eBay is it worth it?

[Goldhooked]

"Almost ALL the gold sold on eBay is FAKE" - Bull$h!t

Yes there are a lot of fakes but trying to claim "almost ALL" is just sensationalism.

Buying PM's on eBay is definitely not for the rookie but a lot of people are greedy as well as inadequately informed.

[Martlet]

7 hours ago, vand said:

I wonder how many people who buy stuff on ebay don't even realise they're getting conned:

I wonder what sample he has bought and checked to make such an assertion. 

Watching video... one.  And his fake story is dumb. Shame because his advise at the end to check some of your stack is sound. 

[voodooman]

12 hours ago, Goldhooked said:

"Almost ALL the gold sold on eBay is FAKE" - Bull$h!t

Yes there are a lot of fakes but trying to claim "almost ALL" is just sensationalism.

Buying PM's on eBay is definitely not for the rookie but a lot of people are greedy as well as inadequately informed.

interesting. please share some links to real ones🤑 , no rainbows please

[Shinus73]

I like that you’re all frightened of eBay - more bargains for me. Seriously, eBay is a great place to scour for decent deals, once you’ve learnt the ropes.

Those requesting forum members on eBay, I have lots for sale currently. Same user name as on here.

[Goldhooked]

17 minutes ago, voodooman said:

interesting. please share some links to real ones🤑 , no rainbows please

If you can’t find any real PMs on eBay, please stop using eBay  

[FFkook]

21 minutes ago, Shinus73 said:

I like that you’re all frightened of eBay - more bargains for me. Seriously, eBay is a great place to scour for decent deals, once you’ve learnt the ropes.

Those requesting forum members on eBay, I have lots for sale currently. Same user name as on here.

Never gonna win in those biddings unfortunately, but hey, at least I raised them for you! Some nice coins out there, wow!

[Lowlow]

Honestly I just don't see the allure of Ebay for a bullion buyer.

If you're collecting, I could maybe see it, because there are coins there that you might not be able to easily find somewhere else, that unique treasure that someone is parting with, etc, but as a bullion buyer, why shop Ebay ?  I've spent a fair amount of time looking through various auctions looking for reasonable deals with premiums as low as I could get with a LOT LESS TROUBLE somewhere else, and I've yet to find something that I was like ... wow, I just have to bid on that.  The premiums are too high on ebay as far as I'm concerned, and I just don't see the point.

[Pipers]

17 hours ago, vand said:

I wonder how many people who buy stuff on ebay don't even realise they're getting conned:

 

 

I buy nearly all of my PMs from dealers, it's quite strange I was going to buy a Perth bar from eBay but I thought better of it so I didn't.  I think if you are stacking it's the percentage between buying and selling plus timing your buys that counts so using dealers can be cheaper, though when eBay discounts are available then it should be used. 

 

[Pipers]

On 06/10/2018 at 21:36, Goldhooked said:

As long as you send by a tracked service that proves delivery to the address given on the order, you will win any dispute.

As a buyer tracked delivery signed for is as useful as a chocolate teapot and the only one I will pay for is special Delivery.  Signed for is for the seller only as a customer you are better covered by 1st class delivery as discussed in this thread with  signed for the seller gets any signiture and states it's been delivered it can be from the neighborhood unlike special delivery where your package is treated as important.  Note all gold must be sent out special Delivery. 

Bullion by Post sent me a Sovereign that I bought through there eBay shop (ebay discounts) by signed for the package was delivered nto the wrong address.  As a seller Bullion by Post  treated me like I was a Thief, they had there signiture that was that I rang the Royal mail who told me it was up to BBP to open a claim but BBP refused.  Only because it was gold that was sent through the post and I claimed it had gone missing or had been sent to the wrong address did  the Royal Mail open a Case, it was then suggested to BBP they would  want to open a case with Royal Mail by Royal mail!  I also opened a case with eBay. The package was tracked to a different address but get this they had forged my daughter's signiture who was living the other side of the country at the time we proved that to the Royal Mail, even then BBP did not refund me, the Royal Mail took the further. The GPS proved the package was sent to the address the postman came around to my house and told me they could not retreve the package and the matter is going to court unless they get the package back to the sender, I asked him did BBP know what's going on?  His reply have you not got a refund yet? I rang the Royal mail they confirmed they told Bullion by Post a few days earlier, BBP should of refunded me but they didn't, I was sending them message after message day after day I escalated it with eBay only at that point when Bullion by Post could not sell on eBay did they refund me. 

