Search smart and save money.  It is a fact that if you do not define your search criteria properly, you will be far more likely to pay more for the coins you're looking for.  Furthermore, it is very possible that you might miss a particular coin that you're looking for.

Here are some quick tips on finding the exact coins you desire...

1.      Use ?? in your searches to ensure that you find all of the competitor’s listings… i.e. search for “??70” and you’ll get all PR70, PF70, and MS70 coins.  

2.      Use * in your searches… i.e. search for “20th*” and you’ll get anything with 20th in the subject, even if there’s a word or character right next to it with no space in between.

3.      Use quotes for exact match criteria for terms which include spaces (white space).  i.e. searching for "MS 70" will return only those items that contain the exact characters in the order typed.  Here is an example of an item that will be returned from such a search: "2006 W 20th ANNIV. EAGLES NGC MS 70 PF 70"; but the following title will not be returned, since there is no space between the MS and the 70: "2006 W 20th ANNIV. EAGLES NGC MS70 PF70".  How is this useful, you ask?  This type of search can help you uncover items that many people do not see... i.e. fewer bidders.

4.      Use parentheses with search terms separated by commas as "or" criteria... e.g. search for the following: 2006 20th (MS70, "MS 70", PF70, "PF 70", PR70, "PR 70").  This search will yield almost every perfect certified 2006 20th Anniversary Eagle in one search with few, if any, false positives.  What you are effectively saying with this kind of search is this... show me all listings with the terms "2006", "20th", and at least one of the items listed in parentheses.

5.      Use the minus sign as a "not" operator to indicate characters or character combinations that you do not want to see.  A simple example would be to search for: 2006 20th -PCI.  This search will return results that contain both 2006 and 20th, but do not contain PCI (or pci, since searches are not case sensitive).  Armed with this search weapon, you can become very specific with your searches.  For example, try this search to return only perfect silver eagles either graded by the top two companies or still in their original Mint sealed boxes... 2006 20th (70, MS70, PR70, PF70, NGC, PCGS, sealed) -(ICG, ANI, PCI, SGS, NAS, gold, empty, 69, MS69, PR69, PF69).  Obviously, this search won't be perfect, because crafty sellers can find ways to cause their items to show up despite some of your best efforts to eliminate them.  It is, however, a pretty effective search if that's what you're looking for.

Good luck with your hunt.

"ShakeMyHand"