Poll: Don't answer if you've heard this one before

shirohniichan

How would you respond to an auction like this:

"For sale: One large silver coin. It is a nice shiny silver and looks almost brand new. It is about 38 mm large and has a picture of a lady and '1904' on the front and an eagle with his wings spread open on the reverse. The reverse also says 'United States of America' and has a little 'S' under the eagle. It is in a translucent hard plastic holder with a paper insert printed 'PCGS, 1904-S, MS-62' and some other numbers. My dad got it from Bowers & Merena and said the plastic holder is called a 'PCGS slab." The Bowers & Merena receipt will be included in the auction. I am going on vacation and will be back a day after the auction closes. I'm starting it $150 and no reserve. Sorry, but I don't have a digital camera or scanner to post pictures."

Would you bid on it? Please answer the poll.

If so, up to how much?

1jester

Weird description!! He's pretending he doesn't know much about coins, yet how did he come up with the $150 price? Makes you wonder. And going on vacation makes it easier to ignore questions, too.

dbldie55

I am doing a collection of these, where can I bid?

cointagious

i'd ask 2 questions:

1. did you just stumble upon using the metric system to measure a coin like coin folks do?

and

2. of all the features on the coin why did the little 's' catch your eye above all other features?

if i got satifactory answers to these and other questions, i'd offer $500 sight unseen to close the sale.

shirohniichan

Please answer the question-- how much would you bid?

coynclecter

Didn't we mint some coins for Cuba, Panama and Phillipines around that time and put United States of America on them??
Going on vacation, no pictures and don't ask any questions. 500 easy. Where do I place my bid? (500 pesos)

moursund

I might buy this if I could hold it in my hand first... But from ebay, there's too much chance that, regardless of the description, you wouldn't get the advertised coin.

So, would you spend at least $150 to buy from a clueless and/or scamming seller without a good feedback history?

am

HoosierDaddy

I would probably take a chance for a couple hundred, but then again, I tend to gamble too often.

cointagious

shiro,
i wouldn't bid. i'd try to get the seller to close the sale for a fixed price.

ricko

$200. Cheers, RickO

Clankeye

I wouldn't bid. Everything about it feels wrong. And even If by chance it was legit, I wouldn't bid. It's just not a situation I would want to tangle in.

moursund

Oh, if the auction description was exactly as above, I CERTAINLY wouldn't bid. WAAAAY too fishy.

am

kranky

No bids from me. The vacation story is too convenient of an excuse not to have to answer any further questions about the coin. Nobody (even the terminally clueless) would pick out only the words "United States of America" to mention, and not mention the denomination, but remember to point out the "little S under the eagle".

It's just not believable as a "I don't know what I'm doing" story.

baccaruda

i am going to guess that an older, computer-illiterit man put his younger, nintendo-generation son in charge of selling coins for him on ebay and only told him what to start the bidding at. the dad won't be available to answer questions.

what are some of the sellers past purchases? kid stuff i bet.

Steve27

I always resist the urge to bid on auctions like this. All the person needed to do was to supply the certification number and there would be no doubt as to what the coin was. This information is meant to obfuscate rather than inform. It could be one of those world coin "Morgan proof" facsimilies which ignorant/lazy people were bidding hundreds of dollars for even though they could see a picture of it.

TRADERBOBZ

yes i would bid up to 220.00$ after a email to this seller to see what state of mind he is in. maybe more??? i have paid alot more for the ones ive purchaced and 2 where ngc so yes pcgs ms-62 old holder??

CharlieB

Who's the seller think he's fooling?

medicain19

Forget about it. What a fool. Thinking he/she can pull something like this. Sure I'll give him 150. A 150 negs on his/her feedback.

mrpaseo

I said no in the poll, I would not bid on it. To me, it sounds like the kid stole the coin from his father and is trying to sell it. As mentioned above, it also sounds like the describer is trying to dumb down the description so as to sound like he does not know what he has.

I would avoid it, you know the saying "If it's to good to be true, then it probably is" well, take out the word "Probably" and that statement would be correct,
My opinion,
Ray

shirohniichan

I have a scan of the coin in question and will post it tonight.

Stay tuned!

kryptonitecomics

I would bid if, and only if, he provided me with the PCGS # on the slab and some sort of picture and or scan of the coin. I would also have to see his feedback rating to make sure he wasn't a scum bag!!!!! I really don't know what the coin is worth so I would have to look it up to see what my max bid would be if my other terms were satisfied

Mrpawn

Too much money for this coin

1jester

I won't bid on coin I don't know very much about (like what kind of coin it is!). Let's see, about 38mm, that could be a silver Morgan dollar at 38.1mm. A 1904-S MS-62 Morgan is worth quite a lot more than $150, but without knowing more, I wouldn't bid.

