eBay seller who can't grade coins

The BBQ Pit
1

I used to collect coins as a kid, and I was close to finishing some nice sets, except for one of two rare dates, so since I recently got a little money, I decided to finish some of the sets I still had from childhood. I checked out the local coin shops, and also bought a few coins on eBay.

I know that in the past, there’s been a problem on eBay with people posting a picture of one coin, and sending the buying a different one. eBay put a stop to that. The coins I ordered have been perfectly satisfactory. The only problem I’ve encountered is that people have no idea how to grade coins.

Coins are called “Poor,” “About Good,” “Good,” “Fine,” “Very Fine,” “Extra-Fine,” and “Uncirculated.” After that you get into special grades for exemplar coins. I know “About Good” sounds funny, and the grade used to be “Fair,” but it got dropped so that it could be abbreviated AG and “Fine” could be abbreviated F.

You used to rarely see P and AG coins, other than very rare or very old coins, that were still worth money no matter what condition they were in. The general rule was that if it wasn’t at least G, forget about it. A Fine coin looked like a coin that might be in your pocket, but was less than ten years old. Nothing with less detail than that, even if the coin was 100 years old. Also, anything damaged, or drilled was “Poor,” no matter how much detail it had.

Here’s what some joker on eBay calls “Fine to Very Fine.” http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/oF0AAOSwGvhT2IOh/s-l400.jpg

Coins like that are all over eBay, and I have to scroll through pages of them to find what I’m looking for.

Feel free to use this thread to complain about any boneheaded sellers on eBay, or Amazon marketplace, Etsy, what have you. I realize coin grading is a very specific thing, and I really just wasn’t to spit about it somewhere, but other people must have little things that make them spit nails too.

2

“When 151 years old, you reach… Look as good, you will not.”
:smiley:

3

You could try to pass it off as an ancient Roman coin found in a recently raised Philistine galley.

4

And it STILL wouldn’t be worth squat! A cow-orker and I used to collect destroyed coins, put then in those cardboard and Visqueen display cases, and label them as “1985D BTS,” for “beat to shit.”

5

Here’s what some joker on eBay calls “Fine to Very Fine.” http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/oF0AAO...IOh/s-l400.jpg

Oh, yeah. I should have mentioned: that’s a US 2-cent piece from 1865. I have a 1/2 cent from 1821 that looks like it came out of my pocket.

Thanks for responding to my silly rant.

6

Can I also pit eBay sellers who claim they consider “best offers,” but reject anything less than four dollars below the asking price? Seriously, just knock two dollars of the price and stand firm. Someone was asking $58 and I offered $49, and it got an automatic reject. So I offered $52. Automatic reject again. I didn’t pursue it.

7

I think you’re being a little too whiny about this … if you look at the coin and say “Oh boy, extra fine, it’s worth lots more than $10” … maybe you should collect rocks or something. I scrolled through some eBay listings and for the most part the grading was consistent. A few were a bit overblown (like your example), but just looking at the damn coin it was obvious.

The 1914 Lincoln Head cent was obviously hit by a BB, I won’t pay $300 for it, but it’s not like the seller is trying to hit the damage.

Why the hell are you trying to fuck with the commercial grading system, are you a coin dealer and plan to retail these pieces? Lighten up, there’s going to be a hole in your collection forevermore unless you buy that coin … nothing uglier than a missing piece in an otherwise remarkable set.

Use two grades … good for the collection … or not good for the collection … and have fun fighting the metals markets …

8

I see the same sort of bullshit with books and (especially) comics. If you can’t show me an appraisal, I can’t believe a damn thing you tell me about condition.

9

I’ve bought a lot of stamps off of eBay, certain sellers weren’t able to distinguish between varieties so I just quit buying from them, but grading was real easy from the photo.

10

Ebay sellers have always been loose with the grading. Who it really hurts is someone wanting to sell quality stuff online for the appropriate price, but jaded bidders will snipe low to take the “bullshit discount”.

11

As long as they post a picture no one is hurt, I admit. eBay makes people people post a disclaimer if you are not going to receive the exact coin pictured. It’s mostly kinda funny when the coin looks like it’s been run over by a truck, and it’s called F/VF. I coulda called BS on that when I was 12.

