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If you’ve ever used Heritage Auctions: Is this a scam?
MKUltra24
Posts: 652 ✭✭✭✭
Hey guys today I got an email purporting to be from Heritage Auctions offering me a too good to be true offer for a coin I won last month.
I’ve always been told “If it’s too good to be true..it’s a scam.” But the email looks authentic and I’m not sure.
Has anyone else ever received an email like this?
If anyone has any information about this I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks!
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I believe it's legit. Others will weigh in.
I too believe it's genuine. If you look around on Heritage's sold listings, some do have a button for you to offer an amount to the owner of that sold item which is what I believe you have there.
Edit:
I think I have found the coin that you bought. It does have the make an offer button and it does show that there is 1 offer pending of $2250 so it is a genuine email.
https://coins.ha.com/itm/greek/ancient-coins/ancients-attica-athens-ca-440-404-bc-ar-tetradrachm-25mm-1718-gm-8h-ngc-ms-5-5-4-5/a/3091-32062.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515
Young Numismatist/collector
75 Positive BST transactions buying and selling with 45 members and counting!
instagram.com/klnumismatics
Thank you so much!
Maybe the reason it doesn’t show make an offer for me is because it’s mine and I can’t buy a coin I own?
It sure would’ve been a lot of help to be able to see it.
It just seemed too good to be true since some people told me I overpaid at $1,500 and $2,250 is 50% more than what I paid so I wanted to make 100% sure it was legit.
I clicked the link you posted and it is indeed the one I bought.
Thanks again!
No problem. Neat coin BTW. That high offer must mean someone really wants that coin or the market has changed drastically. I have attached what I see below.
Young Numismatist/collector
75 Positive BST transactions buying and selling with 45 members and counting!
instagram.com/klnumismatics
Thanks
I wish I knew why though.
The only things that are unique about it are that it’s “perhaps an Eastern issue” and according to the HA listing it’s a “high relief reverse”.
Now I have to decide whether to accept/reject or counter offer but I just got it last month so I’ll probably reject.
It’s good to know that’s it’s not a scam though and that apparently I didn’t overpay like I was told.
I'm not an expert in ancients, but I scrolled through a bunch of them before finding yours and noticed that the one you bought was struck on a nice large and round planchet which might also affect the price. I do feel that yours was also more eye appealing than the others. Anyways, I do feel that you got a great deal on the coin considering that offer that you've received.
Young Numismatist/collector
75 Positive BST transactions buying and selling with 45 members and counting!
instagram.com/klnumismatics
Thanks for checking it out for me
Maybe it is just eye appeal.
However I noticed on HA that yesterday somebody placed a bunch of offers on like 2 dozen different MS Athenian Owls.
These aren’t anywhere near all of them but it gives an idea of what I mean. All of the offers were made yesterday and at roughly the same time which indicates it’s probably a single buyer.
Looks like they also did the same thing of making offers on a bunch of the Tetradrachms with Alexander the Great on the obverse.
It makes me wonder if perhaps some rich collector is trying to acquire a large number of them and using HA to find high grade examples and then making offers above FMV to quickly acquire them.
There are people who can afford to do something like that without it even making a dent in their wallet.
But I found it out when I found the page where you can see recent offers made on things and it even shows if the offer was “accepted/pending/rejected”.
I noticed I wasn’t the only one who rejected it but most of them are still pending.
Seems like a horrible strategy for this random collector to be trying to buy so many Athens tetradrachms from the recent hoard... I'd sell it if I were you; you could then buy another one with relative ease.
It wasn’t from a recent hoard.
Most of them have a history of sales going back several years.
Nah if I sold it I wouldn’t be able to buy one of the same quality or if I did I would have to wait a long time and hope to get lucky at an auction.
I like that mine has a strong well centered strike and a nice circular planchet unlike a lot of them that are egged shape.
The high relief reverse is also difficult to find as ive only seen two up for auction (cause let’s be real people like the reverse where the owl is).
I like to think of the high relief reverse as being similar to the Double Eagles that have a high relief & wire rim.
They sell for far more than normal Double Eagles of the same date & mint but if I had one I wouldn’t want to sell it and get a regular Double Eagle since it’s just not the same thing.
That’s why these two coins sell for very different amounts.
Even though it would be easy to sell the bottom one and buy the top one and net a nice profit in the end the new coin just wouldn’t be the same as the original.
I can happily confirm that it's not a scam.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Thanks
Since I wrote this post I have heard back from Sarah at Heritage and she confirmed it was legit.
I guess the saying “if it’s too good to be true it probably is” isn’t always true. xD
Thank you everyone for your input
Also check your settings at HA. You can choose to have your coins available for offers or not. Or just select coins. I have a few that are listed up there for sale, but usually have better luck on Instagram with direct sales, plus building a good networking base there instead of the anonymous thing.
Collecting world gold, German State silver Marks and other things of interest
Thanks for the info
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I actually did that yesterday by logging in and setting it so that all offers must be 75% or more than what I paid for them.
It may be an extremely high price to ask but I'm not really looking to sell anyway so it should help me from being tempted lol. xD
Perfect centering and nice style on your example, too.
Good offer but you didn't buy it to make a profit.
Nope I bought it for my collection. That's why I refused it.
I got another offer afterwards for $2,363 (probably from the same person) and rejected it as well.
If I was a coin dealer I'd definitely sell it though and nab a hefty profit.