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This has got to be yet another ebay scam .... Doesn't it?
MrBeast
Posts: 132
While browsing on the bay this evening, I happened across the following:
A seller registered in Canada since early 2006, with 100% positive feedback (total = 84, of which 61 are as a seller - most recently added at the end of September), so not the obvious candidate for a highjacked account. Anyway, he has 3 coins listed. They are all 99cent opening bid, No Reserve, 1 Day auctions & he doesn't accept paypal.
I decided to send him a question - basically asking him why he would choose to go about selling these coins (each worth in the $40,000 - $50,000 range) this way & pointing out that even if he is legit he is going to scare away bids & probably lose many many thousands of dollars. I figured out that this would either confirm my suspicions about it being a scam, or, in the unlikely event he was legit, I could maybe help prevent him getting screwed. Within minutes, I received his reply:
Thanks for the concern but if i don't get the bids i want i just end the item I don't place things as buy it now.And i didn't know it was for 1 day either so thanks for that info also. I will be changing that. Another thing is i bought these coins in a auction here in my home town.I got a lot of them for just under 2 grand and these were in it. Thanks
I had suggested that he might like to post his answer in the listings to help reassure potential bidders, but this has not been done. Neither has he done anything about changing the duration from 1 Day. Although, given that he has bids already, I'm not sure he can do either thing, even if he tried (not that he will be able to end the auctions early either, if my understanding is correct).
So, is this just a crude scam, or is this guy too cheap to pay the listing fees incurred by a realistic asking price & will pull the plug if things don't work out? One final observation (just uncovered): all 3 coins have the same high bidder - they are also registered in Canada (4 months ago, feedback = 0); possibly this is his shill to make sure that prices are where he wants them.
Surely, in this day & age, these coins couldn't slip through under the radar in a bulk lot of coins at auction, no matter how unrelated to coins the auction as a whole was. Right?
Any of the ebay detectives here care to weigh in?
A seller registered in Canada since early 2006, with 100% positive feedback (total = 84, of which 61 are as a seller - most recently added at the end of September), so not the obvious candidate for a highjacked account. Anyway, he has 3 coins listed. They are all 99cent opening bid, No Reserve, 1 Day auctions & he doesn't accept paypal.
- 1st auction is for a raw $10 Indian, so no huge deal there.However, his other 2 listings are for 1907 $20 High Relief St Gaudens - one with wire rim & one with flat rim - both graded MS65 by NGC!!
I decided to send him a question - basically asking him why he would choose to go about selling these coins (each worth in the $40,000 - $50,000 range) this way & pointing out that even if he is legit he is going to scare away bids & probably lose many many thousands of dollars. I figured out that this would either confirm my suspicions about it being a scam, or, in the unlikely event he was legit, I could maybe help prevent him getting screwed. Within minutes, I received his reply:
Thanks for the concern but if i don't get the bids i want i just end the item I don't place things as buy it now.And i didn't know it was for 1 day either so thanks for that info also. I will be changing that. Another thing is i bought these coins in a auction here in my home town.I got a lot of them for just under 2 grand and these were in it. Thanks
I had suggested that he might like to post his answer in the listings to help reassure potential bidders, but this has not been done. Neither has he done anything about changing the duration from 1 Day. Although, given that he has bids already, I'm not sure he can do either thing, even if he tried (not that he will be able to end the auctions early either, if my understanding is correct).
So, is this just a crude scam, or is this guy too cheap to pay the listing fees incurred by a realistic asking price & will pull the plug if things don't work out? One final observation (just uncovered): all 3 coins have the same high bidder - they are also registered in Canada (4 months ago, feedback = 0); possibly this is his shill to make sure that prices are where he wants them.
Surely, in this day & age, these coins couldn't slip through under the radar in a bulk lot of coins at auction, no matter how unrelated to coins the auction as a whole was. Right?
Any of the ebay detectives here care to weigh in?
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Fighting the Fight for 11 Years with the big "C" - Never Ever Give Up!
Member PCGS Open Forum board 2002 - 2006 (closed end of 2006) Current board since 2006 Successful trades with many members, over the past two decades, never a bad deal.
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link to ebay auction
the other link to ebay auction
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This is one of them
Oops, beaten to the punch!
Fighting the Fight for 11 Years with the big "C" - Never Ever Give Up!
Member PCGS Open Forum board 2002 - 2006 (closed end of 2006) Current board since 2006 Successful trades with many members, over the past two decades, never a bad deal.
Totally agree. Isn't the MS65 High Relief wire rim a $50,000 coin + or -?
If I were selling a specimen like this, I would have high res pics.
Starting to smell rotting fish.