Since When Has The Mint Issued Coins Like This?

I just received this email from the seller:

Hi Susan,I truly appologize for being defensive, I got other emails in refference to the coins and this statment I sent to everyone!
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Thank for the info. I bought the coins off Paul Rigby, ebay seller (matterson) is his sceen name. I was disappointed in the coins for what I paid for them. I broke them up into smaller lots, hoping to make my money back on them. I posted them exactly the way they were sold to me. You can see in my feedback, it shows his ad under my items purchased. I would appreciate if you would contact him and let him know that what hes selling is false. I tried to get a refund but he wouldnt do it, without me paying shipping and charging me a restocking fee of 15%. I'm going to put them in different holders and resell again. Thanks again ! Amerith2005, Karl

I feel a little better now. Thanks for sending the email David. I guess that's what made him realize that I wasn't just trying to harass him.

I have invited him to join the forum. In all fairness, I think my email last night was a little terse, but I'm so sick and tired of problem sellers on ebay.

The seller that these coins came from (matterson) is a problem seller. You gotta love his racket. He tremendously overgrades and then will accept returns without refunding any s/h and charges a 15% restocking fee and still gets to sell the coin again (with no adjustment in grade from the first sale). This means he never has to turn over his inventory to continually make money (off the same coin). What a jerk! Can you say "opportunist"? Over 3000 feedback with 37 negatives!

Welcome to the forum Karl. It is unfortunate that there are ebay sellers out there who use feedback to blackmail other ebay members. And new members are very vulnerable to this. Also, this seller obviously doesn't care very much about his feedback given that he has 37 negatives and such a low rating.

If you have the capability to post pics, we might be able to help you with some of the grading and also might have some input of how to group them to get the best money.

I would suggest taking the pictures while they are out of the holders. It makes the details much clearer and that should help you get better money for them on ebay also.

quote:

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Originally posted by Amerith2005

Susan, Again I'm sorry for my reaction. I was just really pi###d off, that I got ripped off! I thought I was getting 81 high grade coins as advertised, so I bid $168.00 and got about $70.00 worth of coins. I was going to leave Negative feedback on him, but he told me I would get a negative too, if I did. Ive only got 38 and all pos. so far! I want to keep a good seller and buyer record so I left him a pos. and just put o.k. and his responce was a pos. with o.k. too. What can be done about people like him? I'm putting all the coins in new holders and I'm just going to post them as a lot, to try and get some of my money back. Dont need the U.S. Mint breathing down my neck! Thanks for all your help and info., its greatly appreciated! Karl

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Hi Karl,
Welcome to the forum! Thanks for coming by- this is a great site for coin discussions with an impressive amount of expertise available, with some extremely kind and thoughtful frequent posters. Know that sounds effusive, but it is true.
I understand why you are upset over this ebay scam artist. Please don't be afraid to tell the truth with your FB- as long as your story is credible (and yours is) I don't think buyers or sellers will punish you for one negative. And you too have rights- if you have the email in which he threatens FB "blackmail", A) that works both ways, and B ) I'm sure he wouldn't like it forwarded to Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb at ebay, and C) If he stamped that 2X2 as "mint sealed", I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate the mint getting a deluge of complaints about him doing that. If you don't want to leave a neg, leave a pos or a neutral and give others a warning- in this instance you could have said "disappointed"

In general, I'd recommend avoiding "grab bag"items where the contents aren't specified, or any seller with multiple sales labeled "estate". Was your gold "coin" from matterson's sale the JFK gold token you sold here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...m=8310284491
If so, matterson could be reported for you for being in violation of ebay selling rules- that can be listed as a token, or a medal, not a coin.

another point, https://www.toolhaus.org is a great place to read just the neg or neutral FB a seller has received. Here is a sample of what you could have read re matterson:


Grab bag rip-off. Got a 1964 unc dime! My 1st bad experience on ebay. AVOID!!! Buyer   marty3369 ( 121)  Apr-06-05 21:35 3952498710
Reply by matterson: Actually U received 5 coins for your purchase price of $5.99.Was it worth a NEG?  Apr-08-05 06:51
Follow-up by marty3369: This guy is a thief. If you win on a low bid, you will get messed up. STAY AWAY!  Apr-12-05 08:47

pd 3/25 rcvd 4/5 value $8.50 to $14.50 Buyer   dandylionblue ( 17)  Apr-05-05 09:00 3966800196
BEWARE-Misrepresented coins-offered refund -10%, for details kevan@mninter.net Buyer   southmountain_ka ( 76)  Apr-03-05 18:58 3956185232
Reply by matterson: Sorry to hear your not happy.Refund policy described in auction.  Apr-04-05 11:42
Follow-up by southmountain_ka: DEFRAUD by MISREPRESENTATION, then charge 10% more for return? Insult to injury  Apr-23-05 20:25

I'm tird of being nice. your deal is very substandard..................... Buyer   luniti296 ( 50)  Mar-21-05 17:15 3960317403

Don

Karl, while it seems that ebay is being "targeted" right now, we do have ebay sellers on our forum (which Bobby and I are as I explained to you). Don't feel that you will be persecuted for making money on ebay. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing that as long as items are represented fairly.

As an aside, you initially asked me why I have the negatives from vetrina66 on my buyer ID feedback. I purchased two coins from her, paid immediately with Paypal, and she didn't ship for over 10 days (the post mark very clearly stated it was shipped on the 19th, not the 9th as she stated). I would have let this go except one of the coins had a sticky residue all over it and it was obvious that someone had attempted to clean this off with no success. Vetrina said that there was no residue or cleaning and it wasn't worth returning for the amount of money I paid and I had already had multiple days of emails back and forth with her as she is apparently very hot-headed and doesn't consistently read her email. The other coin was accurately represented. I was truthful in my feedback and left her a neutral for the accurately represented coin that shipped later than allowed by Paypal and a negative for the residue/cleaned coin. She retaliated with two negatives in a very unprofessional manner.

quote:

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Originally posted by Amerith2005
Although I feel certain members of your coin community jump to conclusions before the facts and that makes me uncomfortable.

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HUH? You were offering an Ike in a 2x2 with MINT SEALED on the holder. Once the coin left the "original" government holder it is no longer MINT sealed. No matter how you cut this, your auction was misrepresenting a mint product.

There are Ike dollars that came in individual cellophane packages. Once they are removed however, they are NO longer mint sealed.