Buying gold coins on eBay can be hazardous if you have not done your research.
Unscrupulous vendors take advantage of the system and can defraud customers who pay up front.
But it does not have to be that way.
Here are some simple techniques that you can use to identify trustworthy vendors to buy (or sell) your gold coins on eBay.
Once you've found the Gold coin listing on eBay that you want to bid on, make sure you make use of all the information that is there.
On the upper right hand corner of the listing you will see the vendors feedback and the feedback rating.
To begin with look for vendors with over 1000 feedbacks.
Next check the feedback rating.
Find vendors with a 98% or better feedback rating.
It's really hard for a vendor to maintain a 100% rating with 1000 feedbacks.
But good vendors will struggle to maintain high feedback ratings otherwise they will lose their Power Seller status.
Click on the feedback number.
Be sure to read the comments that others have wrote about their gold coin purchases.
Look through several pages of comments to see if their are any obvious complaints.
While still in feedback section, look at the seller feedback and buyer feedback tabs at the top left of the feedback page.
You want your seller to have more seller feedbacks than their main feedback number.
That shows they are making repeat sales and have satisfied repeat customers.
The more the seller feedback number exceeds the total feedbacks, the better.
While In the feedback section, look for the buyer feedbacks.
Your seller should have very few buyer feedbacks.
Some sellers do a lot of buying and selling through the same account.
Do not buy from a seller who has more buyer feedbacks than his seller feedbacks.
Also, heres a neat tip; Check the buyer feedbacks to see what the vendor buys.
You can often see what they paid for the coin they are selling if the vendor is not very careful and uses the same account for buying and selling.
Next, Go back to the eBay listing and look for the sellers "about me" page.
Look for established sellers with actual physical stores with addresses and phone numbers listed.
Dealers with a physical location will be much more likely to deal with you fairly.
You also have someplace else to call if eBay is not helpful with a dispute.
Go to Google and search the dealers eBay name or store name to find out if anyone has written complaints about them.
You can often learn names and addresses for eBay vendors through Google even when they are not displayed on eBay.
If the Vendor has a website listed, you can use services like whois.
com to find out contact information, names of owners and phone numbers.
If you cant find information about who you are dealing with, you are taking a big risk sending them thousands of dollars for your gold coin purchase Pay for your purchase with the vendor using an established credit card even if you have a PayPal account.
Established credit card companies are much more responsive to situations where fraud is involved.
They give you an extra level of protection beyond PayPal.
Doing all of the tips shown above cannot guarantee absolute safety, but it will direct to dealers who care and who deserve your trust.
Unscrupulous vendors take advantage of the system and can defraud customers who pay up front.
But it does not have to be that way.
Here are some simple techniques that you can use to identify trustworthy vendors to buy (or sell) your gold coins on eBay.
Once you've found the Gold coin listing on eBay that you want to bid on, make sure you make use of all the information that is there.
On the upper right hand corner of the listing you will see the vendors feedback and the feedback rating.
To begin with look for vendors with over 1000 feedbacks.
Next check the feedback rating.
Find vendors with a 98% or better feedback rating.
It's really hard for a vendor to maintain a 100% rating with 1000 feedbacks.
But good vendors will struggle to maintain high feedback ratings otherwise they will lose their Power Seller status.
Click on the feedback number.
Be sure to read the comments that others have wrote about their gold coin purchases.
Look through several pages of comments to see if their are any obvious complaints.
While still in feedback section, look at the seller feedback and buyer feedback tabs at the top left of the feedback page.
You want your seller to have more seller feedbacks than their main feedback number.
That shows they are making repeat sales and have satisfied repeat customers.
The more the seller feedback number exceeds the total feedbacks, the better.
While In the feedback section, look for the buyer feedbacks.
Your seller should have very few buyer feedbacks.
Some sellers do a lot of buying and selling through the same account.
Do not buy from a seller who has more buyer feedbacks than his seller feedbacks.
Also, heres a neat tip; Check the buyer feedbacks to see what the vendor buys.
You can often see what they paid for the coin they are selling if the vendor is not very careful and uses the same account for buying and selling.
Next, Go back to the eBay listing and look for the sellers "about me" page.
Look for established sellers with actual physical stores with addresses and phone numbers listed.
Dealers with a physical location will be much more likely to deal with you fairly.
You also have someplace else to call if eBay is not helpful with a dispute.
Go to Google and search the dealers eBay name or store name to find out if anyone has written complaints about them.
You can often learn names and addresses for eBay vendors through Google even when they are not displayed on eBay.
If the Vendor has a website listed, you can use services like whois.
com to find out contact information, names of owners and phone numbers.
If you cant find information about who you are dealing with, you are taking a big risk sending them thousands of dollars for your gold coin purchase Pay for your purchase with the vendor using an established credit card even if you have a PayPal account.
Established credit card companies are much more responsive to situations where fraud is involved.
They give you an extra level of protection beyond PayPal.
Doing all of the tips shown above cannot guarantee absolute safety, but it will direct to dealers who care and who deserve your trust.