Ever since  I do not buy gold signed for (though this happen once on the forum by mistake) .  If buying from eBay you are better covered with 1st lass delivery than signed for, so buy using special delivery for expensive items, 1st class for cheaper items.   unless the seller does not give you a choose remember it's the sellers responsibility to deliver the item to you so it's not at your fault if it goes missing. 

Fill out the forms so the Royal Mail will not leave packages with neighbors, never redirect mail. 

We all complain about the RM but I have found there Special Delivery very good and they do not complain if you film the item when you take delivery or if you refuse delivery because the package is damaged

 

[Lowlow]

18 hours ago, vand said:

I wonder how many people who buy stuff on ebay don't even realise they're getting conned:

 

 

The funniest part of this video to me is that people probably watch this and think .. wow, that's so sad, that's so sad that someone would rip people off like that, etc ... yet that's what the Fed does every single day with the U.S. dollar, which also has exactly ZERO intrinsic value.  What difference does it make if you have paper with pretty pictures on it that has zero intrinsic value, and fake gold in cardboard and plastic that has zero intrinsic value.  You think, well, because I can't spend the gold, because it's fake ... it would be immoral to pass it on to the next person since it's worthless (and you'd be right, NEVER DO THAT) .. and yet that's exactly what you do with the cash in your pocket every single day, pass it on to the next fool who accepts it gladly, even though you're literally just handing them pieces of paper with pictures and numbers inked on it.  It's ironic.  Fake gold, fake money, it's all fake.  Real silver and gold and a few other commodities are the only real money.

[Kookaburracollector]

2 hours ago, Pipers said:

As a buyer tracked delivery signed for is as useful as a chocolate teapot and the only one I will pay for is special Delivery.  

 

I completely agree with the above.

i once bought two coins from the USA, and the seller used Ebay’s own shipping service. The coins never arrived, and I contacted the buyer to advise.

She immediately raised a case against me, as she had a signature proving the coins had been delivered...which they had been ..just not to me.

I contacted Ebay and advised them I had not received the coins and they were absolutely useless, case closed against me...PayPal on the other hand were great!!

I talked to PayPal and explained I have CCTV on my property which covers both doors, and records 24/7. Having reviewed the footage I could prove the coins had not been delivered to me.

I asked that the driver be interviewed or I would see them in court!!

The driver was duly interviewed and admitted he had delivered the parcel to the wrong address!!

Paypal refunded me and I also got the coins a few days later!!

So...I always now use Special delivery for any items of significant value, under £25 I just don’t bother.

As for BBP.. I do use them for 2nd hand silver bars and they have always used Special Delivery for these items..

ebay isn’t perfect, I just accept that 1 in 40 transactions on average will give me hassle..

 

 

[Goldhooked]

3 hours ago, Pipers said:

As a buyer tracked delivery signed for is as useful as a chocolate teapot and the only one I will pay for is special Delivery.

 

I was giving advice to a seller in that post, not a buyer.  

And I said tracked delivery which includes Special Delivery and couriers.  Although acceptable to ebay, Signed For is not properly tracked.  There is no tracking along the route with Signed For, it is just delivery confirmation.

