When we first started selling on Ebay, we also bought coins to resell. In order to make a profit doing this it is necessary to find coins at bargain prices, while avoiding many pitfalls. Having found a number of such pitfalls, we are offering some insight to assist you with not making those mistakes so many other s make.
This article is a service to the coin collecting community from Blackspanielgallery, in an effort to help collectors make intelligent decisions when buying on Ebay.
How do I figure out the value of a coin?
We cannot recommend the Ebay button “What’s it worth?” because some sellers price high and make no sale, while others sell similar, but different, coins at a price well out of line with the coin you are interested in. Some coins have different denominations, and that may or may not appear in the title. Instead, you really need to invest in a coin book and look prices up, if possible. Foreign coins may not be so easily looked up, so in the case of foreign coins “watch” several. The price often changes in the last seconds, so you need to have the watch feature of Ebay active to assure your being able to determine the final price. And with coins, do add the sale price plus the shipping. You will find many coin buyers are astute with regards to money, and consider shipping part of the cost.
How can I find a bargain?
While it may not always work that you find a bargain, you can enhance your success rate by doing the following:
Look for new sellers and be willing to give them a chance. Bidding on their coins is usually lower than on coins from established sellers.
Find coins coming up late at night or very early in the morning. Bid at the last minute before signing off for the night. Competition is less then.
Bid on coins coming due on Sunday morning. Fewer people are bidding on Sunday morning, so if you bid late Saturday or very early Sunday you might just get a bargain.
Bid on coins coming due during a major sporting event.
Look for a flooded market. Some sellers buy several rolls of the same coin and run them over an hour or two. This extra supply may reduce the price. Look for successive, identical coins and bid.
Look for coins in a category fewer people check. Many people check bullion, but not so many check foreign commemorative coins. A coin fitting both may sell much lower in the foreign commemorative category. And a few people run coins as antiques.
Look for “false” low ratings. Read the rating comments. If someone takes a week to ship, and that is not an issue with you, ignore those comments and take advantage of the fact others look only at the number. Some low ratings are undeserved. Read what happened and figure out if it was a difficult customer or not. Some negative ratings arise from shipping costs, but if you can see the shipping and determine you still have a bargain, so what?
Bid on Dutch auctions. These are different, so know the rules, but many people are afraid to bid on them.
What should I avoid?
Look past the rating numbers.
· Certainly, look at the poor ratings closely, or set a limit where you avoid buying.
· Look at the wording on good ratings. If there are vague comments, or you see something like “technically as described, but not as expected” think about this one carefully. Too many simple “thanks” comments may be more politeness that true feedback. Read between the lines.
· Check for “stale” ratings. One seller had a 100% feedback with hundreds of feedbacks reported. However, the site looked almost identical to another site with a similar name where the same coins with the same pictures were available. The second site had a horrible rating. Upon checking closely we found the 100% site had only six feedbacks in the last year, and those from previous years were equally bad as those on the other site. The percentage is based only on the latest year’s feedbacks, and sellers with very bad ratings often let their account go dormant until the year passes, while using a different site.
· Watch for counterfeit coins. We once observed a trade dollar with a date for about a hundred years before the coin came into existence, and this was not a typo, the coin had the wrong date in the picture. If the coin was not made during a year, do not buy it. And this one was not a very high grade. The counterfeiters are making lower grade coins!
· See where and what the seller buys. It is not illegal to make counterfeit U. S. coins in China, according to Chinese law, and apparently many are being sold. There was an article in Coin World recently discussing this problem. What we conclude from the article is the counterfeit coins are being sold on Ebay as weights to hold cards down to a table. If your seller is buying coin shaped items from China, and you buy coins from that seller, you may indeed fall into a counterfeiter’s trap.
· Watch the shipping cost. We once found a coin with shipping of $89.99, and the seller had shipping of $8.99 on many other coins. We asked if this was a typo, and was told no well after the auction ended.
Watch for vague descriptions. We bought a coin that had the claim “may be uncirculated, I don’t know” that was in such bad shape the “I don’t know” part had to be a lie. If the wording looks like just enough to avoid getting kicked off of Ebay, it may indicate a problem.
Remember coins sealed by the mint may be uncirculated, but can still be toned. COAs are important, but can be bought on Ebay. Original boxes indicating proof coins are also available, and a high grade uncirculated coin can easily be substituted.
Is free shipping always better?
No! With coins, you should always consider the shipping as part of your cost. Coins with free shipping may get higher bids. What you lose is the ability to combine shipping. Buying multiple coins with shipping discounts from the same seller may be more advantageous than buying a coin with free shipping. In fact, that word “free” can actually cause the price to rise during bidding. People like to get something “free” even if it costs more.
While you may not be able to determine if your seller has a legitimate Ebay account, we have observed both Ebay and Paypal accounts available on iOffer. So, while this article may help, please understand there are other problems that can occur.
This article is being made available from Black Spaniel Gallery at http://blackspanielgallery.comby the author. Links to major English speaking mints are available at Black Spaniel Gallery.
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