Three Rare Coins Sell For Nearly $900k

Three rare Australian coins have fetched almost $900,000 at auction - taking out two records in the process.

Australia's first coin, known as the 'Hannibal Head' Holey Dollar, sold for $410,000, while the first gold coin, an 1852 Adelaide pound, netted $370,000.

Both coins fetched record prices for coins of their type sold at auction, with the pound eclipsing the previous record by $240,000.

The coins went under the hammer in Melbourne on Monday night along with an 1813 Colonial Dumps coin, which had a less impressive result, selling for half the estimated price at $100,000.
Coinworks managing director Belinda Downie said it was an exciting auction result.

'It was a win-win. The vendor's happy. I saw really beautiful quality coins sell for very exciting prices, so, from a Coinworks perspective, and an industry perspective, there are no complaints,' she told AAP.

The top selling Holey Dollar is the only one of its type in private hands, with the only other known example housed in the NSW State Library.

'This one is unique for private buyers,' Ms Downie said.

'The quality of the coin is superior to most. It's got a really gorgeous history.'

The Holey Dollar was created from 40,000 Spanish coins acquired by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to alleviate Australia's coin shortage.

Governor Macquarie enlisted the services of convicted forger William Henshall to cut a hole in the centre of each dollar and later to stamp each with the words New South Wales and a five shilling value.

The rare coin gained notoriety after being found in 1881 as part of a bushranger's hoard and was later owned by the Tasmanian governor, Ms Downie said.

'Right from the onset this particular coin has always enjoyed publicity,' she said.

2011 Silver Canadian Grizzly Bear One Ounce 9999 Pure

These magnificent new silver bullion coins are an extension of the Royal Canadian Mint Silver Maple Leaf Program.

This is the second coin in a 6-coin series being released over the next 3 years; Each new coin will have a wildlife theme.

The Grizzly Bear design by Senior Mint Engraver William Woodruff depicts a growling Grizzly Bear alongside water with magnificent wildlife scenery behind it.

The maximum mintage is 1 million coins making them 30 more rare than an American silver eagle. They are more pure than an eagle at .9999 fine silver and have a legal tender face value 5 times than an silver eagle. These coins are in high demand with bullion buyers and collectors worldwide.

Four-Year Silver Probe Set To Be Dropped

A four-year investigation into the possible manipulation of the the silver market looks increasingly likely to be dropped after US regulators failed to find enough evidence to support a legal case, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission first announced that it was investigating “complaints of misconduct in the silver market” in September 2008, following a barrage of allegations of manipulation from a group of precious metals investors.
In 2010, Bart Chilton, a CFTC commissioner, said that he believed there had been “fraudulent efforts” to “deviously control” the silver price.

But after taking advice from two external consultancies, the first of which found irregularities on certain trading dates that it believed deserved more analysis, CFTC staff do not have sufficient evidence to bring a case, according to the people familiar with the situation.

The agency’s five commissioners have not yet formally determined the outcome of the investigation, leaving the possibility that staff could be instructed to dig deeper. A CFTC spokesman said: “The investigation has not reached its conclusion”. He declined further comment.

Ending the probe would infuriate some US silver investors, who claim that a group of large investment banks – in particular, JPMorgan – has conspired to drive the price of silver lower.
“I’m sure it will be met with some concern from a certain group of aggressive silver speculators,” said one person familiar with the investigation.

In a recent blog post, Ted Butler, a newsletter publisher and unofficial champion for the silver investors, accused the CFTC of being “negligent in failing to terminate the obvious manipulation ongoing in silver”.

The CFTC has analysed over 100,000 documents and interviewed dozens of witnesses since it began investigating the market in 2008, it said last year. The people familiar with the situation said the evidence included records from JPMorgan.

The conclusion of the investigation will come as a relief to JPMorgan. Although no company or individual was named in the CFTC investigation, the Wall Street bank has suffered a torrent of allegations from silver investors on the blogosphere.

One campaign exhorted sympathetic readers to “crash JPMorgan” by buying silver – based on the assumption, which JPMorgan has repeatedly denied, that the US bank has a large bet on lower silver prices.