[vand]

For all the people LOL'ing at that video.. I'm equally LOLing at the claims of being able to magically snap up below-spot silver at the click of their fingers and never get duped, never have to waste time sending something back, or waste time in auctions which they never win anyway. LOLOLOL

[Shinus73]

2 minutes ago, vand said:

For all the people LOL'ing at that video.. I'm equally LOLing at the claims of being able to magically snap up below-spot silver at the click of their fingers and never get duped, never have to waste time sending something back, or waste time in auctions which they never win anyway. LOLOLOL

You can’t magically snap up below spot silver at the click of your fingers, but you can occasionally find very good deals (and yes, sometimes below spot - gold too!). 

Personally, as buying and selling coins has become a hobby, I very much enjoy hunting out these items, whether I win them or not. There is something to be learned from every auction and from every fake received (I have a bag full).

[Goldhooked]

25 minutes ago, vand said:

For all the people LOL'ing at that video.. I'm equally LOLing at the claims of being able to magically snap up below-spot silver at the click of their fingers and never get duped, never have to waste time sending something back, or waste time in auctions which they never win anyway. LOLOLOL

Nothing magic about it if you really know how to use eBay  

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sat here picking up ounces of PMs below spot everyday but if you know what to look for, it’s not hard to pick stuff up at bargains without spending lots of time.  

And I’m not sure what you mean about wasting time in auctions?  I bid once in any auction which takes approximately 5 seconds.  It’s not like a real auction where you sit all the way through it!

[AppleZippoandMetronome]

Again I agree completely with @Goldhooked above. Once you get to know eBay it is very easy to find items at really good prices - this is especially true if you narrow down your search to the point you can effectively use saved searches. I think its easy to look at some of the chancers selling coins with BIN listings at stupid prices as well as hear the odd scare story and conclude eBay is no good but once you learn how to use it effectively it is really one of the best places in the UK to buy from. That being said as someone posted in this thread already I'm not too bothered if others don't want to take it seriously as means more cheap silver for those of us that do

[whitesands1]

I agree with the prior posts that ebay is generally good.  It is (some) buyers and sellers that are what you have to worry about.

Very good if you keep your wits about you and ebay is, in my experience, right behind its loyal customers. 

[AppleZippoandMetronome]

One thing I meant to add but didn't is that I think this debate is very regional. If I were in North America - well either Canada or US - I wouldn't see eBay as a viable option. There is a dealer I buy from when I get the chance to go visit family in Canada and the prices I pay there are lower than what I pay on most things including items I buy on eBay here in the UK. The reason of course is the 20% VAT charged on silver here. Once you factor that in eBay becomes one of the best places to buy items from as you can regularly and without much effort find items much cheaper than what you'd find them being sold for by a dealer.

[vand]

I want to buy 50oz of bullion.. please go source this for me on ebay, hahaahaa......

[Goldhooked]

20 minutes ago, vand said:

I want to buy 50oz of bullion.. please go source this for me on ebay, hahaahaa......

Find your own deals, lazy sod  

[Lowlow]

I'm torn ...

On the one hand, I believe the posters above, I think they probably do find deals (on coins, I'm not so sure about bullion)

On the other hand .. I HAVE NOT found deals, at least not on bullion, including shipping, in any quantity I would care to purchase.  MAYBE I can pick up a few mercury dimes here and there with free shipping where they just tape them to a piece of cardboard and send them to me, but my last purchase of mercury dimes was for 1000 dimes .. I don't have time to pick through ebay 10 here, 20 there lots of mercury dimes trying to save a dollar.

Also, I just don't believe that in the long run this is a strategy that (as a buyer) is worth the trouble.  Besides having to totally discount the value of your time, there's also the issue of returns.  As with bond returns, it only takes ONE BAD PURCHASE to screw up the returns on a long list of successful trades.  With bonds, you could be getting great returns on 19 bonds, and if on that 20th one you lose your principle you may end up flat because of one bad borrower.  With the amount of money you're saving on Ebay, I think it's about the same ... people are talking like bad trades are rare on Ebay, and that's fine .. but just HOW RARE ?  Even 1 in 30 may be too many to make it worth doing.  It doesn't matter if you saved 5-10$us here and there if you lose 150$us on one trade in 15.

