by Recyclersteve » Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:54 am
I have a wild guess what he might have seen. Often enough, when looking at eBay listings, I see someone who takes a regular coin worth face value and tries to pass it off as something extremely rare. Also, they will often put a price on the listing somewhere in the area of, say, $10k to $100k. The coin could have some tiny error (some very minor doubling on a single letter, etc.), but if it isn't listed in the Redbook, they can pass it off as some "undiscovered error" worth lots of money.
Another trick they might use is to quote a price of $10k to $100k and then allow potential bidders to make alternate offers. Let's say that you are a total amateur who doesn't know anything about coins, but has lots of money that was made from other areas (perhaps real estate and/or the stock market). You see a listing that says $100k, but allows people to make offers. You offer $10k, figuring that the seller will never in a million years accept it. Immediately the seller accepts your offer. The seller knows the coin is only worth face value and just wants to wait until after the return period expires (if there is one) before they smile and boast about their victory.
Someone might argue that the seller faces the possibility of getting bad feedback. He might, but there are plenty of people out there who would gladly accept a transaction with bad feedback in exchange for $10k.
I would tell your friend not just to look for listings but actual sales. And, because there could be a sucker every now and then who pays way too much, ask them to look for at least two different sold transactions for the coin in question.
Former stock broker w/ ~20 yrs. at one company. Spoke with 100k+ people and traded a lot (long, short, options, margin, extended hours, etc.).
Please note that ANY stocks I discuss, no matter how compelling, carry risk- sometimes substantial. If not prepared to buy it multiple times in modest amounts without going overboard (assuming nothing really wrong with the company), you need to learn more about the market and managing risk. Also, please research covered calls (options) as well.