Strange behaviour from seller on ebay.
norwegianguy
Posts: 184 ✭
Last week, a seller listed this 1877 IHC at starting bid 1 Euro.
Same old story as many scammers: Told that it was a heirloom from his grandfather, and that he wouldn't start with coins himself.
At the same time, he listed this 1876 Proof 20 Cent, with no mention to his grandfather at all. BIN at 2299 Euros.
And he listed this lot with mostly crap coins, but which also included an 1889CC Morgan, a red 1914D Lincoln cent and a red 1914S Lincoln cent. No mention to his grandfather here too. Starting bid for the lot: 1 Euro.
These listings came out of the blue after getting positive feedbacks on about 60 cheap non-coin items ($1-$5, mostly).
First of all...
He seems to recognize the key dates and he can even distinguish between red and brown. So he must be a coin collector at some level. So why did he hide the key dates in a lot together with a bunch of worthless coins? (Unless, of course, that he knew they were fake...)
Seconds...
He claims (in german) to know nothing about the 1877 IHC (therefore the starting bid of Eur 1), but operates with a BIN price of $3999.
He also gives a money back guarantee, but does not offer PayPal. In the IHC listing, he even says something like: "I can guarantee that the material is copper".
But the most strange part:
The 1877 IHC ended at Sep-02-08 15:37:15 PDT.
Extremely positive Feedback for the same coin was given at Sep-02-08 15:43.
That is 5 MINUTES after the auction ended. The IHC was sniped by another german user five minutes before it ended.... But it was a german in another city, so he couldn't possibly have gotten the coin after just 5 minutes.
Seems like shill bidding to me.
But why on earth would he put a shill bid on a fake coin?
Wasn't the second highest bid good enough?
...and why did he end the other two auctions with the message: "Error in listing"?
Same old story as many scammers: Told that it was a heirloom from his grandfather, and that he wouldn't start with coins himself.
At the same time, he listed this 1876 Proof 20 Cent, with no mention to his grandfather at all. BIN at 2299 Euros.
And he listed this lot with mostly crap coins, but which also included an 1889CC Morgan, a red 1914D Lincoln cent and a red 1914S Lincoln cent. No mention to his grandfather here too. Starting bid for the lot: 1 Euro.
These listings came out of the blue after getting positive feedbacks on about 60 cheap non-coin items ($1-$5, mostly).
First of all...
He seems to recognize the key dates and he can even distinguish between red and brown. So he must be a coin collector at some level. So why did he hide the key dates in a lot together with a bunch of worthless coins? (Unless, of course, that he knew they were fake...)
Seconds...
He claims (in german) to know nothing about the 1877 IHC (therefore the starting bid of Eur 1), but operates with a BIN price of $3999.
He also gives a money back guarantee, but does not offer PayPal. In the IHC listing, he even says something like: "I can guarantee that the material is copper".
But the most strange part:
The 1877 IHC ended at Sep-02-08 15:37:15 PDT.
Extremely positive Feedback for the same coin was given at Sep-02-08 15:43.
That is 5 MINUTES after the auction ended. The IHC was sniped by another german user five minutes before it ended.... But it was a german in another city, so he couldn't possibly have gotten the coin after just 5 minutes.
Seems like shill bidding to me.
But why on earth would he put a shill bid on a fake coin?
Wasn't the second highest bid good enough?
...and why did he end the other two auctions with the message: "Error in listing"?
0
Comments
Proud recipient of Y.S. Award on 07/26/08.
my early American coins & currency: -- http://yankeedoodlecoins.com/