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 Replies: 6 / Views: 1,672 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1300 Posts |
Hate to bring this up..but what is it with ebay sellers scrubbing coins? I have been looking for some quarters and I would venture to say about 1:4 ratio of uncleaned vs cleaned... I wish they would stop..we have all had the conversations on here, but when it comes to numismatic value people gotta quit doing this..  arrghhhh |
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Pillar of the Community
1325 Posts |
the majority of people selling coins on ebay know nothing about coins, only that they can make more than face value. and if something looks newer then it usually brings a higher price. so the picture of a shiny coin may make it look better than a filthy one to people that do not know what they are doing. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3755 Posts |
Also, a lot of these people do not polish them. They just do not realize they are polished.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5207 Posts |
Unfortunately the same thing happens on ebay for vintage Seiko dive watches from the late 1970's / early 1980's and later. A lot of them ended up in the Philippines from US service members who either sold them or lost them and after the watches stopped working the local "watchmakers" found they could make a lot of money hacking them up and replacing all of the original "surfaces" like dials, hands, and bezel inserts with crap parts making them look "shiny and like new" and they are making a killing doing it. Same as the swap meet or ebay sellers who clean and polish up coins to make they look "new" to the unsuspecting buyer and years later collectors say "who would harshly clean a 1916 SLQ" or "butcher up a Seiko 6306" all while the person selling at at the time said "Hey I quadrupled my money today" Edited by jack jeckel
05/02/2014 9:55 pm
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Valued Member
United States
293 Posts |
You have to realize that ebay has become a dumping ground for problem coins for two reasons #1 live auctions ending all the time at all hours of the day and #2 a lot of people are present who really are not numismatists. Also think about it from a dealers view. Let's say I buy a set of Mercury dimes that's complete except for the 16-D. If the 25-D, 17-D, 19-S, and 27-D are technical XF-AU bot they are cleaned then that's something I want to get rid of fast because that does detract from the "display" of the surrounding Mercuries. If the 21 and 21-D are Good to Very Good and not cleaned but I already have quantity of them then I can list these for just above what another dealer will pay me for and see how much they bring. Not only does this help clear out stuff I either do not want or don't really need it has the potential to hit a home run on something I could do that at a coin show. |
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Pillar of the Community
1325 Posts |
ebay has been a dumping ground for everything since its beginning. It is not so much an auction house even though you have competing bids, but more of a giant yard sale. Person A has something and wants some money for it, Persons B~G have some money and want it, and let the silly ensue! It is the prime example of that saying "Something is only worth what someone else will pay for it." With coins people often pay much more for them on ebay also, so why not go there with anything? Silver bugs and gold bugs can get their fill, and people with bulk or junk can get rid of things like boxes of copper, or the cleaned coins. There are more than "perfect condition" and "NRFB" collectors out there that just having a coin of that year or mintmark is all that matters. To someone who has never had a silver coin, that cleaned Merc set is a treasure, not just junk. They just have to beat the junk silver collector in order to win it. Not everyone goes for only slabbed MS coins that are collectors, many collect circulating coins as that is part of what created the coin collecting hobby. Super rich people collect Ming vases or Mona Lisa's and the like. Poor people can collect things from their pocket change to have their art and culture and look like they are rich by having something of value (but only paying face value you it).
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12822 Posts |
As has been inferred, ebay is not what it was 10 years ago. In its early stages I was able to put together a baseball card set for reasonable money (but had to send money orders (PayPal was in its infancy), which was a pain). But now everyone is asking ridiculous money and you're never 100% sure of what you're getting. For the former, no doubt in part by the fees charged by PayPal and ebay, but man. And for the latter, no doubt because the unscrupulous will always look to separate people from their money. ebay was always a caveat emptor market, but now so much more. |
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Replies: 6 / Views: 1,672 |
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Posted 05/02/2014 9:46 pm
