What's so special about this note that commanded almost $600

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I came across this listing on the famous on-line auction site.

Item number: 181096543831

Perhaps I missed something but there were 5 bidders and it sold for almost $600. Maybe the banknote collector market is learning something from the performance of the stock market.

On the other hand this graded note at around $550 did not sell:

Item number: 181019520098

What's interesting for me is that the note that sold seems to have been a one off listing by someone that sells other non-numismatic things and the second one was listed buy a dealer.

I know I should put up my offset number note up for sale

I agree.  I am a little stumped by this.  There must be a reason - this is a massive premium.  I must be missing something completely here...

I was starring at the first note for 2 min and couldn't see anything... nothing at all... looks like a normal $20 to me....

While I realize I'm very new to this hobby all things considered ... I only at first feel a level of inadequacy not knowing what is so special about the note in question... followed by feelings of remorse that someone has paid such a sum for such a note.....

ohh dread!

that someone has paid such a sum for such a note.....

ohh dread!

It was not just one person but several bidders who were involved. That makes it even more interesting. I still feel that I am missing something about that note.

Hi guys, if you look carefully you'll see that the last 8s are not aligned properly. This is the error they are referring to. It could be speculated that because the polymers were recently released that there is more interest in acquiring 'errors' from this new series. As these are the first seen 'errors' it is not known whether or not they will be common, therefore some people might treat them as rare. If more show up then supply and demand dictates that the prices should drop due to increased supply, however conversely should no more examples of this type of 'error' surface then one would expect either the price to maintain or increase.

Furthermore would not be accurate to compare both notes as the same thing because the conditions (one is an au 58 and the other seems to be uncirculated )of both notes will definitely differ as well as the fact that these are two completely different types of errors. One is a wet ink offset while the other is seemingly a serial number error.

Hope this helps a little to understand the differences

I can't figure why some people give so much importance to and are ready to pay an hefty premium for a note with a simple printing variation, well within the normal process ... It's far off to be an real error...
Whereas a much much much better error note, less costly hasn't been sold...

If so, any note could bring an nice premium if you can find any variation, as minute it could be, from an "ideal" or "perfect" note...

It's eally anything and I think it's a shame for the legitimate error field. 

Individual listings on ebay prove little or nothing.  If you want to see if there's a real market for a particular kind of note, list some near-identical items and see how much they go for.  Now, understandably, copy-cat listings tend to sell for less if they are made soon after the initial listing because at least one bidder is eliminated from the pool of potential buyers.  I can't honestly believe that someone paying $600 for one of these notes will drop $600 on others each and every time they come up.  Furthermore, other potential bidders get scared off when they see certain items realizing high prices.  It creates a yo-yo effect in the short term... bidders stop bidding if they think they can't win, producing a low result.

But as I would dearly love to prove myself wrong, I have a note that I am willing to list.  In fact, I went through a number of polymer $20 notes and found no less than 8 notes with shifted digit errors.  For some strange reason, this "error" is very common on the new series of notes.

Yeah - that's not an error.  Serial #'s are rarely perfectly aligned.   I have 3 notes in my wallet right now.  Two have offset digits.  One is offset as much as the one in the listing.  Kinda makes me feel a little ill that someone paid $600 for this.

I share the sentiments expressed here.  This sort of thing is quite common.  Sure, it's not 100% exactly the way it should be, but is it really that big of a deal?  This numismatist does not think so.

Yes - caveat emptor is alive and well on ebay.  I just hope it's not some 17 year old kid making what he thinks is his first big buy.

It should be noted that the seller listed the note at 99 cents and bidding carried it up to $600.  Cannot fault the seller for what the bidders do to themselves.

Individual listings on ebay prove little or nothing.  ...  Furthermore, other potential bidders get scared off when they see certain items realizing high prices.  It creates a yo-yo effect in the short term...

-Yes I think the more dodgy listings we see the more buyers back off on buying online paper money

... I agree with how "much ado about nothing"

Kinda makes me feel a little ill that someone paid $600 for this.

It simply isn't good for the hobby because we:

... can't figure why some people give so much importance to and are ready to pay an hefty premium for a note with a simple printing variation, well within the normal process ... It's far off to be an real error... and I think it's a shame for the legitimate error field.

I believe it could also be the result of "shill bidding" (bidding by the seller from different ebay accounts) or bidding by 2 very novice "wanna-be" collectors who have a lot of change to spare.   I actually feel worse about the 2nd worse-case scenario, but I guess it could be true and I'm sure this will only have a "yo-yo" affect on the ebay market (as mmars suggests).   

Whatever the case may be we should see it as a "red flag" for a particular auction listing. 

We should be asking ourselves "would this listing pass the mustard at a live auction?" Would 2-3 collectors/dealers agree with the importance/rarity of this note?

Other problematic listings:
lightly printed right or left SN being touted as "errors" (& other minor printing variations)
regular numbered notes being dubbed as low numbered, rotators, repeaters & radars
regular prefixes being labelled short/rare prefixes or change-over prefixes
notes being passed off as "inserts" (typically falling a factor of 10X short of the established insert ranges)
Modified 1954 notes being dubbed as "Devil Faces"

If you are unsure about the validity of a listing on any online auction site you could always ask for advice on this forum

It should be noted that the seller listed the note at 99 cents and bidding carried it up to $600.  Cannot fault the seller for what the bidders do to themselves.

It was a very knowledgeable fraud as you can tell by the language in the listing.  Sorry, but I refuse to side with a seller because they've effectively and successfully duped somebody out of a large amount of money.  It's like the listings where someone has chopped up a sheet of 1973 one's and sell as errors.  You can tell exactly what they've done based on the S/N's.  I can tell you that when I see this, the seller very quickly gets an e-mail from me.  The listing goes poof and nobody gets burned.  It happens much more than you think.  I'm sure not everyone agrees with this, but I believe that sometimes there needs to be action taken in the name of integrity.

There is nothing technically fraudulent about the listing.  The shifted digits can be considered errors, and with both serial numbers affected, it's technically a double error, so the seller has not embellished anything.  I completely disagree that listings like these cause harm to the hobby.  People are free to buy whatever they want at whatever price they want, and telling them what they should or should not buy is completely self-serving.  What I find much more disconcerting is the vigilante mindset some people are exuding, thinking they have some kind of right to interfere with the selling activity of others.  I know I get the occasional message through eBay from whiny bidders telling me I'm not following catalogue pricing rules and other silliness like my insert notes are not in the current volume of the Charlton Bible.  But then there are also people who contact me to sell items to them privately, flouting eBay's rules in the process.  I guess rules are only for sellers since they are the ones paying all the fees.

I'm sure if this note had been PMG graded Unc 66 or higher, we wouldn't be having this argument.

The shifted digits can be considered errors, and with both serial numbers affected, it's technically a double error, so the seller has not embellished anything. 

Interesting.  So if you were a TPG you would grade and label this a double error and sell as such?  Just curious.