread in itself.

I have also found 18th & 19th Century U.S. Coins on the European ebay sites where the seller never listed it for view here in the U.S.A.

If your hobby expands beyond our boarders, deals can be had with a little work.

Good Luck