I have been ripped off a few times on Ebay . The most recent and notable was last year with purchase of a Saint Gaudens $20 gold coin . I paid a little under melt for a coin that was AU/BU condition . I think i paid $1300 or so .Seller had over 217 in feedback and they were recent and a few for selling .Mostly $2 - $10 items ( red flag ) .

He had good communication and MANY , MANY excuses at first. Same shenanigans with posting invalid tracking # . He wanted me to post good feedback before i received item . He said paypal would not free his $ unless there was some sort of proof of buyers receiving merchandise ( $20 gold coins ) , like receiving positive feedback .

I said NO WAY ! Told me he was really tight for cash and needed to make a mortgage payment , blah, blah blah . He advised me he would ship an insignificant item ( an old toy ) to see if that would be enough for paypal to free the funds. That my coin would be shipped in a couple of days because he was out of town and could not get to safe deposit box. Blah, blah blah.Luckily paypal never released the money for all the gold coins he sold and never shipped.


To make an even longer story short .... i never received the coin neither did about 7 other ebayers ( that i am aware of ) that also fell for buying similar gold coin under melt value from that seller.

Paypal eventually reimbursed me my $ but it took a month or so .

There is WAY, WAY more fraud on eBay with coins and bullion then there is with collectible knives from what i have seen and experienced .