I just finished part 2 to this guide also if you are interested, so pleasee take a moment to look through my most recent guides and get more info on how these lots are built up and sold in such bulk all to scam you! 

IF you find this article helpful, please take a moment to vote yes at the bottom, I would like to find out what the viewers are looking for so I can expand on specific areas! Thanks in advance

Good evening all...

Tonight I decided to write about these sellers on EBay that sell the notorious "UNSEARCHED" lots of old coins. Just the thought these days has to make a educated buyer laugh, but I have to admit, that it is tempting with the thought of landing that key dat coin! Here is why temptation gets you, and how these crooks stay in buisness.

These auctions are all the same, some guy telling a eloborate story about how they either bought some HUGE lot at a estate sell and dont have time to search them, or they found this bag or cigar box full of coins in their attic. Some of these scam artist go as far as to GAURANTEE you up to 15 different types of coins in their lots, but then again, they are unsearched right :). As usual, I went on a hunt tonight to see for myself how this scam works, and you wouldnt believe how these bandits make out!

The first one I looked at had a cigar box full of coins, supposedly inherited from their grandfather :), and they are selling due to the need for money. They claimed to know NOTHING at all about coins in the auction, and BROKE all the coins into lots so that more people could enjoy the hunt.. So of course the auction description was flawless, but when you go their feedback rating, a different story was told. This seller had over 2000 feedbacks, and as far as I could go back was ALL inherited coins sold in lots :) Must have been a huge inheritance huh!!! The best part about this though, is that they scam SO many people, that most of them have 100's of negatives, but due to the seer number of feedbacks they have, they not only keep their feedback marginal, but in most cases, keep a powerseller rating! WHAT A JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!! The best part about this auction to me though was the fact that not only did the seller NOT accept PayPal, but only took Money orders, and their address was a PO BOX to send payment. I think I would rather give a friend 25.99 plus 6.00 for shipping and have him kick me in the groin rather than feel the pain this scam sets up.

Now the next one took a little more educated review on my part to see what I felt was going on, and to say the least, it was eloborate. The seller must have had 500 auctions on EBay, 90% of them grab bag lots, but this seller added a twist. The seller also claimed that ALL the coins were unsearched, but gauranteed the least amount of pennies in the lot that EBay offered : ) Unsearched though, remember that........ The seller went on to add that in every 50 lots sold, they gauranteed a gold american eagle coin or equivalent in value, and of course was selling the lots for 25.99 a peice. Doing the math on this offer, I wondered how a seller could give away a gold eagle every 50 lots, and make money after fees and shipping, not to mention at least the silver worth of the coins in the lot. SO of course I had to dig, and low and behold, I noticed a AMAZING pattern. Just about Every 50 or so feedbacks, there was abuyer claiming to have found gold, and gauranteeing to buy again. But these supposed gold winners NEVER had over 25 feedbacks...Odd you think? So I went through these THOUSANDS of feedbacks and guess what I found, about 12 pages back, on a 200 count page, the SAME Ebay username had won gold before.. Odd again? Then I noticed a funny pattern in their feedback ratings, where a single username with minimal feedbacks would have string of feedbacks about 25 - 30 long, and consecutively, burying any negative left before it! WOW I thought, these guys are working hard at this to not ONLY pad their feedback and bury negatives within minutes of getting it, but to bait in buyers in the illusion of winning gold, and amazingly the same person wins it over and over :)

Incase you arent aware too, the padding feedback like I just described helps the seller keep their powerseller ranking even if they drop below 98%. Most buyers don't know that the TOTAL amount of feedbacks left counts toward the table EBay uses to appoint and keep powersellers. The feedback rating you see isnt what Ebay uses to decide powersellers and how long they keep it, just wanted to inform you of that.

Well needless to say, I saw hundreds of these auctions that were just elaborately set up at a glance, but if you dig into it, you see a HUGE tangled web of skeems to keep these guys up and going!

