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 Replies: 15 / Views: 2,253 |
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Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
So I have some junky high grade ish Seated Liberty dime...XF 45 cleaned corroded common date. Finishes at $38. Would've sold this to someone for $12 An AU 1934-D Mercury dime described as having hidden pin scratches that are obvious....$54 A polished unc details Barber dime, $56 A cleaned AU 3 cent nickel...$64 Then nice stuff finishes like this randomly An AU Seated half dime (with minor problems at worst...) $26.... An AU Barber dime without major problems...$15 An XF Seated half dime, same date as above $40 (lower grade) An 1838 Seated half dime in F++/VF $17 A nice XF Seated quarter...$26. My cleaned one went for $46 a few days ago A VF common date Barber dime...$15 Anyone want to help me explain this seemingly schizophrenic pattern? Is there something I am missing or is it just dumb luck? I list at the right times, with good pics, good descriptions, etc. Do buyers like really shiny coins or something? I mean seriously, $11 for a VG common date Barber dime, and $15 for an AU? http://completed.shop.ebay.com/floo....m283&_rdc=1Edited by coinguybrian
04/04/2011 01:32 am
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Rest in Peace
 United States
5375 Posts |
Btw I'm not really that unhappy because in the end they average out in my favor...but look at that! A F cleaned Barber dime for $10, but an AU Barber dime for $15? |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
838 Posts |
That's really incredible! I have no explanations, but I wonder if two or more people are bidding "infinity" on some auctions. Perhaps you take better pics or have superior auction conditions than most listers on E-Bay. For the low auctions, I guess (sadly) some of the early series just don't have the same following as the newer series. On a related note, I bet you Mercury dimes will really take off now that everyone and his dog knows about silver's recent run. I can't believe what you got for that 34-D, though! I'd be lucky to get $3 for something like that.  Edited by bibd
04/04/2011 01:50 am
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Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
Yeah, my jaw dropped when I saw the 1934-D hit $30, then I checked later and I saw $54....it's not just between series, its within the same series I have really random ending prices.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
958 Posts |
auction prices are random becuase people are random.... People log on and log off all day on ebay , people bid then look and bid more just to buy something,millions of people visit ebay each day Much like the lady that window shops then walks in and buys stuff she will never wear and it sits in the closet just becuase she " wanted it that day " reguardless of price People do the same on ebay " I want that i'll buy that " .. Let them BUY BUY BUY .... ebay is a great place to sell..... But often not a great place to get a good deal when you buy. There is a guy here in Tampa that consignes stuff at his " sold it on ebay store" often times he goes to a few yard sales talks the people into listing stuff on ebay walks away with a box full of crap... They come to his store and get a check a week later. His sales pitch is that they are underselling their stuff at the yardsale and he can get them more.. Often times he does.. He did this for my neighbor that was selling some roseville pottery for $10 a piece he sold each on on ebay for around $50 each piece, she would have made $100 at her yardsale but made $500 ($400after fees) from the ebay seller |
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Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
It almost seems to vary from day to day though...wonder what's up with that? Some days almost everything goes high. You'd think that the people who are overbidding on the low grade Barber dimes would take a crack at the high grade ones. |
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Valued Member
United States
314 Posts |
I find the estate auctions to be the same way as ebay. Last one I attended, 12oz Silver generics sold for 505.00 when value was 405.00. Two of them sold for this. I looked them up when I got home to find out these exact bars were silver plated copper. Can you say ouch? I won a folder of Walking Liberty halves with 30 total coins in really good condition for quite a bit under melt a piece, just to watch the folder of the later years sell for almost the same amount with 20 of them. So why did the 20 sell for the same amount as my 30? Every one of them were common dates. I find people are reading about the rising prices of precious metals and do not know the actual value and weight ratios, and are just randomly bidding to win. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4085 Posts |
