Heritage's Exclusive Internet vs. Teletrade vs. E Bay

STEWARTBLAYNUMIS

Hello Guys,

For anyone who has bought as well as sold coins on ALL three venues.Which venue is the best for you and why? Let me know if you collect classics or modern.For some reason I believe all these venues deal in mostly moderns.

Stewart

Fairlaneman

Heritage always has Mercs in the Auctions. They are usually the ones they cannot sell on thier Web Site or Ebay. Then they hit the Exclusive Internet Auction.

Define Modern versus Classic. Varied opinions are certainly around here.

I'll say Classic.

Ken

STEWARTBLAYNUMIS

Fairlaneman

Moderns are coins with designs in production today.Examples are Lincoln memorials,Jefferson nickels,Roosevelt dimes,Washington quarters except for the 32 d and 32 s which are absolutely classics.Kennedy halves and Ikes and Sacagawea's are moderns.

stewart

Fairlaneman

For once a Out and Out definate answer with only a very small qualifier on the 32D and 32S.

BTW..... I forgot to answer part of the original post. Buy from Heritage and Ebay. Sell on Ebay. Do nothing with whats its name.

Ken

RGL

Hmmmm, so Stewart ... a 1963 Franklin is a classic, but a proof 1942-P Jeff (a one-year type in proof) is not?

RYK

I have bought a number of 19th century double eagles on Heritage's auctions and fewer on ebay via a specific vendor (Duvallgold). I have browsed Teletrade but never made a bid. I have not (yet) sold on any of these sites.

As a buyer, I prefer Heritage, though they can be a bit slow on the delivery.

dorkkarl

i have cherrypicked numerous pieces from heritage live auctions, a couple from heritage internet-only, many from ebay, a few from teletrade. the latter 3 methods, you run into the trap of sight-unseen.

K S

solid

Buying on Heritage - It's been awhile, and they have changed the rules since the last time.
Selling on Heritage - Never have.

Buying on eBay - Use common sense, photos, and a good return policy.
Selling on eBay - Ditto.

Buying on Teletrade - ONLY when they have photos, and BE SURE or their return fees kill you.
Selling on Teletrade - NEVER EVER sell a coin that you previously purchased on Teletrade!!!!!

Merc

I collect classics. I have bought from all 3 but rarely from Teletrade. I bought just 1 coin from Teletrade in the past year. People usually have crazy high bids at the last second, plus the seller can bid on his own coins. I don't like that at all. I mostly bought from teletrade before Heritage was on-line and before Ebay. After ebay became big with coins in 1998, I just about stopped buying from Teletrade. I can see Teletrade going out of the coin business in the near future.

Overall, Ebay is #1 with me. I buy slowly and carefully from people who have a nice picture and return policy. Heritage though will sell high end rare things that I can't find on Ebay. I go to them for high grade early walkers.

agfox

I like heritage the best because of the pictures, and selection. Teletrade has a good picture system, but it just seems there are far more moderns than anything else. Ebay selling is where you can get a lot of bidders on common coins. I think Heritage is looked at by more coin collectors that know what they are looking for.

CalGold

Karl,

How did you cherry pick a coin from a Heritage live auction? Did you personally preview the coin first? If you didn't preview it, you didn't cherry pick anything--you paid more than the anyone who saw the coin in person was willing to pay. If it turned out to be a nice coin, you lucked out.

Having said that, I have bid sight unseen on Heritage live auctions, but I do so KNOWING that it is a CRAP SHOOT, and that I am not likey to out fox savvy dealers and collectors who have seen the coins in person.

Anyhow, one of the problems with the Heritage and other live auctions is that you can't tell if your intenet bid is the high bid. The screen just shows an internet bid but it might not be yours, since several other bidders may have bid the same amount.

CG

CalGold

All of these have major drawbacks.
Heritage live auctions–bidding via the internet without personally previewing the lots means buying sight unseen with no return rights. Not a prudent practice. Their photos almost always make the coins look much darker than they are or are over exposed and washed out obscuring detail. In many cases the photo bears little resemblance to the real coin.

Heritage exclusively internet–often contains many second tier or unattractive coins that did not sell in inventory or in a live auction

ebay–contrary to many forum posters, I do not think ebay is a source of many good deals, at least not on high end quality material. First, the dealers set a reserve that is equal to their retail price, and I have seen BIN prices set higher than the dealer's retail price for the same coin. Even in no reserve auctions, I have seen many coins sell for MORE than the retail price the dealer was asking on his website for the exact same coin–and remember, the dealer will often nock a few bucks off his retail price to make a sale. Second, you often need to over bid or to snipe to win an auction, and sniping means arranging your life to be on line at the closing time.

Third, seller feedback may be unreliable. I have seen sellers of over graded raw junk with hundreds of positives and few or no negs–that is because they are selling to people who do not know what they are buying and do not realize that they have over paid for any over-graded or problem coin. Example, one seller had negs from only one buyer–that guy bought 8 raw coins and sent them to NGC–not one graded out at the seller's represented grade, which seems to indicate that the other satisfied buyers were clueless that they had bought an over graded coin. Maybe they paid a significant discount that was in line with the actual grade, but I doubt it and any way I don't think I'd give positive feed back to a seller who over-graded or otherwise misrepresented a coin, even if I was savvy enough to know what I was actually getting..

Teletrade–too many of the better coins seem to sell for unrealistic prices, probably from seller buy-backs. Return fee is too high also.
CG

golddustin

I must agree, CG, I have dealt with Teletrade quite a bit, but that was way in the past, before eBay became so prominent. I had to send several coins back to Teletrade, and the cost is prohibitive...but at that time (about 6 - 8 years ago) there was no other venue for finding the coins I needed to complete sets, or just wanted to own, unless I was willing and able to travel fairly far to shows. (even then, the coin might not be there). So I guess it was a necessary evil at the time. I had mixed results (mostly poor) in attempting to sell coins via Teletrade...again, fees killya. Only tried selling via eBay once....it was a Fugio graded ANACS RB-63(a good deal of mint luster still evident) - some joker retracted a bid saying that because of a pic I added during the auction (trying to provide more detail) he didn't know what he was bidding on, and that error coins should be noted in the description! I replied to him that the pics included the slab with ANACS grade and description, so there was no question as to what he bid on, and my return policy was liberal. I ended the auction early, blocked the guy from bidding on any of my auctions, and still have the coin. (I'm glad I didn't sell it...it is a very nice example compared to the Fugios I've seen on eBay lately!)

jeffnpcb

I've bought from all three, but I wish Teletrade would assign a notation whether it was graded in house or not on submission! Those ten dollar grades seem to be questionable and I wish I knew which ones they were on bidding!
All coins should be graded in the companies, then submitted!
Notations should come from all auctions regardless of the actual sight!

gemtone65

I don't understand why neither Heritage nor Teletrade don't have "reserve not yet met" information. Your bidding strategy could be affected if you knew the high bid was a real bidder rather than reflecting the reserve price of the seller.