[Goldhooked]

23 minutes ago, Lowlow said:

I'm torn ...

On the one hand, I believe the posters above, I think they probably do find deals (on coins, I'm not so sure about bullion)

On the other hand .. I HAVE NOT found deals, at least not on bullion, including shipping, in any quantity I would care to purchase.  MAYBE I can pick up a few mercury dimes here and there with free shipping where they just tape them to a piece of cardboard and send them to me, but my last purchase of mercury dimes was for 1000 dimes .. I don't have time to pick through ebay 10 here, 20 there lots of mercury dimes trying to save a dollar.

Also, I just don't believe that in the long run this is a strategy that (as a buyer) is worth the trouble.  Besides having to totally discount the value of your time, there's also the issue of returns.  As with bond returns, it only takes ONE BAD PURCHASE to screw up the returns on a long list of successful trades.  With bonds, you could be getting great returns on 19 bonds, and if on that 20th one you lose your principle you may end up flat because of one bad borrower.  With the amount of money you're saving on Ebay, I think it's about the same ... people are talking like bad trades are rare on Ebay, and that's fine .. but just HOW RARE ?  Even 1 in 30 may be too many to make it worth doing.  It doesn't matter if you saved 5-10$us here and there if you lose 150$us on one trade in 15.

Hilarious that some people think it’s all lies

Most of my spot-or-less deals are NOT bullion.  It’s pretty hard to find those sort of deals on bullion.  Those are more luck than experience.

On the point about time, some people read books, some people watch tv, I sometimes scan eBay.  I take a very long time to get to sleep most nights so I’ll lay in bed looking through eBay listings until I’m tired enough.  It’s an interest, a hobby, as much as anything else.  I also spend an inordinate amount of time on eBay in the office so have regular looks during the daytime when most other people are at work.

On the subject of returns I’ve had 2 out of maybe 100+ deals so far.  Took me a few minutes to raise the return requests and I spent less than a minute bidding or buying from the listings in the first place.  Hardly taking a big chunk out of my life.

How much have I lost on bad eBay deals in money?  None, nada, zero, nil pounds!  The protection for buyers on eBay is just too good.  The only way you can really lose is by not knowing how to spot fakes and ending up with something you don’t find out is fake until years later when you try and sell it.  Beginners and noobs beware!

Its definitely not for everybody.

[Lowlow]

1 minute ago, Goldhooked said:

Hilarious that some people think it’s all lies

On the point about time, some people read books, some people watch tv, I sometimes scan eBay.  I take a very long time to get to sleep most nights so I’ll lay in bed looking through eBay listings until I’m tired enough.  It’s an interest, a hobby, as much as anything else.  I also spend an inordinate amount of time on eBay in the office so have regular looks during the daytime when most other people are at work.

On the subject of returns I’ve had 2 out of maybe 100+ deals so far.  Took me a few minutes to raise the return requests and I spent less than a minute bidding or buying from the listings in the first place.  Hardly taking a big chunk out of my life.

How much have I lost on eBay deals in money?  None, nada, zero, nil pounds!  The protection for buyers on eBay is just too good.  The only way you can really lose is by not knowing how to spot fakes and ending up with something you don’t find out is fake until years later when you try and sell it.  Beginners and noobs beware!

Its definitely not for everybody.

I too think it's hilarious that some people think it's all lies ... and I'm glad I'm not one of them.

I'm glad to see you agree that it is a hobby, I didn't want to say that, but that is what it looks like as an outsider looking in (I say outsider, but I have spent some time looking through listings myself).

I'm curious what your thoughts are on two of the other points I raised .. (1) about basically dealing in small lot sizes, and (2) that it's really better for coins than bullion.