I really don't know the answer - it's strange. Just recently, I was watching a 1928 BU Lincoln Cent on ebay - started at $7.99. Very nice coin - I almost sniped it at the last minute but it's was just a little too red-brown and I passed. It went unsold. Afterwards, I thought "that was a really nice coin - I should have bought it just to have even if I didn't put it in the Dansco". So - it's relisted at $0.99 - ended up selling for $21.50! Who knows... |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
759 Posts |
I was the guy who won the 1853 AU Half Dime for $26: http://cgi.ebay.com/1853-ARROWS-hig...em3f087825cfI was watching it and when I was outbid at $25 with 20 seconds to go, I took a shot at a manual snipe at $26.05 thinking if I win, that's a GREAT deal, if not, another will come along. Go figure, I won for $26.01. I think that's just the nature of auctions and this one worked well for me. If you notice though, the guy who came in second on the AU auction was probably kicking himself he didn't bid more, then he went after the XF hard which ended about 15 minutes later and won that for $40 with his first and only bid at the 5 second mark. So in those cases, poor bidding strategy by one of the only two main players (for some reason) hurt the AU, but fueled demand for the XF it seems. You're right though. Final prices are hard to understand sometimes. I'm constantly shaking my head at some. That's why I think you have the right outlook in how your whole basket of sales went, rather than each one. You can't bat 1.000. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
That definitely makes sense actually, I didn't check it in depth. Interestingly enough, my AU 1861 Seated half dime (possibly less attractive) sold for $61 4 days ago. And yeah, from time to time I get really low prices, but sometimes really high, so it evens out in the long run. I remember just wondering why on earth anyone would pay $54 for an AU scratched Mercury dime, or $34 for a cleaned corroded AU Barber dime I would sell for what...$9? It's just sometimes surprising, especially on a really high demand coin like a 1913-S Barber dime that almost always goes for high money. I remember getting $28 for a nice VG one once when they were typically going for at least $60 and being completely baffled. I did learn my lesson awhile ago about not listing on Friday night....a hard lesson at that as almost nobody is on during that time frame. I usually use a sniping service and win only about 5-15% at the low price I bid, and the nature of what I win seems random aside from the fact that I win copper coins (particularly things like braided hair Half Cents) and capped bust halves rarely as both have a strong 'cult following'. Edited by coinguybrian
04/04/2011 09:01 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
Quote:
just wondering why on earth anyone would pay $54 for an AU scratched mercury dime I paid allot less for a NGC MS-66 common date (less than $20.00) so I am guessing that the people bidding either didn't know what it was worth or they saw something that sparked their interest |
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Valued Member
United States
244 Posts |
I think a lot of the randomness has to do with the way ebay works. At a place like Heritage or Teletrade, the auctions are at specific times, and so the bidders know to show up at those times. But on ebay, there are auctions ending 24x7, with no real rhyme or reason as to what lots end when. So buyers show up at random as well. Sometimes that works in the seller's favor, sometimes it doesn't. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1064 Posts |
I'm guilty of causing some of this; sometimes I just gotta have it, price be damned. Sometimes it's that rush at the very end. I try to limit my ebay visits, for just that reason; I have trouble leaving w/o bidding on SOMETHING. I have the same problem at Barnes and Noble. |
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Valued Member
United States
459 Posts |
Another X factor is varieties. I will bid high on some things if I think I see a variety, sometimes you hit sometimes you don't. If two or more think they see the same variety the price can increase dramatically.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3592 Posts |
The very nature of auctions causes this and of course both posts above me are prime examples.I've had a lot of auctions go way above my expectations and maybe one or two way low.I'll take my chances  |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
ebay is going to be random, because as it was said, people are random. Your job, ShadowCreator, since you sell so much stuff, is to acquire and mine a whole bunch of data from your auctions. Look at verbiage (title wording), end times (including clock time, day of week, and month), number of watchers, and anything else where the information might add up to some sort of pattern you can exploit. It'll be a bear of a job, and chances are it'll be fruitless. Because people are random.
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Replies: 15 / Views: 2,253 |
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Posted 04/04/2011 01:49 am
