Topic: Where to sell other than eBay and this forum?

[forfun]

If I were in your position I would reconsider selling on eBay with restriction of German address only.  Ebay is the best venue to sell the type of coins you have, which are only bought by collectors and need to be exposed to many buyers. 

Suppose you have ten coins to sell that are worth $200 each, a coin shop might offer you $400 for the entire lot if you are lucky, at coin show with a dealer specializing in Chinese coins might offer you $800 for the entire lot, while on Ebay if you price the coin at $180, you will net at least $1500 after fees and shipping. Even if 1-2 buyers scam you, you will net still around $1200 which is 50% better than $800 you could get elsewhere.  What is more is once you establish credibility on eBay the risk of being scammed goes down dramatically. 

You are new at this and over the years I have seen many newbies try to sell coins on this forum, eBay and via email.  This is what I have concluded over the years to protect myself from being scammed.

Red flags, sellers to avoid:
1) seller is new and doesn't have history of selling coins.  There is 1995 5oz bimetal panda in eBay from a newbie seller in Greece, I would love to own the coin, but the auction is a scam.
2) seller is shipping international.  When a stranger ships internationally you are taking a lot of risk for loss.  The risk is even greater when the seller doesn't have a lot of experience shipping internationally.
3) seller motivation for selling are suspicious, medical bills, selling for a friend, father passed away, etc why disclose your motivation to sell is, it just makes your position weaker.  Those that act weak are looking to attract a novice or weak buyer to take advantage of.
4) seller has no or very limited knowledge about the coins he is selling, if you don't know what you are selling why do you have the item in the first place, did you steal it, etc. 
5) seller wants to be paid with western union, cash in the mail or wire transfer, does not accept PayPal. I do 99% of my business using checks and wire, but those that I am buying from or selling to trust me so neither one of us want Paypal to steal 3%-4% from our collective pockets.  If a buyer insist on using PayPal with the claim they want to protect themselves, I tell them to buy elsewhere and come back in the future when you are comfortable sending a check or wire.
6) seller has been accused of shipping empty boxes, has lawsuits against or has history of bad checks.
7) seller violates rules of forum or website auction.

It only takes 1 of the above red flags for me to avoid doing a transaction, when you first posted you nailed 6 red flags out of 7, all you were missing was western union or cash in mail as your desired payment type.

In January of 2008 a seller with no experience of selling on eBay posted some coins on eBay, he wanted to sell to pay medical bills, he preferred selling off eBay with either check or PayPal payment. I really wanted his coins, so I bought few pieces from him on eBay and asked him to send me his number in the package.  After receiving the coins I called him and to earn my trust he sent me a picture of his registry set with his phone in the pictures connected to my call. Right away I knew he was legit and he did transactions with many of the top eBay sellers of Chinese coins and had receipts to prove it, after the call I started sending him $10-30k a month by wire and check to buy out his collection of the top registry set for gold pandas.

The point is red flags can turn to green flags if both parties are honest and serious about developing a relationship.  Now that I am reminded of this story, I will seek him out when I visit long beach in June, after all he did give me the honor of the top registry set for each size for a few years, then in 2011 an aggressive band of 5 unique collectors starting buying me out of my 70s and at the end of 2011 they were the kings of the NGC registry, plus I don't like all the serial numbers of my sets disclosed publicly on the registry which is an requirement to win the award.

thanks for the wise advice.

[Coinman]

My friend go to this website GREATCOLLECTIONS.COM..So much better than eBay..coins must be graded or they can even send your ungraded coins off to ngc or pcgs  for you ...this site is owned and operated by Ian russel..I have 200 + silver panda coins listed there now and doing well with them..I have bought and sold from them and all is first class.. I’m in the same boat as far as selling here .not enough posting .but I dont have a years time to qualify to show my coins here .hope this helps you a bunch , take care ,jim demers