Sgs Slabs .... Buy The Coin Not The Slab

No doubt that SGS under the guise of its promulgator aboncom sells some nice coins. Where he crosses the fraud line is his misrepresentation of the coins as being of better quality than they are. For this reason, many of us will not do business with him which would be, in effect giving tacit approval of his illicit activities. That said, many of us will shop the boiler room one-person slabbing operations to find good deals cleverly camouflaged as "certified" coins. As you stated, an educated collector with knowledge of the series being offered can do this. Unfortunately, far too many novice or wannabe collectors have not bothered to educate themselves before bidding on a coin which is less than advertised ("Buy the book before the coin.").

ebay can be a wonderful place to shop for the wary, cynical, and smart buyer. But, it can be a financial death trap for the naive, innocent, and uneducated buyer who are subject to the deceits of sellers such as aboncom. I just bought a postal scale off ebay. There were over a thousand listed but really only a few models from which to choose at prices varying from 8 bucks clear up to 50 or more bucks for the same machine. It took me over two hours to find a seller who didn't have a negative feedback list that would put Bonnie and Clyde to shame.

Errorcoins, it sounds like you've got it together, eBay-wise. Good work on nailing that PR68 Franklin Scientist for a decent price!

Fred

This seller had a "Unknown" 1878 Morgan dollar VAM (wasnt in any publication or website as a known VAM, so would have been a discovery peice) and I thought long and hard about buying it but I just could not support him and his deal;ings so I let the coin go. I do not regret it one bit but I have never seen another one like it and may never see another but I have to put my standards above all other and I refuse to support these people that state one thing trying to prey on unsuspected buyers who are trying to create some kind of nice collection to leave to their family once they are gone

Bryan, good for you if you feel that way. I do hear a little regret in your response. I feel education is the answer. Inform yourself of what you are buying or you will be burned, simple.

If it's fraud then that would be an ebay corporate issue, I can not do anything about it. I have seen grossly overgraded coins by MAJOR certification companies and their slabs go for way way more......is that fraud?

I say buy the coins that you want for your collection at the price you want to pay for them knowing all the facts.

good luck errorcoins

ps.... ebay ... another pet peeve some of you have is no returns. Isn't this an AUCTION to the highest bidder? No returns won't stop my bid.

EC, regarding sellers with "no return" policies. I think each auction with such a policy has to be taken on its own merits. For example, if a coin is in a top TPG slab (ANACS, NGC, PCGS, and ICG [with qualifications), the TPGs will guarantee that the coin is as they represented and back their guarantees with money refunds if they are proven otherwise. However, if a seller is attempting to sell a coin in a slab by an unrated boiler room slabber and presents a picture from which no reasonably accurate grade can be determined, yet still insists on "no return", a buyer would be taking a huge risk when s/he purchases such a coin.

Here's an example: an "MS-66 1891CC" Morgan graded by ANC, a company nobody has heard of until now and apparently established by this seller to break up his own collection. http://cgi.ebay.com/1891-CC-MORGAN-...66_W0QQitemZ280035201184

The poor quality of the images render it impossible to evaluate the claims of the seller and "ANC grading company" that the Morgan is as represented; for all we can tell from the images, it might be a highly polished coin. Now, I know, you know, and the other Morganphiles in the group know that there are only one or two examples of MS-66 1891CC Morgans in existence; each would have a value of $17K or higher. However, an uneducated buyer might not know this and bid on the coin thinking he was going to buy a very uncommon certified coin for peanuts. This seller's only redeeming quality is that he DOES offer a 7-day return. If he did not offer a return policy and some fool were to buy it, the buyer would have little recourse and would be out the hundreds or thousands of dollars.

As a general rule, I am very suspect of sellers with "no return" policies and usually won't give them the time it takes me to click off their auctions UNLESS I have a reasonable idea that the coin is as represented. ebay sellers have a tremendous advantage over buyers in that potential buyers cannot look at a coin in hand before purchase. There is too much room for error and fraud with auctions using images only; an honest seller would have no problem offering a reasonable return policy because of the unreliability of images.

It's a bit harsh to say that because it's in a "wrong" slab, we must refuse to buy it. Personally if I were to buy coins in slabs, I personally will not include the slabbing price as a cost factor. Errorcoins do have a point - you are supposed to buy the coin and not the slabs. In this case, he used this case to turn it into his favor - as many people are learning how to shun away from SGS, this in turn helps to decrease the competition.

The moral of the story is indeed what Errorcoins has mentioned, which is, do not get dissuaded by the plastic tomb, but instead look for what is inside.

If the idea of buying slabbed coins from bad sellers disgust you, how can you know that the coins that you have in your change is 100% blood free? A lot of miners die from mining metals you know. (didn't you see the mining case in Bolivia yesterday?) Let's forget about gold war battles. Those are much nastier.

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Originally posted by Errorcoins

.. about ebay.......so many of you bash it.....not me, I love it, it's made my collection. Some complain about high shipping...Read the description..figure it in or don't bid.....and certainly don't give negative feed back for clearly stated shipping.

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I don't complain anymore, I just report them using the excessive shipping link.

I have one of those, and for certain reasons it's my absolute favorite coin in the whole collection.

Mine's not rotated. I didn't even pay for it - it was won here, in a contest. The coin is just so utterly gorgeous, a lock for 69 and maybe a 70. It's one of those you just grab and stare at every once in a while, you know?