Warning : Ebay powerseller alex54

[jman425]

I'm a newb here, so take it easy on me.

I know, read all the warnings about raw coins on ebay but live and learn. Bought a coin from Alex last week, a 1880 half eagle in supposed "BU+" condition according to the title. Ended up with a coin that is EF, maybe low AU at best.

Going back to them immediately for a refund but lost out on freight/insurance. They wouldn't pick up the freight, trying to justify that my final bid price did not justify an BU+ coin What a crappy excuse. You normally bid on items that you feel are undervalued anyways.

Anyways, there's my rant, avoid Alex54 (even though he has a good rating, I suspect he gets many returns) and everyone welcome me into this board !

[gmarguli]

I'm a newb here, so take it easy on me.

I know, read all the warnings about raw coins on ebay but live and learn. Bought a coin from Alex last week, a 1880 half eagle in supposed "BU+" condition according to the title. Ended up with a coin that is EF, maybe low AU at best.

Going back to them immediately for a refund but lost out on freight/insurance. They wouldn't pick up the freight, trying to justify that my final bid price did not justify an BU+ coin What a crappy excuse. You normally bid on items that you feel are undervalued anyways.

Anyways, there's my rant, avoid Alex54 (even though he has a good rating, I suspect he gets many returns) and everyone welcome me into this board !

 

Auction

 

Sounds like an OK transaction to me. You purchased a coin, didn't like it, returned it, and got a full refund minus S&H. That's a standard way things work. :shrug: Sorry.

 

 

[123cents]

Personally, if I couldn't tell if the coin was BU from the photos, I wouldn't buy the coin.

[jman425]

I was hoping they would also cover shipping and handling since it was a gross misreprestation on their part. Regardless, their explanation on why the coin was labeled BU+ was laughable. You don't win an auction for a 1 oz gold coin at $600 and get only 3/4 oz do you ? He justified the misleading BU+ grade because I paid enough only for an "XF" coin. And this was not even close to BU. The eagle feathers around the shield was worn smooth, same with the hair above the crown and the neck.

I was naive and got it based on his stellar rating and description. Lesson learned, I guess.

[Conder101]

I have to agree with Greg, you bought a coin and didn't agree with the grade so you returned it. Standard procedure is that you, not the seller, eats the return S&H. Look on the bright side, he didn't have a 15% restocking fee like so many sellers have now.

[James_OldeTowne]

First of all, Welcome to our friendly little neighborhood!

 

It is not unusual for a seller to not cover return shipping. After all, if he always paid the freight both ways, it wouldn't be long before speculators and scam "collectors" would start using him as an "approval service". On the other hand, if a coin was grossly misrepresented (either by accident or on purpose), common courtesy would be that he might agree to cover the shipping. That said, it isn't a requirement in my mind.

 

Sounds like you got a good lesson out of this, really on the cheap.

 

Thanks for the heads-up on this guy!

[jman425]

Yeah, I guess it could have been worse. I am being a lot more careful now. Still kinda ticked at the BU+ description on something that obviously wasn't.

[jesbroken]

Welcome to the forum, jman. Hate you had a bad experience in your eyes, but in reality you are promised this by ebay-sellers are not responsible for freight for returned items. As was stated, some sellers in order to maintain their credibility will pay freight-have had it happen several times, but they are not required to. As to this sellers grading credentials-non existent, so why believe them. The reason for the high approval rating is these type sellers do not give feedback to buyers until they receive feedback from you, therefore threatening you with bad feedback if you leave them bad feedback-this keeps their ratings up as no one gives them what they deserve. You have learned a cheap lesson, as was stated previously. Learn from it and it will be of a value to you rather than a loss.

Good luck.

[relicsncoins]

I,m a bit confused here........Did you recieve the coin from the photos or did they tell you they sent you this one instead because your bid was not high enough to justify sending you the "BU" coin?

 

JJ

[CHABSENTIA]

All the ones I have read there is a statement from the sellers that regarding refunds it is the price minus shipping and handling.

 

 

I dont know the percentage but they also pay a certain percentage of the price.I know that some will ask the buyer to sign a Mutual consent form and they will get all or a good part of that back.Some will not accept returns and say it. All that I have seen will not accept returns on graded coins.I am not sure if that means SGS and PCI etc.

 

I ran across one the other day that was auctioning a 1886 Morgan by NGC with an MS66 Grade. THe Nunismedia value is $375.00.It ended up going for $270.00he seller calimed that it was a VAM with a double reverse.I know that if you send in a coin and do not pay the Variety plus fee of $7.00 that they will not list it as a VAM.You can send in the coin and pay the fee and if this is true then they will designate it as a VAM if it is one that NGC recognizes.