By the way, Shiroh, how can you show us a scan of the coin? Are you the seller?! The seller provided you with a scan? Why not post it on the auction?

Was the Philippine Peso $1 size? I presume so but without seeing what the coin is, no way.

shirohniichan

Here's the coin. Ain't she a beaut?

At $150 it's a decent deal. It's actually for sale at tonelover's site for $145. I bought one from him in AU-58 and love it. All I need to do is buy two more coins from him to finish my type set (the 1903 centavo in ANACS MS-63 BN and 1904-S 20 centavo piece in PCGS MS-62 are both spoken for, so back off ).

MrLee

That's a beaut, shiro. I'd sure like to see that someday.

Dog97

@#$%!!!! I thought it was a Morgan and just got scamed for over $1,000!!!

shirohniichan

Sorry, no returns-- it was a "true auction."

coynclecter

So did I win? I pegged it as a peso coin and was high bidder at 500 (pesos). So will mexican pesos do? If so, will you take a buck instead?

1jester

Good guess, coynclecter. You beat me to it. But I still don't understand why the auction description failed to point out that it was a "One Peso" from "Filipinas". Don't you think the seller could have added that?! Just wondering.

I have a 50 centavos piece, 1904-S, in about XF45. And a 1903 5 Centavos, AU50+; 1907 10 Centavos AU55; 1945-D 20 Centavos AU58 w/overstrike error; 1918-S 1 Centavo, VF-30. Gotta love those coins, they are very cool. Any ideas what mine are worth?

RNCHSN

Sounds like a scam run by someone who knows what he's doing, trying to sound like a newbe!

dbldie55

Like I said, I am collecting a set of those. Considering shiro has said he is doing a Philippine set, I figured this is the coin he was talking about.

jom

Bid? No...there is no picture. If I could get one and if there was a return policy I might bid. Problem: I don't really collect Morgans (I think it's a Morgan) so I may not bid at all.

jom

nucklehead

I had a feeling that's what it was, nice coin Shiroh, you should bring to the Sunday Anaheim show (Aug.18) so I can try and talk you into selling it.

shirohniichan

Not a chance, Paul.

Contact tonelover-- he's got more for sale!

BTW, this was a mock scam auction I wrote to see how many people on this forum I could trick. I did the same thing last summer, and everyone guessed it was a 1904-S Morgan I was writing about. The most common response was, "It can't be a real auction if someone is selling it for that little." My point was to show that it IS possible to sell a coin of that exact description and be technically correct in the description.

The reason I did this is that I ran across a seller on eBay who wrote technically correct but misleading item descriptions and another who showed a scan but didn't write much of a description at all. The latter's tactic was to say he'd answer any specific "yes/no" question, but would not disclose anything not asked about. A former disgruntled buyer e-mailed me and warned me that this guy was a snake (in the bad sense ). He asked the seller if the coin was cleaned, tooled, polished, whizzed, repaired, etc. and was given all "no" answers. When he got the coin he found out it was bent (he forgot to ask about that). The seller told him he was SOL because it was a "true auction" and thus there were no returns.

Buyer beware! If something sounds too good to be true, it almost always is!

dakra

Shiro, I believe they said the date was on the front of the coin.

...My first impression was that it was a Morgan... of course a 1904-S in MS063 goes for $1,800

...My second impression was "and a bunch of other numbers" Had they given us those numbers we could find out more about the coin.

...My third impression was "What about the denomination"

...My fourth impression was, "I just happen to be placing this up for auction as I'm heading out the door for vacation and will return the day after the auction ends"... a vacation from Ebay? a vacation from answering questions?

...My fifth impression was pointed out by someone else. The mentioning of the "S".

and my final impression... At the very least, what is the denomination. Not mentioning it leaves me with the willies.

-David

Gilbert

Shiroh

"Everyone guessed it was a 1904-S Morgan" ???

I do remember the post, and I don't recall what my response (if any) was, but I admit, I didn't consider that it was a Libertad.

Are you able to find the old post, just so we can see who cheated and responded again, and/or just to see how much difference there is this time around?

shirohniichan

Here's a link to the old thread. I should have used the last phony description I wrote in that thread. It would have sounded much better.

dbldie55

I guessed it was a one peso. But you have to collect Philippine coins to know the description fits perfectly (and the price was way to low to be a Morgan)