Does eBay normally allow altered coins if listed as altered?
CaptHenway
Posts: 32,112 ✭✭✭✭✭
Here's a 1922 cent being offered as mint mark removed, which is correct.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/393312979452?hash=item5b9347c9fc:g:MbkAAOSwwQxgkdxZ
I don't quite approve, because there is a danged good chance that the buyer is going to turn around and try to sell it as real in another venue, but what do you all think of this?
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
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I have no problem with it. The seller has no control over what a buyer might do in the future, regardless of the venue on which he (the seller) might choose to sell the coin. So unless you maintain that the seller can't ethically sell the coin anywhere, I don't see why listing it on eBay should be an issue, given that full disclosure is being made.
EDIT: Furthermore, people sell cleaned and other problem coins in PCGS/NGC Genuine slabs on eBay all the time. Should they not be allowed to do so because a buyer can crack the coin and sell it raw without disclosing the issue(s)?
An altered coin would be a violation of ebay policy. They don't distinguish based on intent.
Post the eBay link to that rule
https://ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/replica-coins-currency-policy?id=5042
Counterfeit or altered coins and currency are not allowed, nor is equipment designed to make them
It clearly says altered
Let the reporting begin!
Nevermind.
BTW, aren't Mr. Carr's Peace dollars altered coins?
There’s a huge difference between traditional damage (cleaned or not) versus a problem that redefines what the coin is. A cleaned 1916 dime is still a 1916 dime, just worth some amount less (or at least no more) than the original. A 1916 dime with a bogus mint mark is not a Denver issue worth many times as much as the Philly coin.
Why not just say CAC?
It is an interesting question.
One of my favorite search keywords with eBay under coins is "altered". It seems eBay does allow it as I've never seen an auction I bid on canceled.
peacockcoins
Hobo nickels are listed on eBay.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
the policy is under the counterfeit or altered idea.
it is a counterfeited 1922 no D
The actual difference in value may be huge when a problem (e.g., cleaned) rarity is represented and sold as problem-free, so while I think your distinction may have merit on a philosophical basis, in practice a buyer can still get hosed in a major way financially in either case. Furthermore, this eBay seller is not misrepresenting the coin. So, for me it gets back to whether it's ethical to sell such a coin anywhere. Then again, I don't make the rules on eBay and they clearly see it differently.
Perhaps they only enforce the rule when someone reports an auction or listing. Seems like it'd be trivial for them to set up a filter to catch the "altered" keyword when a coin is listed, so maybe the rule is mainly a CYA type of situation.
Here's a flat-out counterfeit I tried to report just now but could not for some unknown reason:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/284292367836?hash=item42312545dc:g:pyAAAOSw-gtgnCON
you need, and I think it's likely not your style, a thread with both titled "Report These"
The listing has been pulled now... so someone got through to ebay. Cheers, RickO
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the surface texture and coloring of the counterfeit 22 reminds me of the same on a couple of recent counterfeit 09SVDB posted