A few sellers listed as being from Queanbeyan, Goulburn & Sth Canberra lately. They have all been happy to F2F until you want to F2F in the CBD post office between the cop shop & LCS with XRF. Then it's (not joking) so can't meet ATM I've just been tested for conjob19 & I'd prefer to post because I've robbed too many times. A lot of sh!t ATM.
I bought a fake American Gold Eagle on Gumtree using Paypal. Hopefully I'll get my money back. I found out later about ping tests you can download as a phone app. In general, how reliable are they?
I'm not familiar with the "ping test". I think I'd only F2F from ebay/gumtree ideally at a coin shop/ bullion dealer that had an XRF. Ideally they'd also have a genuine bar/ coin to compare it to. I'm only learning too. I would at least have a powerful magnet, reliable scales, vernier & the mints official specifications of the product. I'd be interested to hear from other members if they're aware of any fakes that meet the weight & dimension criteria of the real article. I believe Paypal is good at recovering payments in fraudulent transactions, although I hear the "friends & family" payment option is a loophole for crooks. Good luck.
Thank you for the advice! How do you know which places have an XRF? The ping test is a phone app that tests the resonance frequency of popular bullion coins. I checked it for some of my silver and it works well. I don't keep my gold at home so wasn't able to check those. The fake gold eagle obviously failed.
do a ring around of your local dealers & just ask around. If you're ok with it put it to the forum, you might have a stacker just around the corner. No BS, I took an Aussie gold coin to the RBA with a few challenging questions. The young lady said she'd have to drop it on the marble counter to check it's authenticity.
If a prospective seller won't send a side shot of the article & weight on scales, that's a red flag- they're trying to fudge the weight/ dimensions.
Don't rely on ping tests, or any test in isolation. Gold standard is XRF plus one of water density, vernier calipers, weight on scales or sigma pro Any single test in isolation can give you grief, even XRF on good looking plated fakes or sigma pro on some alloys
ideally do it at a local coin shop / bullion dealer. Post a thread on here along the lines of... ....I want to f2f at .... anybody on here have concerns/ praise for this business?
OOHH for FARKS sake Do you really think your going to find a bargain on Dumbtree or Fleebay People who hold gold know it's worth & know where to sell GREED Build a bridge & get over it Support your local dealers
"Bargains" on ebay & gumtree are generally a con for sure. I would not discount them completely as there are bona fide sellers. I'm in the process of buying a nice 1/2 oz gold coin that was advertised on Gumtree from a local bloke that was in marketing at the mint. I have 100% confidence that the coin is genuine, but I will still get it XRF'd immediately. All that glitters is not gold. Caveat Emptor.
Agree! Scammers love the internet and for the sake of $50 to a trusted dealer versus trying to get a refund from a PO Box - no argument.
