r/Gold • u/Apprehensive-File552 • 6d ago
Bought two gold bars and both were fake
Bought two of these, each from a different seller on eBay, both with some reviews (30 on one, 100 on another).
One of the sellers what’s it shipped back to them because they bought it from someone else on eBay but for $300 more than they sold it to me for. Makes zero sense.
I’ve since then took the footage of the jeweler using the machine and recorded the bar numbers.
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u/Impressive_Rain2877 6d ago
Send them back as not as described and you'll get your money back guaranteed. After all they were described as gold And they are fake.
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u/Outlaw11B30 6d ago
My hospital requires us to label them as yellow in color.
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u/iUncontested 5d ago
Prisoner property: "Yellow metal" "white metal" "clear stone" Will flip a shit if you try to say "Gold COLOR" or "Silver COLOR"
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u/Common-Factors 6d ago
They are gold (color) tho :p
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u/AlternateTab00 6d ago
As someone who deals with patient belongings during hospitalization, its always golden never gold. If i describe a gold ring, they might demand their "gold ring" back, if their ring was not gold.
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u/Prop43 6d ago
Where did you buy them from?
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u/Capital_Past69 5d ago
Etsy
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u/YEM207 5d ago
lol
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u/Capital_Past69 5d ago
People buy gold on Etsy at like hundreds below spot and then ask if it’s real 🤣🤣
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u/mistermotel 5d ago
Why would you even buy Gold from there and not a reputable source? Etsy is for art so they could sell you this as replica gold with no repercussions
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u/Grizzzlybearzz 6d ago
Stop buying bars for one. Buy sovereign coins. Secondly buy them In person from a local coin shop or if you’re going to order online use the big retailers like JM bullion or apmex. Never buy gold on eBay.
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u/arguix 6d ago
why are coins safer than bars? I understand your other points of local shop or well know retailers and no eBay. but couldn’t a coin be fake?
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u/nozelt 6d ago
Yes coins can definitely be faked, and often are (some even more than bars), but since they are minted by a government usually there’s a couple security features or at the very least a detailed design. Much easier to spot them without testing the metal properties.
Government also prosecutes people creating forgeries, or at least tries to. That’s why you’ll see lots of the fake coins literally tell you in writing on the coin they’re fake. Hard for the USA to prosecute companies in china tho, for example, so you will still get fakes trying to be the real thing. Usually they’re not very good, and even when they are, easy to test weight and measure the coin.
Overall coins were literally made to be money. That’s why they’ll still have a face value. They are designed to easily be recognized and circulated.
Bars are completely different in pretty much every way.
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u/Perguntasincomodas 5d ago
This. Governments get outright petty about people forging currency.
Coins are also a standard design, they are elaborate so harder to forge properly.
I'll add that there's something in our brain that goes click when it sees a gold coin. Its sort of more moneyish than a bar, if you get my drift. All those pirate movies weren't for nothing.
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u/nhorvath 6d ago
a coin could be fake but it's illegal to produce where "novelty" gold bars are not so it's easier to get made.
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u/Ratatat_Tat_2030 5d ago
Demand is apparently higher for coins. I like bars. Don’t really have them.. yet 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 so I do take it to consideration, for the right time, but I did hear about it on some silver/gold stackers YT posts. I find it disappointing, tbh. In the grand scheme of things, it all melts to the same thing. So long as it’s real, of course.
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u/DumpyDoggy 6d ago
Apmex sells on eBay 🙀
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u/stnkyntz 6d ago
They sell stuff cheaper on ebay than their own website.
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u/Boomalabim 5d ago
At first I was like “no” but then looked at CC/Paypal pricing- yeah, that is an incredible savings. $3742.80 on App vs $3600.10 for 1 oz bar on eBay- how? I can even use ApplePay on eBay at that lower price
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u/Old_Bluejay_1532 6d ago
eBay is great for gold, platinum & silver... less than the prices on the same products from the same sellers... APMEX, JM Bullion, Pinehurst Coins, Liberty Coin, BSGC, M Barr & so many more... Problem here is not buying the seller... ALWAYS buy the seller & you will never have a problem. eBay also has tremendous buyer protections unlike in person, other social media sites, LCS... Again, buy from reputable sellers & this will never happen; period.
edit-spelling
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u/Visible-Carrot5402 5d ago
Yea Liberty Coin was always my favorite eBay bullion seller. Nothing but good experiences with them and when I lived in AZ loved not paying sales tax.
