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Be careful what coins you buy on Ebay

It's A Trap!

It's A Trap!

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2012
Messages
331
Location
Western Pennsylvania, Gibsonia
The Chinese are flooding the market with counterfeit coins. Most of these are rare coins like carson city morgans, flowing hair large cents and other key date coins. Some of the silver coins are just silver plated steel and can easily be checked with a magnet but they are also making silver, nickel and copper alloy coins which not only weigh like the real thing they pass most acid tests too. As you can see they are making fakes of just about every date of morgan silver dollar. They are also faking certificates of authenticity too.

Make sure you read the item description and ask the seller if it is in fact a real coin.

http://www.ebay.com/gds/FLOOD-OF-FAKE-MORGAN-DOLLARS-FROM-CHINA-/10000000001528176/g.html

picture.php


picture.php



https://youtu.be/oGzsH9qeZbk
 
This has been going on for many years.
There are 'coins' in fake slabs (NGC, PCGS etc) that would fool most (The serial numbers even check out!)
There are fakes that are actually made from silver and even weigh what they're supposed to (was a time when weighing a coin was a good way to detect fakes)
I wouldn't recommend buying coins on eBay, no matter who the seller was, in fact if you don't REALLY know your stuff don't buy coins at all, it's a sure way to get stung.
 
I used to buy occasionally from ebay, but I would carefully check customer reviews of how good the seller was before buying. I'm not say I might not very very occasionally buy from ebay again, but we buy mostly from Amazon now.

With ebay, not only check reviews on the seller, but Paypal is supposed to offer protection to the buyer if something is not right with the sale.
 
Found this while browsing. Looks like some poor guy is going to get screwed.

picture.php


"This is an 1888 Antique Morgan Silver Dollar Restrike. It has the same obverse design as an original Morgan Silver Dollar. The actual silver content (if any) is unknown. The weight of this coin is 24.2 grams. It is the same size as an actual Morgan Dollar with Reeded Edges. It is the same thickness as an original Morgan Dollar. It is a great collectible item to have in your collection"
 
GKL said:
I used to buy occasionally from ebay, but I would carefully check customer reviews of how good the seller was before buying. I'm not say I might not very very occasionally buy from ebay again, but we buy mostly from Amazon now.

With ebay, not only check reviews on the seller, but Paypal is supposed to offer protection to the buyer if something is not right with the sale.
Click to expand...

Feedback is easily faked, so that's not even a protection any more.
 
Gauntlet said:
Feedback is easily faked, so that's not even a protection any more.
Click to expand...

Good point about feedback, even though I've never used it, at least the Paypal protection is supposed to be good according to how they advertise it.

I'm not sure how well Ebay watches out for scammers, but you would hope that a seller with thousands of prior sales would not still be allowed to be active if they had a high number of complaints of scamming.
 
GKL said:
Good point about feedback, even though I've never used it, at least the Paypal protection is supposed to be good according to how they advertise it.

I'm not sure how well Ebay watches out for scammers, but you would hope that a seller with thousands of prior sales would not still be allowed to be active if they had a high number of complaints of scamming.
Click to expand...

Pick a 3rd World cesspool, get 25 people to start multiple bogus accounts, all posting positive feedback for each other. Doesn't take long to build decent feedback. They've been hacked before, as well as user accounts.

Ebay owns PayPal, and it's anti-gun. I have little (no) use for either. I read all the time on other forums of people (buyers and sellers) getting cheated.

I dumped Feebay (as a Seller) about 20 years ago, wasn't worth it then, and I'm sure it's only gotten worse since.
 
Gauntlet said:
Pick a 3rd World cesspool, get 25 people to start multiple bogus accounts, all posting positive feedback for each other. Doesn't take long to build decent feedback. They've been hacked before, as well as user accounts.

Ebay owns PayPal, and it's anti-gun. I have little (no) use for either. I read all the time on other forums of people (buyers and sellers) getting cheated.

I dumped Feebay (as a Seller) about 20 years ago, wasn't worth it then, and I'm sure it's only gotten worse since.
Click to expand...

Understood, I was not aware of all that to that degree, I guess I was fortunate way back when I was more apt to occasionally buy stuff on ebay, but then again I did buy only occasionally.
 
Ebay is where we need to know the Seller that's for sure. If a dispute file not as described and MBG...buyer usually wins .

One concern is for honest sellers a scam buyer can return an item with tracking but inside could be a rock.. it happens.

There has often been photo's of new coins being minted with vintage design.
Ebay get's their fee and turn's a blind eye. Heck have you noticed the LRD being flogged on Ebay. Tilting at Windmills thinking Ebay is reputable.

Bottom line if a dispute it's MBG ,you waste your time but not often your hard
earned cash.
 
GKL said:
Good point about feedback, even though I've never used it, at least the Paypal protection is supposed to be good according to how they advertise it.

I'm not sure how well Ebay watches out for scammers, but you would hope that a seller with thousands of prior sales would not still be allowed to be active if they had a high number of complaints of scamming.
Click to expand...


There are some sellers with hundreds of negs and still selling, of course you stay away from them.

Get a small seller with a few negs they do get sanctioned or worse in the US not where those fake coins are though, double standards by two faced Ebay.
 
I bought a 2011 liberty dollar off of Ebay for $20. I'm pretty confident it's real, but I'll probably buy from Apmex from now on. There's too many negative experiences with Ebay that I've heard about.

On the flip side buyers should always read the description. 90% of the time the scammer can get away with selling fake coins by putting the coins metal composition as "silver colored metal". Silver colored metal and silver are two different things.

Also make sure that they accept returns. When you get the coin do a weight test. Then measure the thickness and width of the coin. If it all matches up you should be good to go. If you suspect a counterfeit; then, and only then, should you do an acid test. Especially on proof or uncirculated coins.

I can pretty safely say that the majority of coins on Ebay are real. But there will always be that one scammer.
 
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