Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[disneysteve]

As of today, 5/12, my profit for the month so far is at $380, so well on track to meet or exceed my $500 monthly goal since we're not even halfway through the month.

And just one day later, my May profit is up to $562.77 thanks to a $100 sale yesterday and a $120 sale today (total cost for those 2 items was $15). Let's see if I can make it a $1,000 month.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Ebay has a good buyer's protection. Unknowingly I bought fake silver American eagles on eBay. I opened up a claim with eBay and they refunded my money.

[disneysteve]

Ebay has a good buyer's protection. Unknowingly I bought fake silver American eagles on eBay. I opened up a claim with eBay and they refunded my money.

Wow. How did you discover they were fake?

[james.hendrickson]

Wow. How did you discover they were fake?

Actually, that was my question as well.

[QuarterMillionMan]

It's lighter and thinner than the real ones that I have to compare it with. And the seller has vanished from eBay when I tried to make contact with seller.

[disneysteve]

It's lighter and thinner than the real ones that I have to compare it with. And the seller has vanished from eBay when I tried to make contact with seller.

Once ebay got word that they were selling fakes, I'm sure they banned the seller. At least you were refunded.

Are you able to test the coins you got to see if they contain any silver at all? Do they have any value?

[disneysteve]

In the interest of being transparent, reselling isn't all endless wins.

I went to an estate sale this past weekend. They had a big stack of Great Courses educational programs on CD and DVD. I know that sort of thing tends to do well. I had no cell service there but I took a chance and paid $100 for all of them. There were 28 items so about $3.57 each.

I got home and looked more closely. Many of the courses were in multiple parts, so 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the cases belonged to one course. That meant for the 4-part courses, I had actually paid $3.57x4=$14.28 which is a lot. As I continued to organize them, I realized that 4 items were incomplete sets, so I only had 24 complete making the per item price $4.17.

The courses sell for $20-25 so if I only get $20 on a course that cost me $16.68, once I subtract shipping and ebay fees, I'm actually losing money. Even at $25, it's a slight loss.

I need to do a little more research and see if the 4-part sets can sell for a little more. $30 would be fine if I can get that much.

Oh well, there are always going to be duds. The lesson is for me to look more carefully before buying. Had I done so, I would have discovered the 4 items that were incomplete and wouldn't have bought those. I also would have seen how many of the sets were multiple parts and accounted for that in what I paid. If I could have gotten the 24 pieces for $70 or less, it would have been okay but $100 was just too much.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Once ebay got word that they were selling fakes, I'm sure they banned the seller. At least you were refunded.

Are you able to test the coins you got to see if they contain any silver at all? Do they have any value?

I guess that I could take it somewhere to test it but if feels fake and doesn't have the same sound when as real silver when hitting it or stacking it as they say.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I cleaned the 90% half dollars with baking soda, hot water, and aluminum foil as some Youtubers suggested. It came out pretty good and shiny.

[disneysteve]

I cleaned the 90% half dollars with baking soda, hot water, and aluminum foil as some Youtubers suggested. It came out pretty good and shiny.

If you are buying them strictly as an investment, as opposed to as a coin collector, is there any point in cleaning them?

[QuarterMillionMan]

It was so dirty that I didn't want to touch it. Now that it is clean I don't mind picking it up and inspecting it, etc. And cleaning it took all less than 5 minutes.

[QuarterMillionMan]

At first I tried dishwashing soap and water but it didn't make a difference.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I tried using PAMP's Veriscan app (free) to test gold ingots but it seems difficult to use the scan feature which compares the surface area of the front & back of the ingot to the production scan when it was made. I keep getting "unable to verify" on all of my ingots are factory sealed w/certificates of authenticity (COA), etc.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Sold this blue cap today for $20. The prior blue cap last week also sold for $20 so I guess that is the going rate. My 90 day total is $140.

[disneysteve]

My 90 day total is $140.

My 90-day total had been running over $5,000 but over the past month it dropped well under $4,000 for the first time in months. I've been working to get it back on track and it's now up over $4,000 again but it will take some time (and some good sales) to get it back over $5,000.