I should have known this guy was not legitimate when he spelled Collectibles wrong on his company website and his company's title.
They were advertising old buffalo nickels for sale, which I am an avid collector of and have a great collection already. The coins appeared to be nice in the photos. I left a message and sent an email asking if the coins were "Acid Restored". Ronald Combs emailed back and stated they were his fathers coins and that his father was "insulted" that I even asked. He stated that these definitely were not "Acid restored" as he has had experience with acid restored nickels. I then entered my bids on his coins through a website called "Proxibid", confident that a person who owns a company that specializes in coins would not mislead, especially when they were his coins. I spent $1619 on the coins. When the coins arrived, they were ALL acid restored coins. These were all ungradeable by PCGS, the company I am building a Registry Set for, and essentially worthless. My local ANA dealer told me he'd pay 30 cents a piece for them.
I sent the coins back immediately and I tried to contact Ronald Combs via phone and email. I finally received an email saying he would look into it. A week later I finally get a response from Combs that says all sales are final, but he is willing to give me an Acid restored 1916/16 nickel instead of the refund. He stated that this nickel was worth $2000 to $3000. Unfortunately, due to the acid restoration, it is only worth about $20 and is still NO use to me because PCGS will not grade it due to the restoration. BOTTOM LINE IS DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM THIS SELLER. HE INTENTIONALLY MISLEADS AND LIES AND DOES NOT STAND BEHIND HIS SALES.
Topless Collectable Coins
East Tawas,#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Fri, March 09, 2012
In rebuttal to the bidder who is trying to get their 15 minutes of fame, there is a bad apple in every bushel and he is the one. We are an auction company that sells all items as-is, as our disclaimer before every auction states.
The bidder signed the as-is disclaimer with Proxibid before he could continue to bid, also reading the Topless Collectable Coins disclaimer at the beginning of every auction, stating that we are not responsible for any cleaning or restoring of coins from our consignors. N. G. C. the top coin grading company has a parent company that cleans and restores coins for them, then they grade them almost every coin there is has been cleaned in one way or another.
In conclusion we did what no other auction company would do, we refunded his money in full in a timely manner, the first complaint was on March 22 2010, he received his refund April 04 2010 (with items shipping through the mail from state to state less then 2 weeks is not a long time) also we paid out of our own pockets, the credit card fees etc. The bidder has tried to discredit us he is was looking for his 15 minutes of fame. The 1916/16 coin that was offered in good faith to give the bidder a great out come was a A. N. A. C. S. certified graded coinwith no problems, $6000.00 TO $8.000.00.
You be the judge of who did their best to take care of a bidder beyond company policy to take care of this problem, we have over 5000 satisfied new and returning bidders.
Thank You,
Proxibid
Omaha,#3UPDATE Employee
Thu, December 15, 2011
Proxibid no longer works with Topless Collectible Coins.
Ron
cheyenne,#4Author of original report
Sun, April 04, 2010
I have finally received a refund from Topless Coins. It was not easy and have reason to suspect that future victims likely won't be as lucky.
However, the coins I shipped back are relisted and still NO mention is made about the ACID RESTORATION on them. They are selling them as if they are all original. DO NOT PURCHASE BUFFALO NICKELS FROM THEM!