The Most Overused Word When Selling Coins?

Sellers who combine ambiguity with feigned ignorance in order to state "possible error?" or "new variant?"

Although not words, but overused none the less, are question marks (for plausible deniability; see above) and, of course, exclamation marks.

More exclamation marks are always better than less exclamation marks. This is based upon a theory, I developed, called the "More Cowbell-Exclamation Mark Value Effect".

Mostly already said for those silly terms. However, just as with what people put down on a work resume, if you don't comply with the others and their system of descriptions, you may loose. Work resumes are sort of exaggerated and although employers know this, usually the best written ones may win. Similar with the terminology on listings for coins. If you should state this coin is OK or decent, might not sell as fast as if stated as fantastic deal or BU details.

well, I did not get beat up for my topic, I thought I would get hammered, so it is nice to know others that reason the same are out there.

"unsearched". I disbelieve that about 100% of the time. Is a person, especially a dealer, going to inherit or buy a bag of interesting old coins and not go through each and every one of them? there may be just one coin among them worth hundreds or thousands.

now, I admit that I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer. but yesterday I broke my personal vow NOT to buy ANY more coins. I mean, when is enough enough? It is 2012 proof 9999 gold coin that features Smaug the dragon from the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit books, which I have read starting in the 70's. ok, I am a Hobbit and Dragon fan. They are sold out at the mint. I checked that and a few other sources.

Surprise... I have NEVER seen one for sale ever anywhere at any price in the last 6 years or ever, even at London coin company where they really know how to fleece a buyer. Only 500 of them were made, or should I say, UP TO 500 of them were made. I consider them "scarce", which I believe is accurate since... wait for it... "THESE NEVER COME UP FOR SALE"! (well, except this one time maybe, so let's just forget the NEVER word for now). The Australian seller did not make a big deal out of the coin, but he did not have to, because I already knew about 99% of what there is to know about this coin beforehand. There is not one example of them either on NGC or PCGS.

So I decided to, once again, forgo my bills and obligations and live like a pauper for one more month, made an offer and after a counter-offer bought it. So was I smart or not? problably not, but make up your own mind... you are talking to a guy who drilled 3/4" holes in two 1920's silver Peace dollars for use on a rear axel spacers on a motorcycle because they were the perfect size, plus they were pretty common coins and cost less than the spacers at the dealership which not available there or at the hardware stores.

thanks for all the replies and not beating me up... mike
p.s. this POSITIVELY is the last coin I am going to buy!

In one listing I saw regarding gold taels, the seller threatened in his listing that if they were not bought by the time the auction ended that he would not ever list them again. The auction ended with no buyers.

The next week, they were back on the bay at a lower price. The kicker is that during his first auction I asked him if he would take a lower price, he said no. I problably would have bought them if he had.

So I did not even consider buying them on the later auction he said earlier he would not have. Too bad, because they were really nice and scarce taels, but not barn busting rare, altho Krause did not have them in their catalogs. In this case, Krause would list the taels if and when they became aware of them, because the design and maker were not the usual brands that one saw 90% of the time.

In fact, in one Krause catalog I have involving unusual world coins and metals they had a running paragraph on nearly every page that if one had something not seen in the catalog to send in the information and picture and they would consider them for the next edition. Fair enough.

The point is, I have seen several coins that Krause did not list because I believe they were either simply not aware of them or nobody sent them information about them. One example of this is the 1958 Venezuela "Chiefs in the Second War" series, even tho their was evidence (and pictures) of them on the informational super highway (internet). They simply listed the original year (1957) series, skipped any reference to the 1958 series, then listed a single 1959 example.

Maybe that might be an effective marketing ploy... just threaten that if somebody does not buy a coin or whatever on an auction, that they would not come up for auction ever again? Is this like a variation of the old "not available in any stores" marketing gimmick? Or what about the old "only 5 sets available per household" ploy"... even tho the maker has millions of them available?

I think that next time I list a coin I might up the ante and threaten to kill myself if nobody buys it. Or move to another country? Of course, I WOULD USE ALL CAPS AND USE NUMEROUS EXCLAMATION POINTS AFTER THE END OF EACH SENTENCE AND MENTION HOW EXCEEDINGLY RARE THEY WERE 24 TIMES!! I fear that I would be buried in another country after my death by suicide would be the results.

Can anybody mention another industry or product which goes to such silly and hysterical lengths to sell their product? I think the coin market tops the list if there is.

mike

The word that tends to annoy me is "vintage". What the heck is a vintage coin? I'm not shopping for clothes from the 70's or an old Adidas gym bag!

Most of what I buy on ebay these days are old/ancient Indian coins. The sellers list hundreds of items a week, every last item tagged as "rare" from coins that are genuinely very rare, to modern garbage - a "rare" US 1992 cent for a .99 cent bid, and a "Rare, huge" 1971 Kennedy half for a $2.99 bid.

I also agree about LQQK, although L@@K is even worse, IMO.

How about "a perfect addition to any collection"?

It is such a meaningless statement. Any given item could only be perfect for the small minority who collects and needs that particular item.