how did heritage become the 700 lb. gorilla in the auction biz?

classiccoin

a long time ago rarcoa and superior and stacks and bowers and merena were very popular and heritage was just a wannabe.. now heritage says they are the biggest.. what makes heritage so big and popular.. i dont care for their auction pics or descriptions.. their terms were not the most competitive when i called to consign expensive coins.. yet some of their prices realized are rediculous sometimes.. so why did they climb to stardom in the auction biz.. they do nothing for me

Dismeguy

Heritage was first to realize the power of internet and aggressively marketed their auctions accordingly. Auction archives, for example, was pioneered by Heritage.

I'm a significant buyer from Heritage but doubt that they will handle my dimes when I sell.

291fifth

Very aggressive marketing. The company is a business and is run like one.

Coxe

Heritage is very well organized in their Internet offerings and how they integrate with floor auctions. Their growth was also exceptionally well managed in my view. Internet lot viewing is very good, even better than Teletrade's decent DjVu imaging. The after auction purchasing helps round up their sales and close out more consignments as well as please some buyers. On the traditional side, they gained a clear advantage over other houses when they became the offical auctioneer at the ANA shows and now are the auctioneer at most major shows in the USA.

I have been a buyer with them for many, many years, as well as all of the other major houses. Most of my most important pieces have come from Heritage signature sales. Recently I floated a lot of really neat stuff from my collection that was just out of my focus and consigned it to their FUN and HWCA sales. Will see how it goes before the next liquidation round. Now my silver dollars, when they go to market, are going to be consigned with much more deliberation, based on clear business and presentation.

ROBERTB

Heritage also seems to go the extra step. They genuinely have excellent customer service and after a few establishing purchases they will often send out your winning coins before receiving payment. I appreciate that trust.

poptopsRus

I was consigning stuff with Heritage for a while then stepped over to Bowers for a while but after a couple hickups with them my next consignment will be back with Heritage again.

SDCollector

Heritage fits my budget perfectly. I can find nice type coins in my price range without too much trouble. Their website is well organized with several excellent features such as the My Collection, My Want List, and My Tracking. The auction archives for realized prices is extremely useful and easy to use.

For me, Heritage is a very nice alternative to eBay.

JDelage

What do people have against the Heritage pictures? I find the functionality of being able to zoom in pretty amazing...

I wish they had a function to download search results into an Excel spreadsheet or as a CSV file - it would be useful to print auction results for secific denominations / grade.

bonkrood

I like dealing with them, I wish they would list Currency collections the same as they do coins.

Coinosaurus

The smaller houses can do all of their photography with only one or two people - you get much greater consistency that way.

As for Heritage, their commitment to the Internet from early on was unmatched by everyone else. Beyond that, I get the feeling that the Heritage senior leaders are just darn good business people who would have succeeded in about any enterprise.

TommyType

<< <i>What do people have against the Heritage pictures? I find the functionality of being able to zoom in pretty amazing... >>



Well, I agree when it comes to looking at strike and marks. But I think their problem arises when it comes to color and luster. Their pictures (both old and their "improved" new pictures) really miss the boat.

In reality, I've usually been pleasantly surprised as a buyer by the color and luster of the coins I've bought. If I were a SELLER, I would be very hesitant to try to sell through them since you never know what the pics will end up looking like.

fc

I am still unsure of heritage. Never bought from them.

I think they are better than teletrade though.

Folks please realize, that their website is worth about 5 dollars
due to the fact a 14 yr old geek could build it in a weekend.
Making it look pretty is where the time comes in. So I really do not
expect them to stay at the top.

davidlawrence.com now has his auction site. so steadily people
are eating away at heritage's miniscule lead in the business.

BlindedByEgo

<< <i>Very aggressive marketing. The company is a business and is run like one. >>



Hear, hear!

Woodward

FC-

With all due respect, you are clueless.

Look at the combined auction revenues of all the players and then tell me that Heritage has a "miniscule" lead.

