There Ought to be a Law! by JAA USA/Philippines Collection

[CSJournals-migration]

Buyer Beware, The Flim Flam Man is alive and well on eBay.

 

There has been a lot of talk in the Journals lately about great buys on eBay. While this may be true for the knowledgeable collector eBay can be a dangerous market place for the novice or overly trusting.

 

In my area of collecting, US/Philippine coins, some of the claims of rarity and asking prices are borderline criminal.

 

For example one of the current eBay listings is a 1944 D Ten Centavos in NGC MS62 which is listed at a starting bid of $825.00. The coin is described as "NGC GRADED Rare Tuff Grade in MINT STATE MS62"

 

There is certainly nothing rare about the 1944 D Ten Centavos. 32,592,000 1944 D Ten Centavos were minted and BU rolls are readily available, at a modest cost, from dealers that specialize in U.S. Philippine coins. The only thing tough about finding a 1944 D Ten Centavos in MS62 is that nobody in their right mind would submit anything short of a GEM of this common coin to a third party grading service. According to the NGC population census a grade of MS62 would place this coin in the bottom 11% of NGC Certified 1944 D Ten Centavos.

 

In addition to the misleading description of this as a rare coin the $825.00 asking price is off the wall. The Allen catalog price for a 1944 D Ten Centavos is $3.50 in MS63 and $15.00 in MS65. I have a 1944 D Ten Centavos in the NGC Top Grade of MS66 that I purchased for $56.10. In reality a 1944 D Ten Centavos in NGC MS 62 is a five dollar coin in a twenty-five dollar holder.

 

Of course there is nothing wrong with a seller listing a common low value certified coin on eBay as long as the coin is not presented as rare and the asking price is at least close to fair market value. I phoned eBay this evening to discuss the ethics of this misleading listing. eBay customer service informed me that as long as the coin in question was as genuine NGC certified 1944 D Ten Centavos the seller did not violate eBay guidelines.

 

So BUYER BE WARE!!!

 

The coin pictured is my NGC MS66 1944 D Ten Centavos.

 

See more journals by JAA USA/Philippines Collection

[SPHansen]

Ebay said that? I'm surprised...

 

I know this seller well, and avoid him like the plague... he overcharges for shipping most of the time, or uses descriptions that are just not true... easy to see through for anyone who knows or has access to the NGC reports. It is obvious that this person has access to the info, so is here among us...

 

I wonder what we could do to convince eBay to crack down on these unscrupulous practices? If there aught to be a law, lets get one!

[nunfa0]

I tried to find this but it was gone I hope some sucker didn't buy it

[jayman1970]

The problem is there are so many!you can find coins priced like that in every series.Me I collect Washington quarters, I saw a 1961 MS65 for over300.00 dollars.the coin was nicely toned but give me a break.the problem is to the point that I dont get mad about it anymore I just laugh!It makes me think the seller is either unscrupulous or just an insufficiently_thoughtful_person to think someone will pay that much.even someone new to collecting can look through just a page or two and see multiple listings for a tiny fraction of the price !!!!

[Jeffrey Cardona]

From your description, it doesn't sound like the seller misrepresented the coin. In this instance, stating a coin is rare is not being deceptive, considering the coin is graded, can be checked through the NGC database, and market value can easily be checked. And a seller can can ask what ever price he wants. The buyer just needs to do the homework on the coin.

 

Jeffrey

[Mokiechan]

I'm with Jeffrey, price abuse and puffed descriptions appear. In all areas of commerce. Do your homework and you'll greatly minimize your risk.

 

Malcoln

[Jack Robinson]

 

I too have seen a great deal of, _what is this seller doing?_, moments on Ebay, and other sites.

 

I agree with Jayman1970 and NASF Firefighter that research is the key. This whole issue goes back to the basic rule of purchase-- know what you are buying. Impulse purchases are often dangerous which often ends in disappointment.

 

In my other life, as a historian, the word- rare - was seen as a warning sign. It is hard to be rare because someone, somewhere has one too. In the coin world, the word rare is overly used, IMHO, as in this case. It is used to lure the inexperienced buyer.

 

Ebay is correct, a seller can say just about anything to sell a product. Ebay is a buyers-beware site, not a seller beware place.

 

Best of luck in all of your adventures

 

Jack

 

 

 

[CBC]

A 1945 Walking Liberty half with the "AW" designer's initials missing sold on ebay a little over a month ago for around $500. The same coin appeared on ebay the following week with a "Buy It Now" price of $17,000 and wildly exaggerated claims of rarity. Check it out; as of last night it was still available.

[Yankeejose]

A lot of these absurdly overpriced garbage auctions started showing up after Ebay change their listing costs. There used to be a fee to list based on the starting price. I don't remember the exact costs but there used to be levels at something like a dollar, 10 dollars, 20 dollars, 50 dollars, etc. They dropped the listing fees but increased the seller fees. At the time I thought it was great as a seller- if it did not sell it did not cost me anything to try and sell it. Now I see the down side- especially for buy it now prices. Is there someone out there that acutally pays these absurd prices? Do these people actually ever sell anything? Do they not care if these coins never sell?