Posted 08/16/2011 7:11 pm
About 97% of the sellers on ebay think that the raw coins they have are MS-65 or better. I know when I started collecting when I was NINE years old and I thought all of my coins would pass as BU because I learned a trick. If I took some wet sand and scrubbed the surfaces, I could make all the LWC I had shine like new!
Then I read the words, Never Clean A Coin! and I understood. You can't make an old coin new again. It was all in books back then, none of this instant access to almost all of the info you need.
The way I think of it is that lots ebay coin sellers still have that 9 year-old's perspective of coins. They think that any coin they have is better than any of the same year and mint mark the other seller has and cleaning them will only make them better. Most sellers take a look at the coin and at the price book and they then know that the coin is Top Pop without a second look.
But as they are nice sellers, they'll offer it for far less than the price they think it should get. It's still way over the valued for the condition of the coin, but people will see just how good my coin is from a blurry cellphone camera shot.
ebay has a few accidental big wins for the buyer. Most coins are just trash with PMD that as the seller says are the World's rarest error ever. You have to dig, but rare coins at a fraction of the value are out there.
I tried to sell all of my coins at a price that I could make 10-20% over what I paid and sometimes that was 5-10% over the value for the coin. I'm paying ebay all the fees and I try to ship free when I can, but I was out there trying to make money. I lost on some and made money on others, but that's the way it should be.
Some sellers are on the money with sales. I think they are the people finding the right coin at the right price. Once you find these sellers, stick with them.
Other sellers have a TPG coin that shows the value in 10 books and on 20 web sites, but they ask 5X the price that they KNOW the coin is worth in hopes that someone will buy the coin without really knowing the truth.
The true test will be when they try to sell these over-graded, over-priced, junk coin. But by that time, it will be far too late to do anything about it but learn what these sellers are up to and don't buy from the seller that has a description that matches the coin only in the fact that it IS a COIN. Almost everything else they say is subjective.
Then I read the words, Never Clean A Coin! and I understood. You can't make an old coin new again. It was all in books back then, none of this instant access to almost all of the info you need.
The way I think of it is that lots ebay coin sellers still have that 9 year-old's perspective of coins. They think that any coin they have is better than any of the same year and mint mark the other seller has and cleaning them will only make them better. Most sellers take a look at the coin and at the price book and they then know that the coin is Top Pop without a second look.
But as they are nice sellers, they'll offer it for far less than the price they think it should get. It's still way over the valued for the condition of the coin, but people will see just how good my coin is from a blurry cellphone camera shot.
ebay has a few accidental big wins for the buyer. Most coins are just trash with PMD that as the seller says are the World's rarest error ever. You have to dig, but rare coins at a fraction of the value are out there.
I tried to sell all of my coins at a price that I could make 10-20% over what I paid and sometimes that was 5-10% over the value for the coin. I'm paying ebay all the fees and I try to ship free when I can, but I was out there trying to make money. I lost on some and made money on others, but that's the way it should be.
Some sellers are on the money with sales. I think they are the people finding the right coin at the right price. Once you find these sellers, stick with them.
Other sellers have a TPG coin that shows the value in 10 books and on 20 web sites, but they ask 5X the price that they KNOW the coin is worth in hopes that someone will buy the coin without really knowing the truth.
The true test will be when they try to sell these over-graded, over-priced, junk coin. But by that time, it will be far too late to do anything about it but learn what these sellers are up to and don't buy from the seller that has a description that matches the coin only in the fact that it IS a COIN. Almost everything else they say is subjective.
ANA ID: 3203813 - CONECA ID: N-5637 Clean a coin that may be worth collecting? Please DON'T! When in doubt, leave it dirty!!
Edited by Yokozuna
08/16/2011 7:14 pm
08/16/2011 7:14 pm