It’s also not fair that American absinthe tastes like licorice, and I was supposed to get drunk while the boychik was spending the night at camp, but jeepers that stuff is yucky. I’d make DH go out and get Long Island Iced Tea mix, but he likes licorice, damn him. We should have bought the LIITM earlier.

12

Board games are sacred objects to me. Buyers of used games are incredibly picky and being gamers themselves sellers downgrade the condition of the games they offer for things the general public wouldn’t notice. For instance, a game could go from ‘like new’ to ‘good’ and shave $30 off the price for ‘shelf wear’ which may just be a little discoloration on the boxes corners. Gamers will also make damn sure the games are complete, they will typically print off a manifest of the counters and match up 500+ counters to make sure everything is there.

Know who won’t do that? Anyone on eBay. What you get there are wives of dead husbands off loading the man’s ‘trash’, or women who specialize in selling Beanie Babies or some shit and just happened to have stumbled on a goldmine game at a flea market, or mothers off loading musty games stored in the garage a decade after little Johnny went to college. But they WILL tell you the game is in fantastic condition, is all there and since it’s a ‘collectors item’ will price accordingly. What I’m looking for is always rare so sometimes I’m desperate, but I’ve been burned so often with missing pieces, busted boxes, missing rules, mold and all other sorts of shit I’d never make someone pay for I’m at the end of my patience and will just delete my account.

13

Many items aren’t worth the cost of an appraisal. You mentioned comic books; CGC is pretty much the only grading most buyers would trust. But to get your books graded costs between $18-150 EACH.

That would double the asking price of any of my comics. And to be honest, the Squirrel Girl #1 that I’d sell for $20 … if I got it graded and sealed up* by CGC and they charged me $35 (Economy Rate)? Well, frankly, it would NOT be worth the $48 I’d have to charge.
*SIDE RANT: Not to mention that you would not be able to read it. Y’know, that thing that books were made for, what the writer and artist slaved over… how would they feel if Squirrel Girl was being bought by someone with no intention of ever reading it?

14

That’s why I take pictures. I’ve sold lots of comics under the disclaimer that they haven’t been CGC rated, and I take detailed pictures of the corners, spines, fronts and backs. And I’m honest about any damage. If that’s not good enough, people are free to shop elsewhere. I won’t mind.

15

The other side of the coin, as it were: I’m currently in the process of selling my coin collection on eBay. No matter how accurately I graded my coins, they never sold for anything close to their actual value. Now, I only sell the PCGS encapsulated (professionally graded) coins, and I still get arguments about their grade, and offers to buy them at less than 50%. And there was the guy who had very specific and expensive shipping needs, which I accommodated at my own expense . . . then he left totally ungrounded negative feedback.

And then there’s the hassle of coin photography. I’m a very experienced photographer, but shooting coins, especially encapsulated ones, is absolute hell.

I can’t wait until all the coins are sold, and I can leave eBay forever.

16

My own experience with board game sales on eBay: I’ve been watching for a copy of The Ladies of Troyes (an out-of-print expansion to the game Troyes). Prices have been going for ridiculously high amounts, even if you’re willing to buy a foreign language edition for the components and print an online rule book.

But there has been a recent announcement that the game is being reprinted next year. So sellers have lowered their prices to unload what they have before the reprint comes out.

So I haven’t been surprised to see greatly reduced prices. But even so €2.49 was shockingly low, especially when the seller was offering several of them.

That’s when I noticed a discrepancy. The seller claimed he was selling unused and unopened products. But the picture he was using showed the rule book not the box cover. How could he be showing a picture of the rule book that was supposedly still sealed inside a box?

So I wrote and asked him what exactly the product was: was he selling copies of the rule book or copies of the expansion. It turns out he was selling just copies of the rule book. I don’t know if they were original rule books or if he was running them off on a copier but either way I wasn’t interested.

And apparently the seller realized he was walking a fine line. The sales listing was rewritten to indicate these were “regolamentos”.

17

I’m gonna go ahead and pit the idiot who did this:

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/J1QAAOSwMNxXZWaP/s-l1600.jpg.

I realize it may have been done in 1880. It still sucks.

18

Why?

19

I bet they jingle real nice though :smiley:

20

Why does it suck? Or why were the coins punched?