I am seeing more and more Ebay listings like this one - sellers trying to scam some unknowing buyer 0

[GoldFinger1969]

On 12/27/2023 at 4:09 PM, mlovmo said:

This also happens with "higher value, LEGIT coins," too. For example, a seller will list at eBay a coin that normally sells for, say, $2,500~$3,000 in the North American market/eBay for $7,000 BIN.

Yeah, see it all the time especially with a lower-priced "hot" item like the National Park Foundation Saint-Gaudens commemoratives which are nice and much cheaper than buying a 1 ounce Saint.  Also see it on the 5-ounce silvers for the Moon landing, American National Parks, etc.

I see stuff that is over the last sale on Ebay by 100-200% and it is still being advertised YEARS later.  I mean, if the person has others for sale and people are finding him/her then maybe that item listed on Ebay is there just for show.  But if that's the one he REALLY wants to sell, I don't get it -- unless they are waiting for The One Dumb Buyer.  

On 12/27/2023 at 4:09 PM, mlovmo said:

The seller does NOT expect anyone to buy it via eBay, of course.  EBay in this sense is only an ADVERTISING PLATFORM for this coin. How?  Well, many dealers' eBay handles are exactly the same as the name of their coin business or online name they use elsewhere.

I suspected as much....a few years ago I spend a bit over $500 on a really nice currency bill.  Seller had me send payment to his shop.  They probably saved me or him $100 (~20% ?) in fees, huh ?

I wonder how prevalent this is with eBay.  I know they have rules against it but not sure how you can enforce it (remove the seller ?).  Have to check an upcoming sell-side report and see if this "leakage" is a growing concern.

Edited December 29, 2023 by GoldFinger1969

[GoldFinger1969]

On 12/27/2023 at 4:09 PM, mlovmo said:

The seller then pulls the listing and sells the coin according to the agreed terms.  

Or....has multiple items in inventory and sells one of them while keeping the listing for YEARS at a high price....unless someone is dumb enough to buy it for 200% over FMV. 

[Henri Charriere]

On 12/27/2023 at 4:16 PM, J P M said:

I thought you could not sell privately, items you had listed on eBay.

Technically, you're correct.  But many sellers have parallel listings.  When I discovered a seller I know and have patronized for years on eBay, I simply walked to his store and bought the item at a reduced price.

[Henri Charriere]

On 12/27/2023 at 3:45 PM, powermad5000 said:

For those who think "Can they really do that?", here is this. I reported this. I don't think I need to expound further.

Looks like your report may have worked.  I scrolled through a dozen cell-pages of listings for this item and could not find it. The least expensive offering was for $1.49. The most expensive went into the thousands of dollars. Anybody ever hear of an error described as a "dew-drop mint mark"? Me neither. If the price or claim is egregious enough, I will report it. This is why I continue to maintain buyers should not venture onto these sites without a chaperone. This applies to adults, too.  

[powermad5000]

On 12/27/2023 at 3:16 PM, J P M said:

I thought you could not sell privately, items you had listed on eBay.

You are allowed to sell your item however you want to sell your item. Say I had a nickel listed on eBay and you saw it but since you know me, you messaged me here and told me you wanted to buy it from me. Since I know you on here, I agree and we work out a deal. Then I have to pull the listing down because the item is no longer available.

Or same situation, and say my neighbor wants to buy it so we complete the transaction in his living room. Then I have to go back home and pull the listing down.

What is not allowed is when someone you do not know (even if they are an eBay member) PM's you and says they want to buy it but they don't want to pay the eBay fees and request that you do the transaction outside of eBay, that is really not allowed. Not only because eBay wants to get their fees (of course they do) but because the buyer and seller protections no longer apply when you cut eBay out of the loop. So it is mostly in your best interest as a seller to keep a scammer from paying you, you ship it out, and after tracking is established, the scammer requests payment back (from say PayPal). End result is the coin is gone and so is the money and you are backed by no guarantee.

Sellers on eBay who also have a physical store that you can walk in (and there are many), can have the item for sale in their store as well. I have one seller of CD's who states right on their eBay page that if you visit their store, you will get the CD for less since there are no fees rolled into the price. Well, depending on where the store is (or their online acceptable payment methods), sometimes eBay is the better way to buy the item.

Edited December 29, 2023 by powermad5000

[mlovmo]

On 12/27/2023 at 3:20 PM, GoldFinger1969 said:

I suspected as much...

Yes, it is an advertising platform when sellers do this, IMO.

WHY is that though?  Tell me of any other ONE place ANYWHERE where coin buyers around the world go to look at coins.  Heritage?  Maybe.  Those European auction venues/auction houses?  Maybe.

But you simply will not get as many EYES ON YOUR COIN than you will on eBay.  Keep your listing open to "Worldwide" and you'll get the world's eyes on your coin!

EBay is easily the BEST advertising platform for those with online stores that have the same name as the seller's eBay handle.  Are there risks?  Sure. But if you operate an online store, YOU control how the buyer pays and the return policy.  There's no eBay worker telling you to give a 60% refund when your buyer initiates a refund and sends back to you something (lower-grade piece of junk) that isn't what you sold him (as had happened to me once)!

Edited December 29, 2023 by mlovmo

[powermad5000]

I have an addition to this slightly older thread that I found to be interesting.

I was going through the daily email I get for the daily auctions from a certain seller I have bought from before and there was an 1893 S Morgan Dollar up that day. That made me look at others on eBay. I was simply browsing based on the search entered for them. Nearly all of them were already slabbed by either NGC or PCGS. And then there it was. A listing for a raw one. It looked literally brand new so to speak. Of course, the scam alert alarm went off in my head and I clicked on the listing and said to myself "I have GOT to see this!".

It didn't take very long for me to determine fake fake FAKE!!! I didn't need to get past the date. I decided to look at the mintmark anyway. It looked like an oversize S and its placement was terrible. It also had 9 bids on it with the last one at a current $586 with 6 days left. I reported the listing. I did get to use the explanation box this time so I gladly typed in my counterfeit speech and what I saw wrong with it.

This is where it got interesting to me. I got a response the next day from eBay about how the listing was removed and eBay had deemed the item to be not genuine. It was what they used to determine this. In the response, it stated that eBay used AI to compare both sides of the coin to one considered genuine and AI determined the sellers coin was bad.

AI. Used to determine a fake. My brain was spilt in two ways upon reading that. One way was the hey-that-is-really-cool-that-they-are-using-that-and-it-is-cool-that-the-AI-could-tell and then the other part of my brain said why-then-dont-they-use-AI-in-the-first-place-before-it-is-even-listed?

Then also came the question in my head of why can't they use AI to review listings and get these listings for parking lot quarters for $1,000, circulated SBA's for $2,500, junk pennies for $500 and the such off of their platform? Maybe these are just things to come in the near future and eBay will be a better platform for buying and selling coins. Maybe. With its speed and has no need to take a break, imagine how many listings AI could review in only 24 hours if programmed correctly.

[GoldFinger1969]

It's not in the same category, but I see Hail Mary offers for coins that are WAY overpriced on the other auction sites, too.  I'm not talking about 10-20% overpiced for lower-priced coins...I'm talking more expensive coins where you are unlikely to find novices or fools (i.e., Saint buyers) and still see markups of 50-100% for even common coins.

Over on one of them is an MS-62 1924 Saint...a common coin in a very low-MS grade.  It is CAC (even though it's 4 grades away from the Big $$$) and is in an NGC older holder (one of the solid white ones).

Still...opening bid of $4,000 ?    I would think the final hammer price won't go over $2,200.

Not surprisingly, no bids.