Rating the major auction houses for their archive access
shylock
Posts: 4,288 ✭✭✭
The best learning resources on the web are the major auction house's archives.
How well do the search engines and layout of these auction houses archives help the collector?
I used the generic searches of "1877 Indian Head", "1877 Indian Cent", or "1877 1C" for the sake of this post.
1) Heritage - without a doubt the best, but they were so much better before they made you log in every freakin time you
did a search. That major aggrevation aside, Heritage's specific archive menus and clear, adjustable results layout still rocks.
2) American Numismatic Rarities - without a doubt the next best, and getting better. Their searches need to be less
specific -- 1877 1C worked, 1877 Indian Head and 1877 Indian Cent came up with no results. But they are on the
right track and getting better.
3) Bowers and Merena - it goes downhill from here. Bowers' archive is very accessible and well designed, but
their search engine is weak. The best I could do were 19 "1877 Indian Cent" results no matter how I tried to reformat
the search.
4) Ira & Larry Goldberg - great sight for browsing the archives but don't even try to figure out the convoluted search engine.
5) Stacks - this website has improved by lightyears in 1 year, but still no search engine for past auctions.
6) Superior - the only archives I can find on this site are price's realized by lot #. A total waste of time.
How well do the search engines and layout of these auction houses archives help the collector?
I used the generic searches of "1877 Indian Head", "1877 Indian Cent", or "1877 1C" for the sake of this post.
1) Heritage - without a doubt the best, but they were so much better before they made you log in every freakin time you
did a search. That major aggrevation aside, Heritage's specific archive menus and clear, adjustable results layout still rocks.
2) American Numismatic Rarities - without a doubt the next best, and getting better. Their searches need to be less
specific -- 1877 1C worked, 1877 Indian Head and 1877 Indian Cent came up with no results. But they are on the
right track and getting better.
3) Bowers and Merena - it goes downhill from here. Bowers' archive is very accessible and well designed, but
their search engine is weak. The best I could do were 19 "1877 Indian Cent" results no matter how I tried to reformat
the search.
4) Ira & Larry Goldberg - great sight for browsing the archives but don't even try to figure out the convoluted search engine.
5) Stacks - this website has improved by lightyears in 1 year, but still no search engine for past auctions.
6) Superior - the only archives I can find on this site are price's realized by lot #. A total waste of time.
Paul <> altered surfaces <> CoinGallery.org
0
Comments
did a search. That major aggrevation aside, Heritage's specific archive menus and clear, adjustable results layout still rocks.
2) American Numismatic Rarities - without a doubt the next best, and getting better. Their searches need to be less
specific -- 1877 1C worked, 1877 Indian Head and 1877 Indian Cent came up with no results. But they are on the
right track and getting better.
3) Bowers and Merena - it goes downhill from here. Bowers' archive is very accessible and well designed, but
their search engine is weak. The best I could do were 19 "1877 Indian Cent" results no matter how I tried to reformat
the search.
4) Ira & Larry Goldberg - great sight for browsing the archives but don't even try to figure out the convoluted search engine.
5) Stacks - this website has improved by lightyears in 1 year, but still no search engine for past auctions.
6) Superior - the only archives I can find on this site are price's realized by lot #. A total waste of time.
HERITAGE WITHOUT A DOUBT IS THE BEST
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Also agree that Superior does not provide much help just giving lot #'s.
Teletrade has limited access for how far back you can search, but I keep interesting sales in my "Track & Bid"
section, some of those sales are 4 or 5 years old. I think the tracking max is 200 items.
Ebay's completed sales are shown for 90 days I believe.
Joe
<< <i>Don't care for their images usually, but Heritage's archives are the best, hands down. >>
This thread was about major auction houses. Teletrade is the guy selling watches on the corner of Madison & 5th.
<< <i>I agree with you. Normally, I only use Heritage, very frequently. >>
Same here I find tha Heritage provides easy access to their auction archives.
TorinoCobra71
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
<< <i>Where does Teletrade fit in your list?
This thread was about major auction houses. Teletrade is the guy selling watches on the corner of Madison & 5th. >>
Say what you will about TT, they have a very extensive archive that I find quite useful for coins costing less than six figures.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I agree with Shylock. The archives are a great source of learning, but I would certainly include TT in this mix.
Heritage is best despite the need to log in every FREAK'N time
<< <i>
<< <i>Where does Teletrade fit in your list?
This thread was about major auction houses. Teletrade is the guy selling watches on the corner of Madison & 5th. >>
Say what you will about TT, they have a very extensive archive that I find quite useful for coins less costing than six figures. >>
TT is very useful for current trends.
ANR #2 - usable, but not great
All the rest - not useful
When Heritage states that they have over 100,000 clients, or whatever the number is, a good portion of that number comes from the fact that they require you to register to use the archieves. Then they can (1) track everything you do when you're logged in, (2) use some computer intelligence to directly market to you (3) flag potential customers to their sales reps for followup contact. What a simple, cost-effective way to build a customer database and market to it!
Lets face it, in this business information is the most valuable asset any of these companies have. Heritage is by far the leader in recognizing this and making the right kind of technology investments to maintain a huge competitive advantage.
I am available, at a huge cost, for consulting work with any of the other companies.
Premium Numismatics, Inc.
myurl
800-596-COIN