I took the time to enter my whole want list on Collectors Corner and... the emails are TERRIBLE
airplanenut
Posts: 22,250 ✭✭✭✭✭
A few months ago I finally sat down and put together a detailed want list. Sure, I'll still buy what catches my eye, but now I have some focus for some specific types/dates/grades that fit long-term wants and my budget. With the Collectors Corner site having coins from so many dealers, it seemed like a great place to invest some time so I could get emailed when new matches are available. And boy was I wrong.
I've found a few specific issues with the want list emails they send:
First, they're purported to be for new items only, but day in and day out, the same coins keep showing up. I'm guessing it's because on the back end dealers just load their latest inventory in its entirety, and coins that are already on Collectors Corner get loaded as new again.
Next, it's all text. Tons of text. No thumbnail photos to quickly weed out coins that I know won't fit the bill for one reason or another (or to identify a coin that showed up as "new" the previous day). Compare this to emails from Heritage or eBay, and the CC want list email is 20 years behind and painful to look at.
Lastly, only so many hits for a given search are shown, and there isn't so much as a link to see the full set of results (perhaps sorted by newest, which would be nice). When so many coins are repeats, I know I'm missing actual new coins because they're too much work to find.
So why post this here? First because I spent a lot of time putting together my want list on the website, and now I'm feeling ranty after seeing the results of my effort. Second, I'm guessing others here are users of the site on one side or the other. Am I the only buyer that has had this experience? Do any of the sellers that pay to list on CC have clout to get some changes made, given that it's in their best interest to have their coins featured to interested buyers? Lastly, I emailed these thoughts in a few weeks ago and got crickets in reply. Collectors Corner is a CU website, so maybe someone at CC/CU will see this (especially if anyone else agrees and it's not just me) and make some positive changes. I love the idea of having access to so many dealers' inventories at once, but boy, those want list emails are just terrible.
Comments
And if you haven't seen the email, here's what it looks like... one list like this for each want with a hit:
I haven’t tried the watch list but that is definitely a negative. I’ve tried normal searching a few times on Collectors Corner and it didn’t bring up anything that I wanted so I haven’t been back. It’s a decent idea but there is a need for some improvements to get it to function well.
1956, 1957, 1957-D, 1958
Some FBL and some not
Are they all on the want list?
Yes, that list has a date range. Mind you, two aspects of the want list I didn't even mention, but are relevant, are:
-You can search FOR an attribute but not for the lack of an attribute. That is to say you can limit results to just FBL, but can't get only non-FBL results. You also can't have two attributes at the same time, so good luck with copper or proofs where you may want CAM and DCAM or multiple color designations.
-Dates have to be start to end, so you couldn't have 1955, 1957, 1958 without having 1955-1958, which includes 1956.
I was okay working around this with multiple entries for ostensibly the same want (or getting some extra results I won't care about), but that was assuming the information would be delivered in a useful manner in the first place.
I use the site a lot. Its extremely helpful if you have a very specific search, but it has limitations that people have figured out how to game.
Some dealers figured out that people filter by "new" so they delete their inventory and reload it weekly so its "new".
The criteria are also added by the listing dealer, so if they have a coin they can label it as PCGS even if it is raw or graded by another TPG so it will show up in a PCGS search, etc...
Other people have the exact same coin in a slab consigned with multiple dealers, sometimes for different prices. lol.
But...on the plus side...if you're searching for a 1936 Walker in PR67 PCGS, its a hell of a lot easier to hit up Collectors Corner and search all their dealers and the major auctions at once than browse them all.
The best answer would be for CU to moderate and verify listings, but hey, until then you're better off just browsing it once in a while than using the wantlist function.
Well at least you got replies - I was looking for a Proof Cameo 1959 Roosevelt and had no responses - Finally got one on eBay!
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
I use collectors corner, but not through a want list. Rather I have some registry sets and the coins I don’t have yet have a little thing that says “shop”. I click on that and it only shows the results of that particular coin that is needed for that slot. It has thumbnail pictures, the price and grade. For ones I’m interested in I then go to that dealers website and find it there. Or, if collectors corner says it’s on eBay I go into my eBay app and find that coin. It has a link in collectors corner, but it directs you to the www.eBay site instead of opening in my app and then I’m not even logged in(so that’s why I use the app instead). But collectors corner is great for showing a summary of all the coins that would fill that particular slot.
Mr_Spud
I get tired of getting blasted for MS upgrades for my Everyman Sets!
Bear in mind that replies are just that a coin got listed, not that someone is personally reaching out because they got a coin I'm interested in. Quite a few of the wants I have saved have never gotten a hit.
Collectors Corner dealers have a hard time keeping their readily available listings updated as well. I have had several "oooh I like" moments. When i inquired about the item only to be informed that item sold days/weeks/months ago.
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Well maybe that wouldn't be a problem if you saw said item as new a dozen times prior
Yeah, hasn't found me one to purchase in years (never actually). I just have begun to ignore them completely.
bob