Borrowing a page from Mark Feld - niceness first. My message:
"Hi there,
Your representation of this coin as BU is, unfortunately, erroneous. BU means 'Brilliant Uncirculated'and is used to describe coins as being in essentially the same condition as when they were minted, save for bag marks and other mint handling contact marks. The coin that you are selling appears to be substantially circulated. You may find that the coin will sell better correctly graded. There are some excellent books in publication that may help you with accurate coin grading - professional graders spend years perfecting there craft, but a good amateur can learn a great deal with a relatively few hours of study. I hope that this message finds you well, and that I have not irritated you with my notice.
Be well,
Keith"
I'll post any reply I get. Hopefully this seller can be saved
Well, the picture is a little blurry. That could be hiding substantial detail by introducing "circulation artifacts" into the image, and the darkness of the picture could be introducing "dirt artifacts."
Maybe I'm naive, but I blame this on three things:
1) The seller not knowing anything about grading (otherwise, they would know that would never fly). 2) Ebay, IIRC, says that you need to state a grade in the description to auction it. Or at the very least, they strongly recommend it. 3) A little bit of knowledge can be deadly. It's possible the seller knows just enough to know that MS-65 is "high grade", but not enough to know what it looks like.
Couple any one of the above with a seller's desire to get top dollar for their coin, and you've got a bunch of overgraded Ebay crapola.
If you haven't noticed, I'm single and miserable and I've got four albums of bitching about it that I would offer as proof.
In the old days we interpreted as “Been Used” when the normal description did not apply.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
This one is less bothersome as it looks like an accidental typo. Like the kind where you are doing a bunch of listings one day and you pop through them fast and some little piece of the title goes unchanged from the last listing. I would be willing to bet money this was a typo. The first one is either ignorance or complete scam attempt.
"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner NoEbayAuctionsForNow
Hmm i wonder if he is a buyer. I have lots of BU coins now that were vg just a minute ago. I will sell them all to him. Yes - yes- That is what i will do. Sell all my former vg coins to him as BU. I have alot of work to do to bust them all out of their caches.
Comments
Borrowing a page from Mark Feld - niceness first. My message:
"Hi there,
Your representation of this coin as BU is, unfortunately, erroneous. BU means 'Brilliant Uncirculated'and is used to describe coins as being in essentially the same condition as when they were minted, save for bag marks and other mint handling contact marks. The coin that you are selling appears to be substantially circulated. You may find that the coin will sell better correctly graded. There are some excellent books in publication that may help you with accurate coin grading - professional graders spend years perfecting there craft, but a good amateur can learn a great deal with a relatively few hours of study. I hope that this message finds you well, and that I have not irritated you with my notice.
Be well,
Keith"
I'll post any reply I get. Hopefully this seller can be saved
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
1) The seller not knowing anything about grading (otherwise, they would know that would never fly).
2) Ebay, IIRC, says that you need to state a grade in the description to auction it. Or at the very least, they strongly recommend it.
3) A little bit of knowledge can be deadly. It's possible the seller knows just enough to know that MS-65 is "high grade", but not enough to know what it looks like.
Couple any one of the above with a seller's desire to get top dollar for their coin, and you've got a bunch of overgraded Ebay crapola.
-- Adam Duritz, of Counting Crows
My Ebay Auctions
hey, is that mojoman* ??!?! I figure he knows how to grade coins a bit more accurately than this.....
*of course I know it's not him
Of course, I could be missing the details due to the inferior picture...
In the old days we interpreted as “Been Used” when the normal description did not apply.
NoEbayAuctionsForNow
<< <i> think this "Mint State" coin is even more overgraded: >>
I think is this case it is "Miserable Shape".....