I'm being sarcastic with the favorite seller part, seeing how he is well-known for price-wise marking up his coins into the stratosphere, even with the 70% or so discount he puts on a lot of them. After reading that another member here sent him an offer and got a nice coin for a good price, I decided to do an experiment of my own. I found two examples of a very scarce type for Honorius that I am partial to (the VRBS ROMA FELIX), which were misattributed, in ok shape, and at $15 and $18 w/free shipping. I wasn't going to pay that much for them, and I wanted to see if I myself could really successfully low-ball him, so I sent offers at a third of the asking prices. My offer of $6 for the $18 coin was accepted but the $5.50 for the $15 coin wasn't (strangely enough...). It arrived today and I am actually satisfied with the coin, better in hand no doubt.
Along with the coin, he sent a business card with a photo of himself (not sure if its the lighting or something, but his face kind of weirds me out).
Plus he sent this "certificate of authenticity" with his signature, the coin's (wrong) attribution, and portion of Wiki's article on Honorius. This isn't an angry rant or anything, but IMO if you are going to present info on the history behind the coin when selling it, at least shorten it and put it in your own words instead of ripping the entire article off of Wiki. Or at the very least a few quotes from a site that isn't Wiki. Oh well, his ink and paper. I'll make it useful and give it my little brother to read.
Also, he subscribes you to his emailing list when you purchase a coin from him, pointing you to his main selling site. I unsubscribed and marked his emails as spam.
Pros:
Decent shipping time
Takes really low-ball offers (not all the time though)
Coins looks better in hand (at least for me)
Cons:
The spam and subscribing thing
Lots of overpriced junk (gotta wade through a bit to find even semi-decent stuff)
Cert. of Authenticity (his coins seem authentic but his signature doesn't prove that of course)
All right service, but basically, never pay asking price on anything. From now on I'll look a bit through his stock when I am bored and browsing but just for cheapo, scarce/rare coins.
Here's the Honorius I bought btw (for this type, its condition is pretty good):
In hand (the surfaces are a bit darker in hand but the photos are close enough):
Posted 01/26/2014 11:41 am