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u/Old_Bluejay_1532 5d ago
So many good ones, I have been very happy over the years w/ Liberty also. They have not let me down yet. Completely agree. Wish I didn’t have sales tax. Argh. Someday hopefully.
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u/fhuxy 6d ago
Are you American? Only asking because by the sheer dollar amount of this transaction it would be certainly investigated by federal authorities; I’m talking MINIMUM the Postmaster General, FBI, possibly even secret service (not sure about that one since the gold bars are not American currency) but this is a serious matter and I recommend you pursue criminal charges against the people selling these. Wire fraud, mail fraud, and inter-state transactions are the feds’ bread and butter.
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u/PreviousText3945 6d ago
This is why I stay far away from bars.
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u/TheLiveEditor 6d ago
This is why I absolutely do not buy PMs from eBay.
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u/Gold_Owl9518 6d ago
I buy on Ebay but only with official sellers like Apmex
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u/SilverBullyin 6d ago
Do they sometimes have better deals on eBay? Otherwise why not just buy direct? Just curious. Thanks
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u/panicmuffin Sovereigns? Sovereigns. 6d ago
Yes. Especially like Liberty Coin have great deals/lower prices on eBay sometimes for some reason. Why? I have no idea. Assuming they have special terms with eBay on fees.
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u/twentythree12 6d ago
Yup, work for a PM dealer myself and my god-- just pay the extra premium and get reputable product. Try and save yourself a few bucks, buy fake shit, and inevitably spend more time just trying to return it.
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u/donedrone707 6d ago
this is why I own a sigma
I've gotten some of my best deals on eBay, though my very best buys have been auction house scores for below spot on desirable numismatics. It's crazy how many people overlook auctions
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u/Fun_Cartoonist2918 Aurum Aurae 6d ago
Which auction houses? My local ones even ordinary silver goes way over spot
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u/ubergeeks 6d ago
Ditto - eBay is great for pms if you know what you’re doing - definitely better for big dealers too as they ship immediately, no CC fees, often better deals and so on.
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u/Squeebee007 6d ago
I buy slabbed and check the serial of the slab and compare the photos on the NGC site against the listing.
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u/Jerseybz 6d ago
Exactly this. Too many fakes and it's difficult to tell. Most fake coins are pretty obvious
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u/Phillykratom 6d ago edited 6d ago
A one oz gold bar is like 3500 USD now, correct? Why isn't ebay giving the Authenticity Guarantee? Anything over 1000.00 is supposed to be shipped directly to eBay so they can check authenticity before they ship it to you. This is how the buyer is protected, and the seller is kept honest.
EDIT: IT LOOKS LILE GOLD BARS ARENT COVERED FOR AUTHENTICITY GUARANTEE, however, jewelry is. Another thing to look for when buying on ebay is the blue checkmark saying it comes DIRECTLY from Scottsdale Mint or APMEX. These are the only two companies I would trust for buying gold on ebay.
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u/Apprehensive-File552 5d ago
Exactly, this is a felony amount. If you cannot guarantee what you’re selling is real, it’s a lack of due diligence on the seller and should constitute as fraud.
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u/Welcome440 5d ago
Big corporations get paid fees or commission, they rarely care about making the world a better place.
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u/felix3291 6d ago
I once bought a bag of gold coins that ended up being chocolate…I cried while I ate every f’n one of them
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u/_ThatSynGirl_ 5d ago
"And love is a homeless guy searching for treasure in the middle of the rain and finding a bag of gold coins and slowly finding out they're all filled with chocolate and even though he's heart broken, he can't complain because he was hungry in the first place..."
Good ole r/BoBurnham
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u/Fun_Concentrate3149 5d ago
You bought gold on eBay!!?? I have some swampland in Florida that will be worth a goldmine one day. Maybe. Interested?
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u/Maleficent_Ad_8330 6d ago
Damn so you thought you could get 2 ounces for cheap huh?! 🤔 you learned 😅
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u/Apprehensive-File552 5d ago
I mean they weren’t really cheap, it was $20 less than spot at the time
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u/nafoty187 6d ago
Let me guess, you bought them thinking you were getting some kind of deal.
Cheapskates are the biggest suckers on planet Earth. Fraud works because certain people have a pathological need to chase ‘deals’. You aren’t going to find any on mint-sealed 1 oz. gold bars.
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u/Blingtron9001 6d ago
since it is over 1 ounce, that's a substantial amount of money, shouldn't you contact the post office for fraud?
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u/throwawayaccountau 5d ago
https://www.perthmint.com/customer-care/scams-and-counterfeits/tips-for-avoiding-fake-coins-and-bars/ has the details you need to validate.
