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A guide to buying coins on ebay


Hussulo

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Probably the biggest thing is, communication.

 

Ebay sellers are just nothing other than humans who can make mistakes. The fastest way to understand their problems or challenges is be a seller yourself and you'll know what it is like. For instance, you may look at the postage stamp and think you paid 44 cents over and complain big time.

 

Also you need to have room for compassion and flexibility. In particular shipping from other countries can take a while from two weeks to more than a month.

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Probably the biggest thing is, communication.

 

Ebay sellers are just nothing other than humans who can make mistakes. The fastest way to understand their problems or challenges is be a seller yourself and you'll know what it is like. For instance, you may look at the postage stamp and think you paid 44 cents over and complain big time.

 

Also you need to have room for compassion and flexibility. In particular shipping from other countries can take a while from two weeks to more than a month.

 

Very valid point gx with your permission I may add them to the guide.

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I've just finished adding a my guide to buying coins on ebay. I would be grateful for any feedback.

 

http://www.coinsgb.com/Buying_Coins_On_Ebay.html

 

Can you think of anything that has been missed or needs to be changed?

Very nice! :bthumbsup: I will second what gxseries said.

 

I found one little typo:

"(...) and if a deal is true good to be true it often is. (...)"

 

As to discussion about negative feedback, you might want to include a link to http://www.toolhaus.org which makes it easier to find negative feedback left some time in the past. Regarding low amount of feedback, I have sometimes bought from sellers with very little feedback and had a good experience. But I would advise against buying more expensive items from sellers I hadn't dealt with in previous transactions unless they show 99.5% or better with a high amount of feedback (several hundred or more).

 

Then there is always the possibility that something will get lost (or stolen) in the mail in spite of registered mail shipping. It has happened to me more than once, even with reputable sellers. Although there are sellers who intentionally send empty packages in order to cheat the customer, usually it is sloppy packaging which is an invitation to some poorly compensated postal employee to steal a nice expensive coin. Of course, this isn't such an issue for low-grade material, but if your coin is insured and/or declared at a value of several hundred dollars or more, watch out. You need to make sure that you understand the shipping terms -- usually it is the buyer, NOT the seller, who takes the risk according to most countries' postal regulations. The seller should offer extra insurance for high-priced items.

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Thanks for the feedback guys I really appreciate it. I've taken account to the replies here and on other forums and added a link to Toolhaus as well as an extra section on postage and communication.

 

I apologise for any spelling mistakes, to be fair I'm not the Worlds greatest spellers and it was 1am when I finished it but I think its okay now?

 

Many thanks,

Hus

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Great little guide :)

 

My apologies but I found another,

 

"I believe it is some what bad forum to give bad feedback to a seller if you believe they have charges too much"

For forum replace with form, and charges replace with charged.

 

My policy on ebay has always been that I don't bid more than I can afford to lose, If I get a dud (so far just one that I know about) I chalk it up to experience and move on.

Might be worth mentioning that buying a coin in a slab does not automatically mean you won't be getting a fake?

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  • 4 months later...

I have just listed my Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold Coin collection on ebay (which is in my terms anyway) a sizeable investment. After looking at some of the coin forums I've noticed talk about buyers and sellers being ripped off.

One of the problems from a buyers point of view is sending an item like mine and then having the buyer say that the item never arrived. And then reversing the paypal payment and leaving the seller without the item and money.

 

My question is can anyone suggest how best to protect myself from this sort of thing when I ship my coins. I live in Sydney, Australia. Thanks.

 

Rick

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I have just listed my Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold Coin collection on ebay (which is in my terms anyway) a sizeable investment. After looking at some of the coin forums I've noticed talk about buyers and sellers being ripped off.

One of the problems from a buyers point of view is sending an item like mine and then having the buyer say that the item never arrived. And then reversing the paypal payment and leaving the seller without the item and money.

 

My question is can anyone suggest how best to protect myself from this sort of thing when I ship my coins. I live in Sydney, Australia. Thanks.

 

Rick

 

Post only by registered mail, to a confirmed address.

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Post only by registered mail, to a confirmed address.

 

Like ccg said, send it by registered mail if it's an expensive item. Also, if you're using ebay make sure you set up your listing so that there is no doubt about what your buyer will pay for shipping:

 

When you're making a listing, towards the bottom are a bunch of options for shipping. You can set a rate for domestic shipping, and then also set a rate for International shipping. Make sure you do that - don't just leave it blank or fill in a random value. Because if your buyer is international, and they don't read your shipping information and rules in your listing, when they go to pay for their item eBay will automatically apply your international shipping fee, making life easier for you. You don't want to run into a situation where an international bidder pays the domestic shipping rate, you send them an invoice for the rest of the shipping amount they owe, and they get bitter or refuse to pay.

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