 

This particular seller had a 7 day refund policy but stated that he guaranteed the Vam and would allow 30 days for it to be submitted and would give a refund minus S/H if it was not true.

 

I contacted another and he would not wait that long.You have to read the policies and if you are not sure then you need to contact them.

 

I contacted another and asked if he knew if a Morgan had been cleaned or polished and the clown answered with "Its over fifty years old". "Who knows if a fifty year old coin has been cleaned/". I did not consider him.

 

I asked another and he said it had been dipped. I am also a little confused here. Was there a photo showing the wear you describe or no photo and advertised as a BU.? I will not bid on a coin without a photo and even then I knock it down a grade or two from what I think and look at its value at that point.

 

Then it depends on if you are collecting it or plan to resell it.Obviously if you plan on reselling a coin then you cant bid close to or over the real value. In the case of the above mentioned MS 66 Morgan I stopped at $218.00 even though the Value was at least $375.00 because I already had the coin at a lower grade and it wasn't worth anymore to me for just a higher grade.

 

My greatest fear in buying a Raw coin on E Bay is that even though I get it correct in all aspects is that I send it to E Bay and it is body bagged because it has been cleaned.That only happened to me once and it wasn't a big deal as the cost was very small .

 

I am not sure if the Feedback rating is that accurate.I have actually had sellers tell me that if I give them a good Feedback they will do the same for me.

[jman425]

No, it was their response to me after I let them know that the coin was not the condition/grade that they described.

 

And that's my point. It should not matter how the winning bid was, they should acknowledge the fact that they misrepresented the grade of the coin and as a reputable seller, stand by their mistake.

 

Instead, they tried to make it like "It doesn't matter what we described, but you got what you paid for" so you should be happy.

[ant]

i would have sent the response email to ebay! it sounds like he admited that the item was not the one shown due to"not getting money he wanted" i dont know what he has on his listings but if i see" leave feedback and i will do same"from a seller i stay away. i am set up to leave feedback the minute i get paid!

 

let ebay see the response and you just might get a full refund

 

good luck!

and welcome to boards

[carson city]

You made the case for only buying on eBay from those sellers that offer a return policy.

[CHABSENTIA]

Still not sure.You say that the "coin was not as described"/ You don't mention if there was a photo of the coin..Of there was a photo then did the photo agree with the coin you received?

 

If there was a photo and it was not the same as you received then you need to file a complaint with E BAY.

 

Did the buying of the Coin occur before the recent Policy?I might still compalin by the response you received.ATt the very least I would leave negative feedback.

[jman425]

Still not sure.You say that the "coin was not as described"/ You don't mention if there was a photo of the coin..Of there was a photo then did the photo agree with the coin you received?

 

If there was a photo and it was not the same as you received then you need to file a complaint with E BAY.

 

Did the buying of the Coin occur before the recent Policy?I might still compalin by the response you received.ATt the very least I would leave negative feedback.

I don't think there was a switch, just that the photo had a glare in it and the item was described as BU+, when in fact it was obviously circulated. I pulled up other items and this seller also claims MS62 on an item that was not slabbed (Ebay item 290170875834).

 

[cpm9ball]

First, welcome to the neighborhood!

 

You, yourself, stated that you placed too much emphasis on the seller's rating. Bad move! There are a lot of so-called Power Sellers that would "fit into the same mold".

 

If you had any questions or wanted better photos, you should have asked beforehand. You can often get a feel for the sincerity of the seller just by the responses you get. If he doesn't answer or he plays down the issues that are of concern to you, then you should pass. I'm not a gold collector, but I think the photos should have been sufficient to be able to differentiate between AU & BU. Maybe you need to improve your ability to grade gold from auction photos. If so, you should work on that, too!

 

The only possibility that might aid your case is his reply concerning cost vs. grade. Don't try to paraphrase his words. If he said, "Hey, you won it for AU money so that's what you got." you might have grounds for a complaint. However, if he said, "I'm not a grader, but......", you would probably have no basis for appeal.

 

I've only had to return 3 items in the last 10 years. Two of those instances were because I didn't ask questions. It was my fault, so why should I expect the seller to pay the shipping & insurance costs to or from me? The third instance was gross misconduct on the part of the seller. He switched coins, and I eventually got a full refund, including shipping, but only after numerous e-mails and finally initiating a complaint with eBay.

 

You should also be aware that the listing for the 1880 states that the Return Policy is "Money Back". Again, it doesn't say "Full Refund". It could very well mean a partial refund. It's too vague, and you should have asked for a more specific definition.

 

As others have said, I think you should just chalk it up to a learning experience.

 

Chris