Furthermore, if you believe that the Heritage site could be constructed in a weekend, then I suggest you approach any of the other major auction houses and offer your services for a weekend. I'm sure they'll welcome the opportunity to pull themselves up to the level of Heritage in two short days. It seems to me that such a service should be worth well into seven figures. Please report back on your financial progress, I am sure you will soon be a highly paid and wealthy consultant.

jdimmick

I am not sure why Heritage gets singled out on all the bad publicity on the photo's, to me several of the other firms are not much better. It will never be the same as viewing in hand no matter how good the photo's are. Personally, on expensive coins, If I am intrested, I make it a point to go and view them in hand, if not pratical for some folks then I suggest a dealer or representative that is familar with that series and what you are looking for to view it on your behalf.

fc

woodward,

maybe you think apache, mysql, and php are not up to the task?
lets be quite frank, that website is so 1990s. Php monkeys build
them daily.

i am busy building out a multi state network thanks.

edited to add: most people who have worked with ISPs are quite comfortable building web interfaces. We do it all the time for front end for our customers that talk to the back end. An auction website is rather trivial when you think about it.

bonkrood

<< <i>woodward,

maybe you think apache, mysql, and php are not up to the task?
lets be quite frank, that website is so 1990s. Php monkeys build
them daily.

i am busy building out a multi state network thanks.

edited to add: most people who have worked with ISPs are quite comfortable building web interfaces. We do it all the time for front end for our customers that talk to the back end. An auction website is rather trivial when you think about it. >>

fc

bonkrood?

Is it too hard to believe that someone can create an auction website
using the power of open source code in a weekend?

anyway... you guys must not talk to technical people very often.
and i do not mean consultants ha.

www.g4.net If you are in new england give us a holler. voice and data

Russ

<< <i>What do people have against the Heritage pictures? >>



Heritage image:



Coin when it appeared on eBay:



Russ, NCNE

WTCG

Ambition to make money is Heritage's main driver to success.

Heritage was the first large coin company to embrace technology such as the internet when their competitors scorned it when the internet became widely popular.

Heritage has had a solid management core when many of their competitors have not in the recent past.

Their marketing department is arguably the best in the business.

majorbigtime

I've known the Heritage folks for years. They are OK to work with, but hardly my first choice.

Woodward

<< <i>woodward,
maybe you think apache, mysql, and php are not up to the task?
lets be quite frank, that website is so 1990s. Php monkeys build
them daily.
>>



FC-

Heritage has fourteen people on their IT staff. You really ought to take your PHP monkey proposal and present it Mssrs. Ivy & Rohan, and show them how you can save the company a million a year in payroll. They are good businessmen, they will listen.

shylock

Heritage became the 700 lb. gorilla by creating its online market long before its competitors and creating a mystique since then. The mystique is the best prices can be realized there. It's up to the competitors to show us otherwise.

mrearlygold

<< <i>FC-

With all due respect, you are clueless.





And it's obvious.

1985ChicagoBears

I have purchased coins from Heritage for over 5+ years and many, many dollars.

I personally find they have the best website and if I want to look for a current price, I go to them first and check their archive.

Their auctions are the best, especially the Signature ones.

JSsson

I find that Heritage is easier to deal with, and their website is much easier to navigate than the websites for most other coin companies. When it comes to bidding on coins in their auctions I actually believe that their website is easier to use than E-Bay.

I have purchased coins off of Heritage's website and I've had pleasant dealings without problems so far.

It also seems that Heritage does more to make themselves known to the collecting public than the other auction companies. I still don't know much about Bowers and Merena, American Numismatic Rarities or Superior Galleries other than having heard of them mentioned here occasionally. I have only heard of Stacks, and I still haven't seen one of their catalogs yet.

Coxe

I agree on the image quality, so well demonstrated with that SMS half. The zoom and lighten technology on their site is excellent as is a lot of their other resources. However, after viewing some of my consigned coins for their January auctions, I am disappointed in several. They washed them out in the lighting; the magnificent toning on a couple pieces is completely lost. Perhaps they will reimage them at my request before finalizing the catalogues. However, I have had frustrations with images there in the past as a buyer. I VAM every dollar of interest. When they bathe them in light to make them look 100% white or to possibly hide hairlines (don't know the reason), the important details are lost. So if I cannot manage to view them in person, I won't bid on them. This is a minor frustration though. All in all, I applaud their site as the best of them. I like Teletrade's DjVu engine but wish their images were better. They blur before I can get to the details often.

Conder101

Marketing, they bought the annual ANA convention auction every year for something like a decade or more. Over ten years of having the ANA trumpet you as being the Official ANA Auctioneer can go along way towards improving your market position

eagle7

Not only the internet, which is certainly a key part of their success, but also the marriage of the internet with large inventories of coins that fit all price ranges and budgets. They have in their different auction venues coins of all prices. And lots of them. That is the key for me.

jacktheknife

Heritage has always treated me fairly. They are an excellent firm. However, if I ever decided to sell I would think long and hard about the image quality. For copper, accurate images are very important and Heritage just doesn't have it yet.

Jack