My backstory and first experience buying silver

[YearOfTheDragon2014]

Hi all!

 

Brand new to PMs/coins so thought I'd share my very limited experience so far.

 

I flip stuff on eBay for a living. Mainly electronics and musical instruments but whatever I know the value of really. I'm a poor person though so my car keeps breaking down. I'm also a bloody minded person so insist on fixing it myself. I'm also a bad mechanic so it takes forever. I'm getting better and it's worth it to learn a new skill but when it happens I can't earn any money as most of what I sell is stuff bought off of Gumtree and I need transport to go get the stuff.

 

I had been trying to figure out another product that I could buy and sell from home so that business doesn't grind to a halt when my car does but the problem with me is if I'm not interested in something It's incredibly difficult to keep my attention on it. If I am interested then I can learn a lot about it very quickly but it's taken a while for me to come up with something that's both profitable and can keep my interest.

 

I forget how I first got thinking about silver coins but I very quickly found myself deep into a YouTube hole with 10 tabs open of various silver/gold/coin google searches.

 

"That's strange" I said as I practised my karate moves in the mirror "Why am I getting so excited over coins?". I picked up my guitar and ripped an awesome solo. "It's not the sort of thing I'd ever expect myself to be interested in". As I backflipped into my computer chair to sit at my totally sweet gaming computer, however, I caught a glimpse of the pile of coins I kept on my shelf. Coins that I'd found, thought were cool, kept in my pocket for months in some cases then eventually transferred to my junk shelf for safekeeping. I guess I've been a coin collector for years and never realised.

 

So, armed with a new passion and a half-baked plan to make money, I started hunting for bargains on eBay. Found two coins from the same seller with very low bids because he appeared to have paired the wrong front and back pictures in these listings (he sold 25 in total I think so easy mistake to make but off-putting to bidders). Got them both for a total of £15.50 and waited for the post like waiting for Santa.

 

When they arrived I was relieved to see that I was right and my Year Of The Horse coin was dated 2014 and not 2012 like the picture on the listing. My Year Of The Dragon coin however... Well, my username should tip you off on that one.

 

Being that I'm new to all this I didn't want to jump to conclusions. Perhaps they did re-releases on different years (it didn't actually say "Year Of The Dragon" just had that design) but I couldn't find anything on google and people I asked thought it was fake. On the off chance it was just very rare or a mint error I rigged up a specific gravity test (thanks for that video Backyard Bullion if you're reading) and both coins are definitely fake. I was not shocked in the slightest but like to be thorough when I'm doing something I don't know much about (see aforementioned car repair timeline).

 

I'm currently a little torn as I'd like to keep them as a memento of my first foray and blunder into silver but don't want a scammer to profit from it. However, if I send it back I doubt eBay would really do anything about it other than give me a refund and he can then sell it on to someone else so I'm thinking I just keep them and give negative feedback. What do you guys think?

 

Anyway! If you made it this far that's my life story. Hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to learning from you guys and hopefully improving my track record on this stuff!

[Roy]

16 minutes ago, YearOfTheDragon2014 said:

I flip stuff on eBay for a living. 

Is that what's called 'self employed'? You do pay tax I hope?

(you might as well block me now)

[YearOfTheDragon2014]

35 minutes ago, Roy said:

Is that what's called 'self employed'? You do pay tax I hope?

(you might as well block me now)

You don't like flippers Roy?

[Stu]

Hi and welcome. I buy no metal whatsoever from flea bay.,You are right, eBay won't give a damn, I would request refund and state you are taking the coins to trading standards as they are counterfeit. 

[TheBeast]

when it's too good to be true....

 

[YearOfTheDragon2014]

48 minutes ago, TheBeast said:

when it's too good to be true....

 

I make my living off of too-good-to-be-true.  You win some, you lose some.