How to Buy Gold Coins on eBay
There are two types of gold coin buyers: those who invest in numismatic gold coins and those who invest in newly minted gold coins based on weight. Numismatic gold coin collectors concern themselves with a coin's historic value along with purity and weight, while investors in newly minted coins are primarily concerned with gold coin purity and the price per ounce that fluctuates daily with the financial markets. Although some people consider buying gold coins on eBay a risky proposition, you can find deals and rare gold coins when you buy from sellers who adhere strictly to eBay's seller policies.
- Difficulty:
- Moderate
Instructions
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Search for Coins
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Log in to your eBay buyer account. Select "Coins & Paper Money" from the drop down menu to the right of the search box. Press "Search," which takes you to a page with a list of options to browse. Click and hover on "Coins: US," "Coins: Canada," "Coins: World" or "Coins: Ancient" and select "Gold" to browse gold coin listings. You can also enter the search term "gold coins" in the search box on eBay's home page to view coin listings that might be miscategorized.
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Browse gold coins by price. You can also browse gold coins by auction end dates, number of bidders and whether some sellers offer cheaper "Buy it Now" prices that allow you purchase coins on the spot and circumvent the auctions. Generally speaking, gold coin listings with high numbers of bidders indicate that the seller started the auction with an unrealistically low price to attract interest. While such sales tactics are not dishonest, the feeding frenzy created by the low price could cause you to end up paying more for your gold coins than they are worth.
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Scrutinize gold coin images. Newly minted coins look the same and stock images do not cause authenticity concerns. For historic gold coins, however, you must look for images of gold coins taken by the seller and not images uploaded from Internet sources. This is to verify that the seller has such coins in her possession.
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Read as many of the seller's buyer feedback comments as possible, especially the negative comments, to determine if seller dishonesty plays a role in the negative feedback. Because buying gold coins online does not afford you the opportunity to touch and test the merchandise before you buy, you must pay close attention to the seller's reputation. Additionally, eBay gold coin sellers rarely offer buyers certificates of authenticity, and gold coin enthusiasts often take the responsibility of authenticating the coins themselves after purchase. For this reason, it is vitally important make note of how many coins the seller has sold recently and the seller's feedback rating percentage.
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Place gold coins of interest on your "watch list." Placing gold coin auctions of interest on the watch list helps you keep track of them while you step away from eBay to conduct your research.
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Research prices and compare coin images. The American Numismatic Society, for example, provides a database of historic gold coin images that you can use to confirm the authenticity of the eBay listing images. You can also open a free Heritage Auction Galleries account, which gives you access to information about recent auction house gold coin sales to get a ballpark figure of what the coins are actually worth.
When buying newly minted gold coins, weight, percentage of gold content and price per ounce or fraction thereof are your primary concern. You can check the daily price of gold on websites that monitor the stock market to confirm that the eBay seller is charging fair prices for their coins. You can also check the price of newly minted coins on the websites of mint online retail stores.
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Place bids on gold coins. You can set your eBay account to auto bid in increments up to your maximum desired price. Pay for your gold coins with a credit card. Many eBay sellers accept credit card payments through PayPal. You do not need a PayPal account to use the service.
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Take your coins to a professional appraiser for valuation. You can find local appraisers in the yellow pages. You can also purchase a gold testing machine if you plan to purchase gold coins online on a regular basis. At the time of publication, these machines typically cost about $210. Leave the eBay seller from who you purchase coins positive or negative feedback based on the quality of the gold coins, shipping and handling price, delivery speed and how fast they respond to you if you ask questions.
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Tips & Warnings
Do not let fear of being ripped off temper your enthusiasm to buy gold coins on eBay. Ebay offers buyer protection that refunds your purchase and shipping charges in the case of fraud.
Do not mail your valuable gold coins away for appraisal. Visit coin appraiser's workshops in person and wait to pick them up, even if you must travel a substantial distance for the service.
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References
- Photo Credit Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Getty Images
