My Ten Commandments for Buying Coins on EBAY

95% of the coins I buy are off EBAY. Below are the 10 Commandments I follow:

1. Thou shalt not bid on auctions from a seller with less than a 99.8% positive feedback rating.

2. Thou shalt read the description of the coin carefully.

(Before I made this a commandment I purchased a slabbed coin and when I received it, the holder had a 1" crack in it. I was going to send it back but when I read the description, the crack was mentioned. Lesson learned.)

3. Thou shalt not assume that if you purchase several coins from the same seller that they will combine shipping costs. Ask before bidding.

(Most will but I have found a couple that will not and so I have crossed these sellers off my list.)

4. Thou shalt only buy coins that are located in the U.S or Canada.

5. Thou shalt not buy any coin on "Buy It Now".

(This is a personal preference. I prefer auctions but I have bought coins on BIN when a seller has made a mistake on listing a coin. I bought a PF70 for the same price that the seller had listed the raw version and I bought another PF70 for $39.00 instead of the $139.00 the seller had intended to list the coin as.)

6. Thou shalt research all listings for the same coin you are interested in to determine your maximum bid.

(I search all of the listings for like coins and then find the LOWEST Buy it Now price. I then subtract 20% from the lowest BIN to come up with my maximum bid. I end up winning more than half the coins I bid on using this technique.)

7. Thou shalt bid only once on a coin (preferably in the last few seconds.)

(After you have determined your maximum bid, just wait for the auction to get close to closing and then make your bid. If someone has bid higher than you, don't be tempted to get into a bidding war.)

8. Thou shalt add coins to a watch list. Every day I check my watch list to see which coins will be closing that day and to see if I should delete any from this list that have already surpassed my maximum bid. EBAY will send you a text message 15 minutes before the items on your watch list are set to end.

9. Thou shalt not whine, cry, cuss, etc. if you do not win because you were outbid. There will always be others that come along.

10. Thou shalt always leave feedback for the seller (positive, neutral or negative) depending on your experience. The feedback rating is what makes doing business on EBAY a safe experience.

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