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Buyers Don't Be Scammed!!    Sellers Don't Be Liable!!

Take heed of the following:  EBAY provides a feature to sellers of certified coins that automatically fills in population details of the graded coin when the seller inputs the certification number (or coin details, I believe) of the listed coin.

These reports are not always accurate.  In fact, sometimes they are grossly inaccurate (very likely in the seller's favor)!

EBAY includes the following disclaimer in the population report provided:  "The seller, [seller's name], assumes full responsibility for the content of this listing and the item offered."

Of the auctions that I've found to contain inaccurate information, I have yet to find one listing that over-represents the population of the listed coin.  Take the following as an example...

A one dollar 1984-S Olympics NGC PF 70 Ultra Cameo shows up in the automatic population report with the following populations per grade: 

PF66 - 1;  PF67 - 22;  PF68 - 75;  PF69 - 1260;  PF70 - 6

The actual populations published by NGC for this coin are as follows:

PF64 - 1;  PF66 - 3;  PF67 - 17;  PF68 - 85;  PF69 - 1286;  PF70 - 42

Curiously, the actual NGC populations for the 1983-S Olympics NGC PF 70 are identical to the EBAY-supplied population report listed above for the 1984-S (except there are 1269 PF69s, vice 1260, which is irrelevant to the listing).

You may see two 1993 S Bill of Rights coins on the right of this guide that are listed with identical population reports even though they are, in fact, two different coins with different populations.  This particular seller often makes such "mistakes" when creating such listings.  Unfortunately, the mistakes are always in the seller's favor.

Savvy coin sellers are taking advantage of such mistakes (despite the EBAY disclaimer warning them they are responsible) in population reporting and achieving much higher prices in some cases that their coins are actually worth. 

There are, however, a number of coin dealers out there who relist an item that doesn't sell without re-validating the population of the coin - we have done this ourselves at times.  The population of modern commemoratives, in particular, are subject to change at any time.  It could even change during the course of a listing. 

If you are considering bidding on a coin in which the listing shows the population report, I strongly encourage you to verify this population prior to bidding.

You can verify populations for a small fee at the websites of each of the top certification companies.  These fees are well worth the additional peace of mind when it comes to committing your hard-earned dollars.

Good luck bidders!

ShakeMyHand