Ebay?

I think ebay is a nice place to buy especially rare items. I have 100% out of my 321 votes and more than 400 buys and less than 20 sells. I recently sold a Hawaiian dime 1883 and was not paid for by a newbie of 2 votes. I don't blame him for being trigger happy, but I guess 99.9 % are legit and honest.

I'm an EBay-aholic. Nearly 90% of my acquisitions over the past two years have come off the 'Bay. By virtue of this first hand experience I've learned the pitfalls and can see the warning signs the majority of the time. I've been using ebay since 2000 and have seen a marked increase in "red flag" auctions this past year ... especially in coins. An inexperienced newcomer can really get taken if they go into ebay with "total trust". Approach it like you would any transaction with a complete stranger. Also know what your rights are as a buyer and a seller. Despite it's pitfalls, where else can you see over 100,000 offerings at one sitting, day-in-day-out, 365 a year?

I have bought many sets of darts on ebay and I have never regretted it. However, in the coin arena, I recently got burned on the "unsearched" wheats scams. Lesson learned.

I've been on ebay since August, 1997; in fact, I was one of the first 300 or so to register. I've had over 1,000 successful transactions (nearly all purchases) and perhaps only a half-dozen transactions which were less than satisfactory, including perhaps two or three where I never received the merchandise. That's a pretty fair record, but then I bid carefully and conservatively. I can safely state that I've had excellent luck with buying coins; for example, in buying a total of about 10 dozen Roman "cleaners", I ended up with two silver-washed coins and a silver Ottoman coin, not to mention a handful of very nice AE3's.

I have only two problems with ebay; one that it has moved from an online garage sale to big business, especially for ebay itself since it has imposed its PayPal-only rule. I simply refuse to use PayPal, but many sellers will still accept money orders; you may have to ask them, though. Another red flag for me is sellers who insist on using "standard shipping services" who charge a premium for shipping - and yet have only a dozen or so listings!

Nowadays I deal almost exclusively with one coin seller. At any give time he has over three thousand listings; he starts EVERY auction at 99 cents; he packs his own coins in bubble mailers; he answers my e-mails quickly, and in two cases where there was a problem with my order (in one, he listed the coin date incorrectly; in the other, the shipment never arrived, and the USPS shipping record was wonky) he cheerfully issued refunds.

Dealing with ebay auctions is no different than walking downtown and buying from retailers there. You can assume that nearly all dealers are honest, that some make mistakes, and only a very small number will promote scams. Read some of the sidebar warnings online, add a large dose of common sense, and you'll be equipped well enough to avoid being burned.