More Money Than Sense Day after day we see people paying far too much for junk on eBay. We can only assume that the buyers are ignorant, and do not read the item description carefully, getting sucked (or suckered in( by greed and fear.

Greed and Fear These two factors are often present in poor decision buying, such as bubbles. The buyer is greedy enough to think he or she is getting a bargain, and afraid they may miss out if they don't jump in quickly.

Examples

Descriptions Are the coins properly described? Over half the eBay listings we see are inaccurately described. One typical get-out is for the buyer to claim he knows nothing about coins, he is not an expert. OK, this may be true, but it may be an advance excuse. One quick example here might be interesting. When we first started offering Maria Theresa silver thalers on eBay, we noticed one auction in which a someone, and there was a rather confusing suggestion that they were a charity) purported to have had a coin collection checked by an expert. They were offering a Maria Theresa as though it was minted in 1780, whereas all are restrikes (not fakes). Theirs sold for £16 owing to their fraudulent description. We describe ours accurately and honestly, and they usually sell between £5 and £10. On our first listings, we put a link to their finished auction, and they eventually noticed and complained to eBay. EBay asked us to remove the link, but took no action against the fraudulent seller! It seems to us that eBay don't want the general public to learn just how many crooks, fraudsters and conmen sell on eBay. This is a shame as it makes it harder for honest traders to compete on a lever playing field, and we suffer the distrust they cause.

Lemmings - Don't Be One In January 2009m we noticed a number of record prices paid for bog standard Krugerrands on eBay, as high as 27% premium. We are thinking of awarding a prize to the idiot who pays the most ridiculous price.

eBay Scam Example Goingfast3 $1.2 Million Fraud Attempt We helped to save potential buyers getting ripped off for over $1 million. eBay appears to have done nothing or very little.

New - Buy / Sell Prices on Gold Sovereign 4 Coin Proof Sets We have recently created a new version of our original Proof Sovereign Sets page, with buy and sell prices quoted.

Selling Gold Coins & Bars on eBay