It pains me to see the Morgan dollars people pay good money for on Ebay.  Yes it's a joy when you get a winner in an Ebay auction, a great experience, but you have to know the ropes. I've seen enough to know people get more losers than winners and some dealers are even legally stealing your money. 

1.  Don't try to grade from pictures. You can't tell a cleaned coin from pictures and these are commonly sold as "MS" and are even slabbed by some grading services as MS coins when they are not.. You can't always tell an AU-58 from an MS coin via a picture either. I once paid over $2000 for an 84-S from the guys who have the best pictures on Ebay.  It was slabbed MS-63 and it looked great!  Even a MS-60 was worth $5000!!  How could I miss?  An expert looked at the coin I had received for about 30 seconds and declared it a nice AU-58 worth about $1100. Nice looking coin.  Some people would have kept it.  I wisely sent it back, but of course I had to pay a small fortune for shipping and insurance two ways.  Pictures can help, but if you use a picture to grade a high end coin, make sure the seller will refund your money. 

2. If the seller has no money back policy, watch out.  Ask yourself, if a seller can't give you at least five days to send your coin back, what's wrong with it?  Why would you send a coin back if it was worth what you paid for it?  I sometimes do buy from sellers who sell "all sales final" but I bid a couple grades down. NOTE: Always read the fine print.  Some dealers say no return on slabbed coins. I recently took a $300 loss because of one seller's "exceptons."  Paypal cannot be depended upon to get your money back unless the seller grossly overstated the coin's worth or value. They can't tell who is telling the truth.

3. Practice bidding and don't worry if you lose.  Pick out a few coins and write down your maximum bid and see how you do!  Never think a coin will not show up again and you have to get this one or that one.

4. Search Buy It Now coins.  It might be less fun, but you find some winners where people just need some fast cash. Certain dealers sell their coins BIN only and they sometimes sell for less than you can get coins in the frenzy of an auction.

5. Be careful of all "Slabbed"graded  coins which are not PGCS, NGC, ICG  or ANACS .  PCI and ACG are fair graders but are usually high by one grade.  Beware of  MS-65 graded coins which are not graded by one of the top 4 graders. MS-64 coins can be worth hundreds or thousands less than a true MS-65.  Almost all the rest cater to the dealers. ANI, NNC, NTS and even SGS will sometimes grade cleaned coins and AU coins as MS.  If you bid, you have to drop 2 or 3 grades on these, and watch out for the high end ones.  90% of them have already been sent in hoping to get a top grading company to approve them, with no luck.   If you see a coin graded by a service you don't know about, make sure the dealer offers money back! Google for comments about a grader if you want to know how people view their standards. If a coin seems too good to be true, it usually is.

6. Don't go by Feedback alone.  Dealers have learned they can sell all kinds of junk as long as they keep their feedback up. They take returns, so no one really complains.  They know their stuff is worth far less than people pay, but some people don't bother returning it.  Dealers can make plenty of money off people who won't return and won't complain even when they are getting scammed.  If you are buying a big coin, carefully read other buyer's feedback to see if they got all the dealer claimed they were getting.  Don't harm the seller unfairly, but leave neutral feedback if you honestly got a loser, even if you got your money back.  Ebay has fixed it so you should have no fear of retaliation.

7.Watch out for coins with big jumps in value from grade to grade.  Look at the PGCS price guide carefully and bid low on raw coins like the 97-O or 92-O.  Note the big jumps from MS64 to MS65 grades.  If y miss on some coins by one grade, you could be out thousands.  Do not bid on high end raw coins unless the dealer has a rock solid money back policy.  There are a thousand 96-O and 84-S coins that look MS but are really AU-58. When you get one, show it to a trusted dealer or to your coin club buddy because a one or two grade error is costly.  Notice that coins like the 88-S and the CC coins have a very smooth transition from grade to grade.  These are much safer to bid up.  Precious few dealers on Ebay grade a raw 64 as a 64.  Even the Redfield Paramount coins labeled MS-65 are almost always MS-63, seldom 64.

Don't worry if you come in second by a few dollars. That's actually a good sign you are bidding right!  It's better to have money than a big ego.  If you bid smartly and boldly on enough coins, you will get some winners.

Happy and wise bidding