I totally believe Ebay is a good place to search for special coins that are hard to find at good prices, maybe some commemorative silver coin that was made in the 1930's or something, or an older coin in a series that is hard to find ... but I'm not interested in collectibles, I'm interested in bullion.  Is it your experience that you can find bullion at cheap prices in quantities that are large enough to make it worth bothering ?  I like a good deal as much as the next person (okay, maybe not as much as some people who will go to any length to get a good deal discounting all of their time and energy), I am receptive and can be convinced ... but I have not been convinced yet (at least by my own searches).  To be clear, I don't give a rat's backside about collectible / numismatic coins, I just don't, I'm not a coin collector ... but I would be interested if you're finding lots of silver rounds at or below spot, or silver bars, etc.

I want to believe that bullion can be purchased on Ebay for spot or less in quantities that aren't a waste of time, and I believe what you are saying ... I'm just not yet convinced that you aren't talking about coins and collectibles in smaller quantities that aren't worth it for the average busy person to bother with.

[matrawr]

All of my morgans are from ebay and about 80-90 of my bars are purchased through there as well and then I have a handful of old british coins a couple of canadian dollars which was purchased from the local car boot.

The canadian dollars turned out to be after the silver content went......and a shilling turned out to be fake

My success rate of getting a legitimate item from ebay has proven to be much higher than my success rate at the local car boot.

95% of what I've bought on ebay has come good! Whilst 30% of what I've purchased at the car boot has turned out to be fake or misleading....albeit it's only maybe 8 coins which didn't cost much but I don't think I'll go back to the car boot for silver.

Like I said members on here also sell on ebay. Coin shops although most prominently are US sellers but most like you would have to pay an import fee and wait 2-3 weeks.....but go through the Global shipping program and if they take the time to set that up it's unlikely to be fake anyway

[Goldhooked]

2 minutes ago, Lowlow said:

I too think it's hilarious that some people think it's all lies ... and I'm glad I'm not one of them.

I'm glad to see you agree that it is a hobby, I didn't want to say that, but that is what it looks like as an outsider looking in (I say outsider, but I have spent some time looking through listings myself).

I'm curious what your thoughts are on two of the other points I raised .. (1) about basically dealing in small lot sizes, and (2) that it's really better for coins than bullion.

I totally believe Ebay is a good place to search for special coins that are hard to find at good prices, maybe some commemorative silver coin that was made in the 1930's or something, or an older coin in a series that is hard to find ... but I'm not interested in collectibles, I'm interested in bullion.  Is it your experience that you can find bullion at cheap prices in quantities that are large enough to make it worth bothering ?  I like a good deal as much as the next person (okay, maybe not as much as some people who will go to any length to get a good deal discounting all of their time and energy), I am receptive and can be convinced ... but I have not been convinced yet (at least by my own searches).  To be clear, I don't give a rat's backside about collectible / numismatic coins, I just don't, I'm not a coin collector ... but I would be interested if you're finding lots of silver rounds at or below spot, or silver bars, etc.

I want to believe that bullion can be purchased on Ebay for spot or less in quantities that aren't a waste of time, and I believe what you are saying ... I'm just not yet convinced that you aren't talking about coins and collectibles in smaller quantities that aren't worth it for the average busy person to bother with.

It’s a hobby, an investment.  Same as all the other silver and gold I buy from other sources.  None of it is in a business capacity but it could easily be I reckon.  If my other business died or I sold it, I would have many more hours to search out the deals and I reckon I could run a small business from it.

I find deals on small, medium and large quantities.  I’ve bought small single coins/collectibles and I’ve also bought several kilos of old silver currency.  It doesn’t really matter to me how big or small the lot is.  It’s all (hopefully!) profit in the future when (if!) the price of silver increases!

You posted before my edit about bullion.  Basically... Most of my spot-or-less deals are NOT bullion.  It’s pretty hard to find those sort of deals on bullion.  Those are more luck than experience.

Silver bars?  Forget it!  In the UK at least, silver bars go for silly money on eBay!