In my opinion, these grab bag sellers have their own little communities set up to cover each other, specifically with feedback. The sellers probably have 100's of fake Ebay screen names at their disposal to help keep them on EBay. And what does EBay care..... They are making them money, why would they look any further then taking their word for it. Ebay looks at it like these seller probably do 50000 transactions a year with sells, and when you look at it as 2 bucks to list, then 3 bucks in sellers fees, then another buck to paypal, that totals up to at least 300,000.00 a year in profit just off their 15.95 lots, some of them go up to 75.00 - 100.00. Trust me when I tell you this, EBay has NO INTEREST in running this guys off, and that is why a seller with 250 negative feedbacks in a year is allowed to stay on EBay, it is ridiculous.

Tips:

Here a a few tips to definitely avoid when looking at these unsearched lots:

1.  If the sellers makes a gaurantee to what you will or wont get in the lot, GUESS WHAT? He searched it!!

2. If the seller claims to be selling for instance a huge bag of unsearched pennies, but you review his feedback and you see that he sells sets of pennies, or has a big fat 1909 s or worn out 1914 D selling seperately, GUESS WHAT? That lot has been searched top to bottom.

3. If the seller gaurantees an exact count of coins, GUESS WHAT? Someone had to hold each coin to coint them, because I cant remember the last time I saw a coin counter that took SILVER DOLLARS :) They have been searched!

4. Check the feedbacks, and not just the first page, if you see 50 feedbacks in a row from tomtom, then a negative with 50 feedbacks in a row behind it from tomtom2, notice the pattern, and avoid

I am sure there are VERY few sellers on Ebay that are legitimate, I would say less than 2 percent in my opinion that sell lots of coins that have a potential for profit, and those seller will have SUPERIOR feedback, bottomline. Because when people go searching for gold, they better find it, and you all know what I mean. The other 98% of these scammers are making huge profits off selling their junk that can't be pushed anywhere else. You can go to any coin shop in the world, and find bags and bags of coins dealers know that cant sell, and basically selling it to per pound, and you know they searched everyone of those coins with a fine tooth comb, and that is where these sellers are getting their bulk.

Be smart when dealing with these sellers, and if you do fall for this scam, be humble in your moment of temporary insanity. Laugh it off and learn your lesson. To me it is like Vegas, a seller might give you a good lot one in a 1000, but in the end, the house ALWAYS profits, or they wouldnt be in buisness. Take care all, and avoid pety scammers that claim riches and fortune are on the way to you for 29.95 + shipping!

Have a great day all.

P.S. I got a very angry email from a seller today about this guide :) And in reviewing their sales pitch for UNSEARCHED lots I have found another thing to look out for. If a seller is gauranting you for instance 1 gold coin per every 200 lots they sell(just an example, many sellers offer MANY items to be split into random lots), BUT only allow you to buy 15  lots at a time(for instance), I think I would have to be lery of that as well. WHY would anyone limit your buying of their coins!!!! I can only think of one reason, and that would be so that the coins they are gauranteeing dont have to go out to the public. If a seller is offering 200 lots of 1/2 pound coins on EBay, why should they care if one buyer buys all 200 lots. They have to be prepared to ship the 200 lots, and wouldnt it be easier to ship them all to the same place at the same time to avoid all the trips and calls for postal service. GET REAL!!! And dont forget to look at nuetral feedbacks as well, they tell a HUGE story about their auctions and dont reflect in their rating. All these sellers have excuses for everything, and it is NEVER their fault because they made NO GAURANTEE to what you were buying.. Be vigilant!!

Here is a copy of the email I recieved from this seller :) Find the funny parts..

"You and your guides are done and will be reported to ebay trust and safety as well as our attorney! What you are doing is not to the benefit of the Ebay community rather to your own benefit offering only NGC mass graded crap via you sales just like the HSN does. Even though you have never bought an honest lot from a seller like us, your blasphemy that does include sellers like us will not be tolerated well! Have a great day and know that you did wrong by calling all lot sellers scammers as we ARE NOT!!!!"

:) Did I EVER say aALL in this guide, or did I say MOST sellers. Alot of grammar mistakes, and the blasphemy part is the funniest to me, that isnt even a legal term, it is a sin against God :)!! I dont think I will let them scare me off just yet :) I will forwad the email to anyone wanting it, but wont post the sellers name in here just to keep EBay from attempting to pull this HELPFUL guide...... In closing, the funny part is how the seller that wrote this email to me BASHES other lot sellers in his auction description.... NO HONOR AMONGST THIEVES I suppose!!!

Till Then.................................

PART 2: