Buying World Notes from foreign countries on eBay

TwistedArrow1962

Hi All,

I've recently gone nuts buying World Paper money on eBay. Been trying to buy from US sellers but there are a lot of cool notes not available. I see a lot of notes from overseas sellers and was wondering what other peoples experiences have been. One dealer in China called Asianbanknotes has items I am interested in. There is another seller in Thailand called Noteshobby. Other sellers in Egypt, Serbia, Spain, Cyprus, Poland , Russia etc etc. These sellers have good feedback but I don't want the hassle of buying counterfeit, repaired or overgraded notes. Any feedback on foreign buying is appreciated.

Thanks

Scooter007

Sorry I can’t help,
Like you I’ve seen some notes of interest from overseas sellers , so I’m also looking forward to see what others have to say.

element159

I've bought notes on eBay from outside the USA, with no problems. Shipping of course is a little slower, but not much (with one exception this year because of COVID), plus sometimes you get nice pretty (and worthless!) stamps on the envelope. You might want to spend a little time to see if the seller's other items make you think they are legit, but international is no big worry to me.

TwistedArrow1962

Thanks Element59

With all the fake Pandas and silver products coming out of China I worried that we'd have issues with other products like world notes. I really appreciate the response.

Jay

SaorAlba

Noteshobby from Thailand is a reputable seller, bought lots of Asian and African from them.

jp84

echo the comments on noteshobby. Bought from him several times with no problems. Shipping did take a long time to get here from Thailand though.

SaorAlba

Lately all my foreign are coming from Ireland and N. Ireland. At least with N. Ireland you're dealing with Royal Mail, which IMHO is light years ahead of anPost Eire.

KSorbo

I’ve bought certified currency several times from overseas eBay sellers and had no difficulties. Even a few from mainland China. I think that area of collecting is popular over there. I was in Hong Kong a couple years ago and found a group of shops tucked away in a Kowloon alleyway with boatloads of PMG notes. I bought a certified HK $100 note from the 80’s as a souvenir.

Namvet69

Noteshobby appears to have a nice selection of world notes available on the bay. Peace Roy

Serial_no_8

"asianbanknotes" sent me the wrong P-# on 2 sets of notes. The numbers listed were $5-$10 more expensive than the run of cheap Yugoslavian notes I received. The notes came from Mississauga (here in Canada) which was a real surprise but when I contacted him to return them he gave me a return address to China (in Chinese letters). The cost of shipping (& aggravation of printing a shipping label) wasn't going to make it worth my while (more expensive than the notes listed) which THEY KNOW. Some of my purchased notes were excellent (GEM UNC banknotes) however.

I had a similar experience with "Parmezat" from Turkey. I've also attempted to correct him on his mislabelled listings to no avail. Several sellers of these bulk world notes often list that you will get different prefixes than the ones seen so its a crapshoot at best with many. Buyer beware. Noteshobby is much better as I've corrected his mislabelled auctions & he responded positively. I would buy from him again.

From the US, I really like "Yuri111" & "1234note" who may be a bit more expensive but usually its WYSIWYG & great communication (which is huge in my books).

From Brazil, "laurynumismatica" proved reliable shipping & undamaged packaging. Got a great set from him.
From Norway, "Finota" had some great notes & priced right.
From Italy, "Emiro50" had some nice collectible banknotes at fair prices & post did not take as long as I expected.
From Singapore, I've had excellent runs of low # and solids in individual holders from "goodluck4u888" but you'll only find notes from the Philippines, Singapore & sometimes Malaysia & BIN. Some of his TPG notes are expensive.

The majority of these sellers sell nice UNC60 to Choice64 and occasionally a few GEMS. However, it is not uncommon to get the odd AU which is a bit annoying plus one holder typically sent in decent packaging to prevent damaged packaging. If you would like to learn more about CDN or World banknote collecting please check out my site at
Notaphilyc Culture.

as219

Good questions!

First, I second the endorsement of NYuri111, noteshobby, laurynumismatica, and Emiro50 among others. Their grading and service have been good for years.

Second, as a general rule, I would take most WPM grading on eBay with a grain of salt and bid accordingly. Part of this is experience gained over time. I know many sellers who overgrade, but consistently so, which makes it easy to adjust. When I know one seller's "XF++++++++" is really pressed VF, it makes it a lot easier to decide how much (or if) to bid.

All this said, I think the only way to know which eBay dealers are good is to ask. Re Egypt, which is one of my key collecting areas, a trustworthy seller with whom I have done business over many, many years is philanote. I do recommend you join IBNS and post your question over on their forum. There are a handful of well-known scam artists who have been outed there, where the forum is open to members only.

Best,
Aaron