The longer I collect...

lkeigwin

...the more often I return coins I buy sight unseen. Maybe one in five these days. Is this normal?

It's gotten to the point where I don't want to buy anything unless I'm at a show or I know the dealer.

My wife says guys hate shopping and would sooner stash the bad shirt than return it. Women look at returns as an opportunity.

How about you? Do you make the effort to return coins you don't like? Do you wish you would? Or do you keep them a while and end up selling them?
Lance.

Barndog

completely normal.

FilamCoins

Never buy sight unseen.

The look is just too important to me.

I need to fall in love with every coin I own.

Even with good pics I have the trusted dealer talk me through the attributes.

Have never had to return a coin due to following above process.

coinsarefun

I bought 2 sight unseen from this last Stack's auction and I plan
on returning them as they are not even close to my expectations

Ed1840

I hope you don't let them pick the date also. It's not a bad thing to buy sight unseen, as long as it is a dealer that grades and describes the coins accurately.

Shamika

I'm extremely selective and will return a coin if it doesn't totally thrill me. 10 years ago I would have just kept the coin, but that became emotionally expensive. Not any more!

BaseballAbs

That being said Dick Osburn seems like a really great dealer, but he seriously needs to get pictures.

Stuart

lkeigwin: The longer I collect coins, the more selective I get in selecting coins to purchase. I will sometimes take a shot on e-Bay if the coin is priced right, but that's more for sport or a bit of gambling than for serious collecting.

I prefer to see significant coins in hand prior to purchasing, but I found it second best to work with a select few dealers in whose taste I trust from previous purchasing experience for selecting, accurately photoing, and correctly describing original eye-appealing coins with which I have been pleased.

Have you ever noticed that some of your favorite coins were purchased from some of your most trusted and favorite dealers?

19Lyds

I will only buy "sight unseen" if there is a "no questions asked" return policy.

To do otherwise is simply inviting problems.

BTW, I will return coins which do not meet my expectations and I've seen quite a few which did get returned.

tbarreca

I have mostly been a collector of raw coins for the past 6 or so years, many if not most purchased on EBay. As my experience increases, along with the difficulty of my remaining "holes," I find that I am becoming considerably more selective than I had been, and far more likely to return items that are not up to snuff. One result is that I increasingly rely on trusted dealers like the afore-mentioned Dick Osburn.

However, I do find the "gambling" aspect of EBay buying more than a little addictive, and have had more than a few wins that were both great deals and coins I still love. Here's an example:




I know it's not a look that everyone on this forum will fancy, but it's one that I love, clearly a working girl who's spent some time in the rough-and-tumble of commerce, but is still well preserved. I re-patriated this Lady from a non-US-based EBay seller, and have had a lot of luck with this approach.

By the way, there's a pretty good chance that when the time comes, I will try to get this, and a bunch of others like it, "made."

Boom

Sight unseen very seldom works out.

yellowkid

The best of pictures can be misleading, it is nice to see a coin in hand. I have kept coins that I probably wouldn't have bought in the first place and find myself getting shy about buying expensive pieces from pics. However with medals and tokens I seem to do much better. Had an SCD delivered yesterday that was so much nicer than it's pictures I couldn't believe it, and I almost didn't pull the trigger on the sale at the last minute. Will post it after I get it out to Todd for some of his great photos.~

ricko

Normally I would not buy sight unseen. The exceptions are a few trusted people on this forum. Cheers, RickO