Does nobody read what a potential trading partner is looking for?

Newb. But why do I often get offers to trade, usually expensive coins, and the offeree has nothing that I've listed as interests, doesn't really have anything of value, and sends little if no sort of introduction? I know it's not the case, but it comes across as scammy.

Rant over, thanks for reading.

It's common. If you check the members profile yo can get a feel for it being a scam or not based on the users ratings, forum activity and seniority. Most of the time it's not a scam just someone hoping to get a favorable trade. Politely decline, move on and report the member (top right corner of the user profile) if you have reason to believe it's a scammer (like fake ratings etc).

Mk, you have nice coins in your swap list, you will face more than a few times this kind of "issue"... which really are a scam attempts.

A lot of users have "reported" this before, specially when they listed silver for swap, be aware.

Sad but true:

When I started here I only listed coins in my personal collection. I just wanted a nice catalog of my coins for my reference. (Numista has the best catalog on the Internet.)

I wasn't looking for swaps so I didn't list any coins for exchange. Even so, in the first month I got a dozen swap requests - and everybody wanted my silver...!

So I deleted every coin in my collection, and listed some coins for swap. The first couple months were rough. The vultures were hovering around me and it was a lot of work wading through all the scammy swap offers.

Eventually, the vultures moved on to other prey and I have since made a couple dozen very nice swaps.

I'm guessing that this happens to everybody on here. Stick with it - the good swappers are out there and soon you'll mke some good swaps and some good friends.

Quote: "MK Ultra"​Newb. But why do I often get offers to trade, usually expensive coins, and the offeree has nothing that I've listed as interests, doesn't really have anything of value, and sends little if no sort of introduction? I know it's not the case, but it comes across as scammy.
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​Rant over, thanks for reading.

​In case You expect tolerance for Your wishes, please be more specific. I have doubts, that mentioned "cool stuff" besides two types of coins You are looking for in Your profile tells much...

Quote: "KasparsLV"​

Quote: "MK Ultra"​Newb. But why do I often get offers to trade, usually expensive coins, and the offeree has nothing that I've listed as interests, doesn't really have anything of value, and sends little if no sort of introduction? I know it's not the case, but it comes across as scammy.
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​​Rant over, thanks for reading.

​​In case You expect tolerance for Your wishes, please be more specific. I have doubts, that mentioned "cool stuff" besides two types of coins You are looking for in Your profile tells much...

​Fair.

I've got large cents if you're in

Many people will not necessarily look at your interests when starting a swap. It has happened to me when I joined that some of my first swaps were not entirely fair. It took me some time to learn and deal with the issue.
Now, it even happens to me sometimes that I get excited with the pictures and countries that I'm looking for and I miss to pay attention to the actual value (or metal) of the coins I'm asking for. No ill intention, just childish excitement.
I'd say that for the most part a good conversation with your swap partner will straight things up and clarify expectations. Swaps should be negotiated to both parties satisfaction, or politely cancelled. I'd say most people I interacted with in this community are individuals with a common interest and somehow trying to help each other in our goals (learning, ID coins, engrossing our collections), but of course there are some bad apples.
BTW, check my swap list, there's stuff in yours that I would like to have ;-)
Best of luck.

I'm at the point where my list of interesting extras is dwindling, and my list of "wants" is more selective, so I usually just offer to buy/sell now if I open a swap. I'm happy to exchange of course, but swaps can be tricky to work out :-)

It's either that or people trying to pass G-VG or otherwise heavily damaged coins as F, polished coins as XF and they try to make profit by swapping lots of this junk which is worthless even in big quantities for expensive coins that they can sell immediately.

Another thing is overpricing, ths coin for example is worth only about 20-25€ in VF and you can get these for a fixed price of 15€ at coin shops in Helsinki:

https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/finland-2-markkaa-km-7.2-1872-1908-cuid-1118760-duid-1246846

However, you see many people here listing F-VF examples of this speific coin for $35-50

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Quote: "CalvinV"​
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​Another thing is overpricing, ths coin for example is worth only about 20-25€ in VF and you can get these for a fixed price of 15€ at coin shops in Helsinki:
​
​https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/finland-2-markkaa-km-7.2-1872-1908-cuid-1118760-duid-1246846
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In my experience NGC is usually overpriced except maybe for US coins however NGC's priceguide seems to be the norm by which members balance swaps. By using actual market values for modern coins instead of NGC values you'd short yourself when the other side is using NGC.

Also, not everyone knows market prices, especially for foreign coins. If I had the coin in question in VF I'd also put the 35$ swap price on it from NGC since I don't know real market values.

This is why many members including me use NGC to balance out swap values while using different prices to sell coins. Personally I sell coins at about 30% less than catalogue values while swapping at full catalogue value. It makes swaps/sales balanced in my opinion.

I agree with you on the grading part however grading is very subjective. This is why I always ask for photos and also send photos of my own coins. That way both parties know exactly what they'll get and there's no confusion.

It all comes down to communication and making sure both parties are happy.
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Quote: "CalvinV"​
​Another thing is overpricing, ths coin for example is worth only about 20-25€ in VF and you can get these for a fixed price of 15€ at coin shops in Helsinki:
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​Sorry, but this information is almost useless for the majority of people in the world who don't live in Helsinki/Finland. That not sooo popular local coins are cheaper than anywhere else is normal. The further away the smaller the pool of awailable coins etc. (not counting the instances were poeple couldn''t give a mico crap about identifying foreign coins).

Also I can get many Japanese coins for cheaper at the source but I also have to import them, which doesnt make them any cheaper. In the scenario if me selling them why would I let the aqusition cost fall under the table?