In addition, a class-action lawsuit has been filed against JPMorgan. Lawyers for the bank have asked a judge to dismiss it, arguing that plaintiffs “fail to identify a single trade” showing manipulation.
Blythe Masters, head of commodities at JPMorgan, in an April interview with CNBC conceded that there had been “a tremendous amount of speculation, particularly in the blogosphere, about this topic”, but maintained that the bank had no large bets on silver prices.

“We have no stake in whether prices rise or decline,” she said. JPMorgan declined to comment on the CFTC investigation.

Previous CFTC silver inquiries in 2004 and 2008 found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Become an ebay Powerseller to Pay More and Get Less

Its sounds really great becoming a powerseller on ebay, one would imagine that this would entitle you to discounted fees and other various perks for effectively being a frequent and long standing seller,

This could not be further from the truth, a powerseller has all the benefits of selling on ebay stripped away with what appears to be no upside what ever.

So how does ebay explain the cough "benefits" of becoming an Ebay Powerseller:

-Top-rated seller eligibility and access to 1:1 phone consultations to help achieve Top-rated seller status
-Customer Support
-Unpaid Item Protection
-UPS rate discounts
-Health insurance solutions
-Powerful Giving Program
-PowerUp print and email newsletters
-PowerSeller Discussion Boards
-Logo merchandise
-PowerSeller templates for marketing

So as you can see direct from ebay the benefits are large, well largely useless and for the most a complete waste and no different to any non-power selling account.

So what do you miss out on, why is IT BAD to be a powerseller?

Well here is a chart with prices for a regular eBayer in colomn 1 and then colomn 2 for 30+ and power sellers;

Auction, Fixed Price and Classified with Best Offer format

To calculate the insertion fee multiply the start price by the number of items offered in the one listing and then use the table below to find the associated insertion fee.

Listing Start Price	First 30 listings in one month*	For 31+ listings in same month Plus PowerSellers & sellers registered as a business without a store
$0.01 - 0.99	Free for first 30 listings per month	$0.30
$1.00 - 19.99		$0.50
$20.00 - 49.99		$0.75
$50.00 - 99.99		$1.50
$100.00 - 399.99		$2.50
More than $399.99		$3.50

* Private Seller Eligibility Criteria applies.

Private Seller Eligibility Criteria

To qualify for 30 free listings per month members must have a Registered Address in Australia, and must not be a PowerSeller, registered as a business or a Store subscriber. Listings must be single quantity and not fall within Excluded Categories.

See above Chart displaying prices for various Auction and note how the second column with prices for everything is the column for powersellers (there are all the entitlements you lose by becoming a power seller!)

No to mention the fact that you are now recognised as a powerseller im sure taxation offices would be interested in you and you selling.

In short... do everything you can to prevent being a powerseller, you miss out on the free 20 listings per month, no free galleries and no benefits.

So if you do still use ebay as a seller and have not already been put off by the quagmire of fees the powerseller status may be the last straw to break the Camel's back.

So what do yo have to do to be unlucky enough to qualify for this privilage (of paying more than a newbie account to list etc)


What are the requirements?

To qualify for the PowerSeller program, sellers need to consistently sell a significant volume of items, provide a high level of service to their buyers, maintain a positive Feedback score, and meet the requirements for detailed seller ratings and eBay Buyer Protection and PayPal Buyer Protection case standards. Membership in the program is free.

You don't need to apply for the PowerSeller program. If you qualify, you'll automatically be included. Just check your Seller Dashboard to see if you've achieved PowerSeller status. PowerSeller levels include Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium depending on the number of items you've sold or the dollar amount of your sales.

If you're not a PowerSeller yet, you can always work your way up by meeting these requirements:

Be registered with eBay for at least 90 days.

Have an account in good standing.

Maintain a positive Feedback of 98% or higher over the past 12 months.

Follow all eBay policies.

Have a minimum of 100 transactions and $3,000 USD in sales with Australian buyers over the past 12 months.

Receive at least a 4.40 average from Australian buyers across all 4 detailed seller ratings (DSRs).

For all transactions with Australian buyers, have no more than 1.00% of transactions with low DSRs (1s or 2s) on item as described, and a maximum of 2.00% of low DSRs on communication, postage time, and postage and handling cost.