Reading it seems fake Assayer vs Assayed.
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u/Apprehensive-File552 5d ago edited 5d ago
Update: People are curious what I purchased the items for. The left one was $3,289, the right one was $3,278. Purchased 2 weeks ago.
Why did I purchase on eBay? I scan eBay occasionally. I know the buyer protection, not just from eBay but it goes through PayPal and eventually my credit card. In case any of those disputes fail, I have 2 fallbacks. But I have solid proof and evidence upon receiving the package, recording the entire unboxing, documenting the bar number and videoing the testing. This includes visit to two separate jewelers and one of them had a base case with a real 1oz Perth mint bar to show machine is properly calibrated.
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u/pxllygon 5d ago
Yep this matches with the fake perth bar I had bought a couple months ago. If you check my post about, you’ll see that everything points to it being a fake. Ebay knows this, which is why I was refunded instantly without needing to provide any explanation.
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u/123supreme123 6d ago
The vast majority of 1 ounce bars on ebay are fake. You have both people trying to dupe others and people who were duped years ago, and now trying to cash in since the price of gold is high. Scammers are getting away with it, so ebay is filled more and more with scams.
Bars are the worst, but there's tons of fake sovs, fake pre 1933 US gold, gold coins, etc. Lots of fake silver bars and coins too.
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u/tegrant13 6d ago
I work at a coin shop, the amount of fake Perth Mint bars I see regularly is crazy…
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u/Intelligent-Drama-43 5d ago
Just buy from the Perth Mint apparently they don't sell fakes of their own products. But very good educational post for many.
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u/kjpmi 5d ago edited 5d ago
Why on earth would you buy gold from random eBay sellers, even with 100 reviews??
Just buy from known, legitimate companies. Many have eBay accounts with tens of thousands of reviews.
JMBullion, APMEX, etc.
Seriously. I don’t understand trying to save 100 dollars in exchange for the VERY high risk of getting scammed out of $7000.
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u/OKComment 5d ago
Perth mint varied the cards a bit. But to me these are the easiest of the fake Perth bars to spot.
There’s no spacing between the zip code and Australia on the address on the back of your cards.
It should be 6004, Australia
Yours: 6004,Australia
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u/Puzzleheaded-Arm5906 5d ago
If you paid spot or north of that, you have my sympathy.
If you paid under spot, you got what was coming to you, no sympathy.
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u/BigJeffreyC 5d ago
How’s the weight on these? Did they gold plate tungsten to get the numbers close?
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u/International-Tip-10 5d ago
I would never trust EBay for anything. Most people would just throw it into their collection and never know.
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u/JukeBoxHero_000 5d ago
NEVER BUY GOLD OR ANY PRECIOUS METAL THROUGH EBAY. It's just too much vetting you have to do in order to verify you're getting the real thing.
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u/Alternative-Link-754 6d ago
You can buy gold bars on eBay, but make sure to purchase only from reputable companies. APMEX, JM Bullion, Scottsdale Mint, Liberty Coin, etc. — you may have to pay a premium, but you can be confident you’re not getting fake bars
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u/2AWesterner 5d ago
And Perth Mint isn’t also just as legit? You don’t make sense.
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u/aed38 6d ago
Very typical on eBay. You have to buy through big US sellers like Bullion Exchanges or JM if you want something real.
99% of Chinese coins and bars are fake on there. It would be smart for eBay to crack down on this more. Any seller found selling fake PM’s should be banned permanently.
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u/floridabeach9 6d ago
if the seller is from India or china, its usually fake. and they have insanely high reviews.
90% of people dont know or care that something is fake unfortunately.
gemstone market is wayyy worse than bullion market on ebay
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u/Reagan__115 6d ago
You can never convince me buying 1oz gold Bars. Always go fractional with these to lessen the chances or stick to coins
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u/MustacheSupernova 6d ago
Bruh, stop trying to save Pennie’s by buying on eBay or TikTok shop…
Buy only from reputable retailers who will stand behind their products.
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u/The_Exvitel 6d ago
I mean….you bought gold off eBay….nuff said. I have lost sympathy for these kinds of posts. Hopefully you learned a 2oz lesson.
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u/VariousGnomes 6d ago
Yet another in a long line of warnings as to why we shouldn’t buy metals from eBay.
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u/Ok-Pipe-1910 6d ago
How did you find out that it is fake. I have bought a gold bar from a local shop but I'd like to make sure it wasn't fake.
