Every now and then we visit eBay to see out-of-this-world lot descriptions. Here are two that recently caught our eye. Click to expand screenshots below and read the description and our response.
The largest coin portal in the world allows sellers to hype value in the title and lot description as long as the coin is graded by PCGS or NGC. So we cannot report these items to eBay because they are within its questionable rules. One coin below is melt value at best because of artificial toning. The other silver eagle grades a “cameo” rather than “ultra cameo” and the seller opens the bid at $7,747″ and offers “buy it now” for “$39,607.”
Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.
I can’t speak for the seller’s motivation, but the extremely high starting bids for these would keep the most naive buyers away and anyone with even minimal knowledge would know that this is basically worthless junk. OTOH, eBay is full of sellers super-hyping junk at much lower price and snagging less informed buyers.
Thank you for your comment. I hope our viewers read your response carefully. You’re on target with the much lower price junk.