1806 Draped Bust Half On Ebay

I actually saw the original auction, but didn't mention it in my first post, as I wanted to see if anyone noticed the scratches without seeing the way it was graded by PCGS. Perhaps those marks do look a lot worse in hand.

I threw a lowball bid out on the coin the first time but did not break the reserve. I am contemplating bidding again to see if I could get over the reserve but the combination of the seller's not mentioning how the coin was graded by PCGS, his no return policy, and the fact that he cussed out a buyer on previous feedback are probably enough to sway me to a no. With that said, I personally like the looks of this coin a lot more than some that I have seen sell for $500+, so I'll be curious if someone breaks the reserve this time and what it goes for.

Why? It was just an opinion. If you need to include their opinion, why shouldn'y you include the opinions of all the previous owners?

The way I look at it, Conder, the seller either submitted the coin to PCGS, or purchased it in a slab. If he valued the opinion of the TPG enough to submit it in the first place, he has no right to conceal that opinion when it wasn't to his liking (or else, if it came back overgraded, he should crack it as well, and offer it at the lower, more appropriate grade). More importantly, if he obtained the coin already slabbed, he got it at the discount such a details grade would always carry. To ethically demand full price for it now, he needs to explain how his cherrypicking skill has revealed a coin unfairly branded, and defend the subsequent markup.

Being counterfeit is a lot different than an opinion on grade or damage. I am with Conder. The OPINION of PCGS means squat beyond authenticity. Again, what happened to buy the coin, not the slab? I am not 100% sure that this is graffiti. I can see it on my computer now, and at most it deserved a details scratched grade. The pics of the coin do not hide anything. The coin stands as is on its own merits. AS IT SHOULD. The opinions of someone at PCGS mean a lot less than the opinions of most of the folks here.

I'm with Conder and Smokeriderdon on this. Selling a coin that you know is counterfeit is a big deal, but we're talking about grade here. I see nothing wrong with a seller disagreeing with the grade and breaking a coin out of a slab to sell it.

I do not agree with this tactic by the seller. The coin has been formally evaluated by experts who have been able to hold the coin in hand. The experts rendered an opinion that the coin has problems, yet the seller does not acknowledge it and even says in his description '.... WITH NO ISSUES.' (sellers caps). If I were to buy this coin and chose to submit it myself to PCGS, it would probably come back again as a details grade. I would be wasting my money because I would not have known that PCGS had already graded this coin. I agree with SuperDave that if he stated it had been graded but he didn't agree with it, that is ok because disclosed the potential problem.

Another way to look at is buying a car from ebay where the seller says '... WITH NO ISSUES' when in fact the car did not pass its safety inspection and can not be licensed as it is not roadworthy. Failure to disclose something like this is unethical.

That's an interesting point, FTB; does PCGS do "Net" grades for Genuine coins? I was under the impression that they did strict "Details" grades as you and I understand them to be - an opinion of what the coin would grade in a "righteous" slab.