Anything I should know about Teletrade before bidding??
INXS
Posts: 1,202 ✭
I would appreciate any comments or things to avoid before I bid never bid thru Teletrade before.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
"Well here's another nice mess you have gotten me into" Oliver Hardy 1930
BST successful dealings with:MsMorrisine, goldman86
BST successful dealings with:MsMorrisine, goldman86
0
Comments
the juice on cheaap stuff will kill ya !
Apropos of the coin posse/aka caca: "The longer he spoke of his honor, the tighter I held to my purse."
Be sure you like the coin.
Their images are normally pretty good.
If you suspect a problem, it most likely is.
Balance of the tips seem accurate to me based on my experience.
Ike Specialist
Finest Toned Ike I've Ever Seen, been looking since 1986
if your the high bidder ........YOU WIN !
or you can bid at other big auction houses, where you have NO return
priv. and they sock you a 15 - 20 % buyers fee
Teletrade (and Heritage and Ebay) are sometimes used as a dumping ground for coins that will not move sight seen. In other words low-end "dog" coins. There are some nice coins available, but be careful. "Dog" coins that will not move at grey sheet at a show, will often go for at least that on Teletrade and Heritage to unsuspecting buyers. These buyers are often newbie collectors excited to get a "bargain" at or below sheet. In some grades, some series, some coins are not a bargain at that price.
<< <i>In case you didn't know..... many of the coins they auction are their own and they sometimes put high starting prices(reserves) on them. It's pretty easy to pick out which one's are theirs after you view a few auctions and see the cert#'s that are semi-consequtive. >>
Not so fast here. Consecutive cert #'s could mean that the consignor has sent raw coins to PCGS, NGC etc. as part of Teletrade's special grading/auction service. I have done this dozens of times with all types of coins. The result is coins that have consecutive cert #'s but are MY coins that I'm selling, not Teletrade's.
As a seller, if reserves are set before the auction starts - it costs the seller 5% with $5 minimum
I put in 14 reserve bids in - at 2 hours before close, 9 bids were at my max bid
at close I got 8 coins back
activity during the last couple hours - 14 coins stayed the same - my max bid or next bid higher
2 of the rainbows jumped (not sure when, I had to go to work)
one went from $39 to $75
another went from $36 to $160
their picture or so-so on colors -> the soft pastel colors get washed out with their lights
I submitted raw coins to get slabs back - turn around will be less than 2 months for PCGS and cheaper than econmy - the NGC coins I sent are taking longer
If you are going to buy in 1 auction remember the $8 minimum commision and shipping cost
only really matters for cheap stuff
some people maually snipe in last minute
I have found it easiest to put my bids in and forget about it for last couple hours - find out next day if I won anything
good luck and unless you really need something now, another one will probably be avaialable there during next couple months and maybe even the one you are bidding on but miss out on as some buyers use the buyback priviledge as approval service and the coin gets relisted in about a month and also some sellers have coin relisted if it does not meet their reserve
Simply said, Teletrade is more like a retail outlet where you have to still bid above the "reserve" to get the coin. Stuff occasionally slips through but not very often. If you get something cheap there's a good reason (ie the quality). Return fees punish you. But when you get an overgrade it's better to eat the 5% return fee (+ double postage to buy and return it) than swallow a 20-50% loss when you resell.
On generic coins, such as gold Saints, the prices they "get" are way over market. I would fathom that on generics they can easily go out and buy them within 1-3 days after the sale ends. Their spread on generic gold coins is very very high. I doubt many sell at those listed prices. But it only takes a few to pay for it all.
You would be much better served by learning at your local coin shop or at shows before venturing on to TT. This avenue is a tough place to survive if you are a newbie. And to anyone contemplating classic 19th cent. coins via TT...I'd say it's 10 or 20-1 to get fair value for your dollar.
roadrunner
<< <i>I use Teletrade from time to time. My only warning is not to bid on coins you might wish to return. Their return fees are brutal. >>
That's my advice too. Just once was enough for me to make sure it was THE coin I really thought and expected it to be before I bid. The first time you return an item is all it takes to learn THAT lesson.
house owned; but again -
they are no diffrent then Heritage or the rest.
I have trouble fathoming why the owner of a coin is an issue.
Most every single coin selling on Ebay is "owned" by the seller .
A heck of a lot of Teletrades coins are fresh , brand new stuff
-submitted raw for grading thru their program
T.T continues to get a bad rap for some reason........
I am quite sure their overall profit margin is significently smaller then
virtually any other auction house
As a seller, if reserves are set before the auction starts - it costs the seller 5% with $5 minimum
I put in 14 reserve bids in - at 2 hours before close, 9 bids were at my max bid
at close I got 8 coins back
xxxxxxxxxx
Does TT allow you to add a reserve while the bidding is in progress? What is a reserve bid? Is that a special bid that automatically bumps the current bid to some desired price that you wish to get for your coin/s? Does a consignor get special bidding privileges that allow them to add reserves during the the live bidding or do you have to call them and say "Hey, I wanna put a reserve on this coin now"?
it is very pricey to do this though, as if you end high bidder - you pay both the regular selling commission of 8% (up to $749 selling price with $5 min) and buying commssion (12% with $8 min)
the regular reserve program allows you to enter a max bid before auction start (at least 1 hour before start I think) and that as your buyback bid which is a 5% commission ($5 min)
shipping return costs $15 for first 10 coins bought back
you need to have a good idea what the stuff should sell for - especially for stuff under $100, otherwise it gets fairly expensive for teletrade to handle your coins