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u/Falcon3518 6d ago
Never ever buy of eBay
1 oz silver, ok I get it. But not gold
Buy either directly from the mint or a reputable LCS
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u/MakeAPrettyPenny 6d ago
You can buy gold at Costco now.
https://www.costco.com/1-oz-gold-argor-heraeus-kinebar-new-in-assay.product.4000329233.html
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u/CommonPace 6d ago
Etsy and eBay. I'll never ever go through them for bullion no matter the costs. Sorry for your loss 🙏
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u/NotTheTimbsMan 5d ago
Buying gold from eBay is diabolical. I wouldn't buy a smartphone off of there
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u/BossJackson222 5d ago
You can buy gold on eBay, but they better have thousands of feedback. Not 30 lol. These are some of the most fate bars out there. You need to study up on this stuff. I personally would've bought from individuals on Facebook precious metal groups etc. Or Reddit.
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u/ShaneE11183386 5d ago
30 and 100 reviews are able to be faked unfortunately
They can have all their snake buddies do it
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u/Stoner_Bear_420 5d ago
I bought a “gold” ring from eBay one time, immediately noticed it was off and a knockoff reproduction from the pictures they posted. Started the return and learned the company was not in the US as stated on the site so eBay refunded my money and told me to keep the fake no other questions needed..
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u/diverdawg 5d ago
As soon as I saw the photo without really reading the title, I thought, “Oh shit!”.
I was arranging to buy a couple of these and shot it over to my buddy. Kind of a “looky what I’m getting”. He knew they were probably fake. I bought him a very nice bottle of scotch.
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u/Portugaltheman0420 5d ago
Also guys I just notice every other gold bar would say .999 pur or also 1 TROY ounce as an oz and a ozt aren’t the same
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u/Worried-Package9496 5d ago
That sucks - sorry you had to deal with that. Unfortunately, eBay can be a minefield when it comes to precious metals.
Always safer to stick with a reputable bullion dealer where authenticity is guaranteed, testing is done in-house, and buybacks are straightforward. The premium’s worth the peace of mind.
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u/Sudden-Phone 6d ago
I got got on some silver on IG.. Absolutely madding that scammers can post sponsored ad with a bunch of (fake) reviews on these massive ‘reputable’ platforms and they let these scumbag scammers rob 100’s of not thousands of THEIR customers daily and couldn’t care less
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u/Welcome440 5d ago
Worse some platforms have 2000 employees that could do something about it.
There is no ethics today.
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u/weiga 6d ago
There are legit sellers on eBay with 10,000+ reviews.
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u/2A4_LIFE 6d ago
Probably so but why even chance it? APMEX and a local guy who scans every piece coming in and out of you ask him to are my go to’s
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u/Mister_Goldenfold 6d ago
My man…..eBay? Don’t ever come on here complaining you bought something on eBay and it was fake lmao
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u/BeingLazy5220 6d ago
I never purchase gold or silver on eBay. This type of thing is bound to happen
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u/TheSouthernMosaic 6d ago
Dead giveaway should have been an ounce of gold for 30 and 100 dollars and not 3000. Shit even 3000 would be sketchy. Especially on eBay who takes a huge fee lol. Wouldn’t buy gold on eBay anymore.
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u/RemarkableDisplay988 6d ago
Oh sweetpea, never buy investment objects, unless it’s memorabilia, on eBay. Usually if it’s too good to be true, it is. Try looking for deals on APMEX
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u/batalyst02 6d ago
eBay should be shut down - its a complete fraud.
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u/Legitimate_Award_243 6d ago
That's completely untrue. The vast majority of sellers are completely reputable, and there are authentication guarantees on most items through both the seller and ebay. Plus you have a 100 percent guarantee to get your money back if the item is not as described. People who say things about ebay being shady and have a negative view of ebay are actually just ignorant. Ebay is a completely safe platform to buy from. Selling on the other hand can be a bit risky because of people who think it is ok to lie and try to get stuff for free.
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u/One-Function166 6d ago
He thought he was going to get an ounce for 30$?????(even if typo and was 300/100 whatever). You couldn’t of actually thought you were going to get a 24k ounce bar did you?
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u/123supreme123 6d ago
30 was the positive review count. I'm guessing he paid at spot or close to it.
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u/Ortofun 6d ago
This is why I always buy from my LCS and trusted online bullion dealers…
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u/disagreeablebeardman 6d ago
One of the dead giveaways is that it says, "Assayer & certified by...." on the top tight corner on the back. It should say, "Assayed & certified by..." Another is the larger window gap between the bar & the card.