Personally i believe that they list these coins at crazy prices so that they can sell the exact same coin for a lower price, still overpriced but the big 1000 euro coin listings make it seem like you are getting a bargain.
Another thing is the slabbed roman scam. People send in overcleaned LRB's to NGC to get them slabbed and ID'd, then they sell them at crazy prices. The cheapest slabbed roman on Ebay that I've seen was $40.00, and the most expensive was $180.00
Oh, and we can't forget the widows mite scam. Take a trashed-up widows mite, pair it with a wikipedia article and papyrus font, with a picture of Jesus, then sell it between $50-$300.
I think I am going to put my pocket change up there as well 🙂
I'm gonna put my MS Proof star graded by SGS 1995 penny (Given to me at a coin show because the guy wanted to get rid of it.) up there in a group lot of not one, but TWO whole 2024 pennies I found a the local grocery store, and for a discount price of only $1,000,000!
A good selection of some of the scams on Trade Me in 2024 and 2025. Trade me is NZ ebay basically and was once a great site with robust processes for rooting out scam artists. Now thats changed with dreamers asking crazy prices for ordinary coins and numerous sellers selling fake Chinese copies of coins. The site was sold to some faceless international coglomeration in 2009 and standards have massively dropped and its all about the success fees now.
I would complain to Trade Me to take these auctions down, but 99% they didn't and the sellers would abuse you if you question them and even one time Trade Me warned me and banned me for a few days for “harassing the seller”. All they care about is making money out of success fees and even use AI descriptors for categories.
1951 UK crown a $20 coin for $2,300.
Fakes I found on Trade Me for crazy prices were often bought off Temu and Ebay for cheaper prices, here you can still see the chinese knock off label on the slab (Although its 2 different coins).
Fake 1885 Trade Dollar (USA) on Trade Me, I questioned the seller who demanded proof and I found this same coin on Temu (Circled) and they still said it was real. Despite sending the Temu image to Trade Me, they also did nothing and said I was harassing this seller. the seller was a Chinese immigrant importing fake coins from Temu and Ali pages and selling them for $1000s.
True 1885 Trade dollars were proofs only, 7 were made and this coin is a circulation finish, so not even a good fake.
Page from a clueless seller with common coins sold at mark ups, some are reasonable, but notice the 1988/89 HH $2 Aussie coin as a rarity costing $000's, when every 1988/89 $2 coin had HH on it. They also have a 1971 UK 2 pence at several hundred. the 1988/89 $2 coin had HH on the breast of the man. HH was the initials of Horst Hahne, the designer and in 1989 Aborigines complained the location of the initials was offensive and thus for 1989 and subsequent issues, they were removed, but some people think these coins are rare, when they are not (155 million in 1988 and 56 million in 1990 of these coins were minted, most years 10 - 20 million are minted). Notice the classic sign of a scammer/amateur clueless seller too - the word “rare” is spelled as “rear”. This is because most clueless sellers and rip off artists likely have a 2 digit IQ and limited literacy skills.
Dreamer who values a worn 1920s florin at $136 and pennies at $50 each, the whole lot is a bargain at $90. In reality the florin is $15 melt and the rest maybe $5 in total and thats being kind.
Bluey dollar bucks caused a realstir on Ebay a while ago, I think this was the worst bubble of all the Australian bubblegum issues. The only country whose new coins reach ebay at 300% mark ups before they are released officially.
Someone thinks a fake gold leaf note is worth more than the real thing, this kind of rubbish is worth less than $1 and not legal tender, but a copy. Its gold leaf that is microns thick and just rubbish. That style of note was replaced in the mid 2010s anyway.
Searches from Ali and Temu, when people were selling the circled fake bars on Trade me as real silver bars in late 2024, I exposed them (They wanted $500 each for 8 of them) and I got them shut down, they threatened to “waste” me.
Last image is a whimsical search, when I looked up “Zimbabwe gold” last year. The Chinese are persistent if nothing else!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Just do a google search and you will see ridiculous prices for run of the mill coins and of course..Are there any French 2 euro coins that don't have ERRORS???. They are very complex and therefore they are rarely PERFECT. While on this subject of pricing Postal charges on Catawiki are absurd . One guy was selling 1 x coin at 40 euros plus 40. Euro postal charge. Only a fool is going to pay that, plus Catawikis charges,Oouch. Todo coleccion is much fairer and some good prices too.
Ancient Greek and Roman coins won't be seeing any of my money!! Do they sell anything?? Ridiculous prices!! And why don't Ebay and the others take down these dodgy chinese fake coin sites,they're everywhere. Is there anything they DON't fake?
Ancient Greek and Roman coins won't be seeing any of my money!! Do they sell anything?? Ridiculous prices!! And why don't Ebay and the others take down these dodgy chinese fake coin sites,they're everywhere. Is there anything they DON't fake?
Where there's anything of value, there will be fakes. No way around it.