If your account falls below these requirements, you may lose your PowerSeller status.

So despite the difficult credentials of qualifying once achiveing this status you will (should) find yourself question what exactly the benefit is and then coming to the same conclusion that i have.

Summary:

No more 20 free listings per month, no more free galleries, loss of profitability, no longer under the rader to taxation.

Conclusion:

ebay powerselling makes you worse off and less profitable then a beginners account so ebay powerselling is a dis0incentive

Fee Jump for Ebay: Final Valuation Fees Jump from 5.25% to 7.9%

Just when you thought eBay and Paypal were taking about as much of Pie as they could handle, they have announced that from September 22nd they will be taking even MORE FEES.

Under the guise of removing ebay listing fees (actually this has been in place for nearly a year and is for just the first 30 items). Ebay is actually raising final valuation fees from 5.25% to 7.9%* (a huge 2.5% jump on fees).

Very disingeniously this new fee hike is being sold as a saving to listers (sellers on ebay).

Will this be the final bag to break the Camels back? Surely there will be a backlash against ebay who are already seeing there sales numbers decline as people decide it is not worth there while to list anymore on ebay.

Many People calculating this lastest fee hike are revising there ability to trade on-line, an example of a listing:

You list an item on ebay with a single picture, starting at 99c bidding, with a gallery picture for search results - the insertion fee is $1.09.

It sells for $1200. Currently the final valuation fee is $63. Total cost to sell? $64.09.

Now it's after 22nd September.... you list for FREE, but cop 7.9% on the final value - making the total cost to sell $94.80 - a 48% increase.

That's BEFORE PayPal fees, which on receiving $1200, is $29.10.

It's going to cost $124 to sell an item for $1200 to get paid by PayPal.

Can you afford to do business sales on ebay? Does this kill your profit margin?

HERE IS THE OFFICAL REVISED FEE BREAKDOWN FROM EBAY

Rewarding our valued casual sellers
You've told eBay that you love FREE insertion fees and prefer to pay your fees only once your item has sold. So, from 22 September 2011, eBay is trialing fee changes that will make it easier for casual sellers to sell with zero up-front cost.

Offering:

Free to list in any format – Eligible sellers will be able to list up to 30 single quantity listings per month in any format with zero insertion fees (excludes PowerSellers, Stores and sellers registered as a business on eBay) using standard listing features in participating categories**

No up-front cost – You only pay as you sell your item

Free gallery image – Saving you $0.59

One easy final value fee – To enable eBay to offer this up front saving and simplified fee format, eBay is re-balancing and simplifying fees by slightly increasing final value fees – from 5.25% to 7.9%.

The final value fee will be capped at $49.95 for each of the first 30 listings per month.

Fake Silver and Gold Pandas on eBay .. Buyer sells his fakes

HERE WE HAVE A ENAMEL PANDA 1 OZ COIN

I HAVE SHOWN THE SET OF 50 COINS, I BOUGHT ON EBAY AS SOLID GOLD & SILVER , BUT WHEN THE COINS ARRIVED THEY ARE ALL FAKES , SINCE THE SELLER IS NO LONGER REGISTERED, & I AM STILL WAITING FOR A REFUND FROM EBAY , I HAVE DECIDED TO SELL EACH COIN ON ITS OWN TO TRY TO RECOVER MY MONEY ...

Item number: 370523198266

Beware the Fake Silver Panda Coins on Ebay

Ebay has long been famous for being the site to buy Fake Silver Pandas, these pandas vary in price and dates but can be spotted by a FREE postage and a price below spot silver or gold price.

Its impossible to say how many fake silver pandas have been sold to unknowing investors who mistakingly think they are the real deal.

See One example of these ebay sellers FAKE SILVER PANDAS

Seller has already sold 100 of these fakes at $20 US each (spot is around $33 currently), many of which will resurface and be sold as a real panda.

With ebays feedback system its possible for a seller to maintain a good feedback score as 95% wont know its fake or wont challange it. The other 5% will get as refund so negative feedback will be avoided.

Any attempt to inform ebay of such a seller of clearly fake items usually results in a generic ebay response and no action being taken.

You really need to know alot about Pandas and all chinese numismatic coins before trying to purchase them on ebay.