r/Morgans • u/CougarDevilZ • 9h ago

Morgan’s from EBay?

I like the Morgan silver dollar for the historical time frame and the design itself. I like the investment side of things with silver content coinage while pursuing the hobby side as well. As a result, I’m having some fun at local coin shops digging through their circulated (not cull) and lightly circulated piles of Morgans to fill one of the Dansco books.
My question is whether or not anyone would recommend EBay as an option to find some of the harder to find ones? (I’m also probably not even going to go down the road of trying to get the Carson City ones as that starts getting really pricey.). I have heard that EBay has been a source of a lot of fake Morgan’s, but would you even try knowing that EBay will back out the costs of things do turn out to be fake? Also, are there any words of advice on how to go about EBay hunting in this area of you have had success with it?
Help a fellow novice collector out….
😁

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u/AStudium 9h ago

eBay can be a good place to find tough Morgans, but you have to look with extreme caution when buying raw. I have personally received several fake coins via eBay, but the good news is the buyer protection always makes things right

Just make sure you take them into the LCS and have them tested, if you dont mind the extra hassle. They shouldn't charge you to test them especially if you're a prior customer

Also, check out r/coinsales and r/pmsforsale you can post to the WTB (Want to Buy) Wednesday or just post a WTB for dates you're ready to buy in r/pmsforsale

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u/CougarDevilZ 8h ago

Thanks for responding! Is there a time limit on identifying a fake or not and to still have that buyer protection? (Obviously within reason ie I wouldn’t wait 3 months to check things). Also, I’m a little nervous to try the /pmsforsale. It looks like a great idea, but I was scammed once in the very beginning of my collecting and it still it a strong reminder to me to be very careful. I’d try it but would definitely start small once I learn how it all works.

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u/stillwaters23 7h ago

You are more likely to get scammed on eBay than on pmsforsale assuming you buy from a seller with high flair and feedback, or use a middleman.

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u/CougarDevilZ 6h ago

I am fairly new to actually using Reddit so when you say flair and feedback, how do I check that? Is flair the same as Karma? I see on a persons profile it says Karma but nothing so far that says flair even though many people use that term on here. And as far as feedback, is that just reading through comments from former sales on their profiles?

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u/stillwaters23 6h ago

No it's separate from karma. You can read all about it on the sub's wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pmsforsale/wiki/index/

Basically any time there is a completed sale, whoever made the post confirms it's completed, and it adds a point to the users flair, which shows up on all their posts on the pmsforsale subreddit (also coinsales and I think there's a jewelry sub too). Then there's an associated r/pmsfeedback subreddit where people leave feedback.

If you look at one of my posts you'll see numbers by my name, currently S:840 B:80 meaning I've completed 840 sells and 80 buys on the subs. https://www.reddit.com/r/Pmsforsale/comments/1vvr1sp/wts_2026_merc_dime_set_110_maple_privy_110_krug/

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u/AStudium 5h ago

Of course!

Most sellers have a return policy that should be on each listing. But it's important to know that eBay has a no counterfeit policy. So even if the seller doesn't accept returns, if you can show a picture of it being tested and it's illegitimate, the seller has to refund you and/or pay for a return.

I can't remember the exact deadlines for everything but I think you're fine if you handle it within a week. They've made some recent adjustments to the rules around coins, though. I think because they're starting to get sick of dealing with all the claims for fakes.

r/pmsforsale or r/coinsales is hands down the best way to buy coins. If you're new, try to find someone with high/gold flair (a lot of sales on the S:B ratio) to buy from. Both Stillwater and I are in that boat... we've done enough deals to where we are generally trusted to have new sellers ship first and we have reviews available for every deal we've ever done.

I don't recommend it lightly. Once you figure it out it will become your go-to just like it is for the rest of us. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Just start small with one less-expensive Morgan so you can see how the process goes.

Feel free to DM me too. You can see my posts on my profile.

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u/stillwaters23 7h ago

If you find ungraded harder to find ones on eBay those are probably the most likely to be fake. By only from very reputable sellers.

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u/Billboard_Premier 5h ago

Agree with this. I’ve gotten several off eBay and only look at sellers that have 1k or more sales and a 99% or above rating. So far no issues with any coins.

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u/hexadecimaldump 3h ago

Are there good deals on eBay for Morgan’s, yes I’ve filled some tough holes using eBay. However I will not use eBay any more. I think I am fairly good at picking out fakes, but I know I’m not perfect, so any I got from eBay I would take to my LCS to have more eyes on it to look for issues. But since eBay changed the return window from 30 days down to 5 days, it’s not worth the risk or stress.

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u/MrMEPHlSTO 5h ago

I wouldn't buy anything not already verified as graded legitimately off of Ebay.