Ebay Sellers: What's Your Experience/Advice For Selling Coins On Ebay?

Can't say I've ever had any bad experiences selling coins on ebay, I have selling electronic goods, like older synthesizers, and studio gear. But coins, I do accept returns, and always try to accurately describe them with good photos. The shipping costs have gotten out of hand though, and to send via insured priority mail is over $7.00 now. First class is usually around $4-5 per package I send. Seems sellers want the shipping for free and don't want it worked into the selling price. The only down point I have has been in rating on shipping costs, and I have lost money on every package I've sent this past 2 years now.

You can see my listings aren't the best, but I'm not doing it full time either (a coupe coins ever couple of months really), there are usually a few links in my profile of items for sale. My feedback says it all, all my coin sales the buyer loves the coin and the grade/description I give. Honesty goes a long way in the Coin World I think.

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Yes that is true, most definately. When I first started selling on ebay about 15 years ago it was a lot fairer. If a buyer had an issue and wanted to return they had to have a valid reason and any argument over grading had to be supported by statements from well known dealers. With buyer protection policies now if a buyer is unhappy they will win any case. They can falsify a claim easily, do not need any proof. Having "returns not accepted" is now meaningless. This has happened recently. A buyer claimed a set of 24 coins was not as pictured. Although it was clearly stated in the description that it was a multiple item listing and pics were of one of the sets. So it seems that there is no buyer responsibility to read a description and understand it.
So now I have to revise all my listings with stock pics or not have multiple item listings. Although this is an isolated case and the first in 15 years it tells me that seller protection is a myth.
ebay said I had to accept the return but they wouldn't penalize me with a defect. They lied of course and penalized me. Won't stop me enjoying what I do but red flags are flying.

I tend to use ebay shipping labels as they do offer a fairly substantial discount on postage in the USA, do NOT ever take the 3rd party insurance, as the fine print says they do NOT cover any coins, stamps or bullion, you are paying for extra for nothing, better to use the more expensive USPS Insurance if insurance is a must, and on coins valued at over $500 I will only ship registered Mail. It's expensive but worth every penny.

I have never had a coin returned (yet) I have returned only two coins in all my time buying, one was a set of Buffalo nickels, it just wasn't up to the photos or description. and one time on a Two Cent Piece (it was overtly cleaned harshly). Both sellers were gracious and accepted my returns, I have bought from them in the past and continue to purchase from them after the returns. All went well as both sellers also agreed with my issues.

ebay has become a more expensive way to sell, as you must mark around 13-15% add on to your sales price just to break even on the fees associated with them and the PayPal fees. I lose around .50-$1 on each package on average, and try to make that back in the sale price so as to keep shipping costs as low as possible, free shipping is a relic of the past I'm afraid. I don't see shipping costs getting any better either. If you sell a lot look into getting your own 3rd party insurance for postage, and use Safe-T-Mailers as often as possible with first class mail envelopes.

I think it depends on the coins, I used to set reserves all the time back when it was little cost to do so. Now it's a much larger fee if sold, so I don't use it anymore. A big risk in setting at .99 or 0.00 start price, unless you have a large volume, some guys I see that put up 100's or thousands every week can afford to average out losses with low starting prices, I can't. I usually set a high BIN price and accept offers, but make sure to filter out only serious ones by using ebay seller tools beforehand.

Some big sellers get a lot of interest on coins that stink because they have a proven track records and lots of watchers, I've sold better coins for less because not so many people see my coins I think.

Case in example I ended up selling a nice details ANACS graded 1901 VAM 3 DDR dollar for way less than it should have sold for and I would have at least had a friend bid it up if I had remembered it was selling. I had $125 in the coin, it sold for $44 (after my fees and costs taken out) it was probably worth $175-200+ I did get some great feedback from the buyer when I delivered it though.