What do you think of Heritage's new "Make an Offer to Owner" feature on MyCollection?

Longacre

I got an email from Heritage, which I pasted below and highlighted the relevant part. What do you think about the new "Make the Owner an Offer" feature? What are the good and bad points?

Here is the email:

Dear [edited for security purposes],

We thought you should know that we moved the items from your old MyCollection to our new, improved — and still free — MyCollection. The new system is more flexible, but there are some differences that may take a minute or two to learn your way around.

Here are the 6 most important changes — please read them all; we saved the best one for last!

Customized results: To view a specific collection, use the "search within a specific collection" drop-down. You can also apply keyword search and status filters to build customized views of your collection.


Change the description: You can now change the description of all items, allowing you to instantly know when you are looking at a rare variety, an error, or other unusual coins.


Set your own value: You can now set your own value for all items, in addition to the Numismedia Wholesale Ask value we automatically provide, when available.


Improved images: Upload your own images to our system for all items, and the thumbnails appear in the search results.


Enter anything: Our improved Manual Entry form lets you enter anything into the collection.


Make Offer to Owner: The most exciting thing about the new MyCollection software is the ability to receive offers on items you purchased in past Heritage auctions, including the ability to set your own "Buy Now" price.
How does it work?
Heritage members now have the opportunity to make an anonymous offer to the buyer of items previously purchased at auction from Heritage, directly through our Auction Results Archives. Heritage manages the transaction, maintaining privacy for both parties. Acceptance of an offer represents agreement with the terms and conditions of sale, including Heritage's commission (10% of the selling price). This service is free to the buyer (no buyer's premium), includes a 7 day return policy, protects the identity of both parties, and allows offers and counter-offers. If you receive an offer, you will have 72 hours to decline, counter-offer or accept the offer. You are under no obligation until you accept an offer or a buyer accepts your counter offer. You will receive payment for items sold within 30 days of Heritage's receipt of your item.

Important: You can disable Make Offer to Owner on items individually by checking the box to the left of individual items in the search results and performing the "Not Taking Offers" or "Not Mine" action in the pull-down above and below the search results. Or by clicking the link at the top right corner of the page, you can opt-out of all offers completely.

If you have any questions, feedback, suggestions, or need any help, please don't hesitate to contact us at Webmaster@HA.com.

Sincerely,

Heritage Client Services
Bid@HA.com
3500 Maple Ave. 17th Floor
Dallas, TX 75219-3941
1-800-872-6467


Video: Why Consign?
Free Appraisal in any category.
www.HA.com/Connect: Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Articles and more...

jsf

so it's limited to only Heritage-won coins?

partagas

I like the concept so long as I don't get bombarded with low balls on all my wins from them.

messydesk

<< <i>so it's limited to only Heritage-won coins? >>


Seems odd that they'd limit it, since they're taking a cut of the action, but I'll bet they want control over the lot description so that people don't start writing eBay-style numispuffery on their website. It can't be because they want quality control on the photography.

Connecticoin

It would interesting to have a list of coins that Heritage has churned so may times such that the commissions exceeded the value of the coin.

Billet7

It happens anyway, I think it is a good idea to formalize and facilitate the process. I would rather have HA deal with it as an intermediary and guarantee funding and secure the process instead of some crackpot emailing me for my coin. You just have no way of knowing who is emailing you and what their true intent is.

bidask

Good idea.....don't have to consign anything.

COALPORTER

I don't think it's a great idea. The seller pays all the fees and has to give a 7 day return privledge. The terms don't say anything about shipping charges - does Heritage expect the unmotivated seller to eat this too?

I think it is a way for Heritage to sell your coins without you knowing it. The fact that the buyer pays NO FEE says to me that Heritage may be the one planning on doing most of the buying and trying to shop your coins.

lcoopie

this may allow them to make 100% on a coin in commission

SmallEagle

I opted out. A little too big-brotherish to me.

Placid

When I first got the email I didnt pay much attention to it as I have no interest in selling anything atm.

Tonight I looked at "my collection" at Heritage and some of my coins had prices set with the buy it now active.
I set them to not for sale but I thought it was strange that someone could have bought them without me even knowing they were for sale.

I would guess the buyer would have got mad when I didnt go thru with the sale and I wonder if Heritage would still have demanded their 10% if I said no I am not selling?

mike92694

Some "stupid" questions.

1. What if I don't have the item any more?
2. What if I never received the e-mail?

Justacommeman

There is a one click link for coins you don't own anymore and another if you want to opt out of the program entirely. MJ

Steve27

I think I received the email, but it was in my spam folder, so I deleted it without opening it.

coolkarma

I noticed this "feature" while searching through the Heritage Archives. It seems Heritage sets the minimum "Make Offer to Owner" price to 20% above what the item sold for previously (roughly 10% for Heritage and 10% for the owner, I guess). Interesting idea. I wonder if there will be many sales this way?

Broadstruck

Thanks for posting this Longacre as I just listed one item from My HA purchased Collection.

roadrunner

As soon as I saw the email it went right into the basket so I thank Longacre for posting it since I didn't even get to the part about Heritage being a 3rd wheel and getting 10%. Agreed, too big brotherish. And just in a nick of time to help disadvantaged sellers in their time of need during this down market period. Could be another HeritagEbay.

roadrunner

BAJJERFAN

Eye figger it muss be good for them or H woodn't be doing it.

DennisH

I doubt Heritage would be doing this if there weren't some way for them to make a commission, so I expect that a fee is involved somewhere if we accept an offer.

This is another reason why I always make sure my inventory of things bought from them is deleted.

mommam17

They added 10% to my BIN price for the buyer to pay.

illini420

I looked at a few coins I bid on in the past and didn't win and most have the feature where I can now make an offer. However, I just can't imagine ever making an offer with the default minimum being 20% over the owner's winning bid!!! I'll just wait until the owner decides to resell the coin where I'll almost definitely be able to get it cheaper or just wait for another example to come along.

Might make sense if we're talking about a coin that was sold 5-10 years ago where 20% over the previous winning bid is now cheap???

adamlaneus

My Collection feature? Hm. Never hear of it.

(navigates to HA. Looks it up. Sees a record of every coin I have bought. Hmmm. 42 coins. The magic number.)



Some but not all of them appear to be 'eligible for offers'.

They appear to set the default price at one increment above my purchase price. That includes the buyers premium I paid.

So the default price for a buyer through this program is quite high, as it starts at the hammer price I paid + buyers fees I paid + one increment higher + buyers fees again for the new buyer.

Too bad I can't replace the pictures with my own. I'd get better prices. (and so would they...)


I think it is an interesting new feature. Sounds like it will save lots of time and perhaps even money for folks that want to turn over their collection.

tradedollarnut

10% is a lot for the amount of work it takes to do this. 5% seems much more reasonable.

garsmith

Looks like we will be getting lots of spam e-mails with lowball offers on coins we don't want to sell anyways.

fcloud

you can go to the page and change the price or make it unavailable if you choose.

FullStepJeffs

<< <i>I opted out. A little too big-brotherish to me. >>





Steve

BAJJERFAN

How do you view coins that others may wish to sell?

Broadstruck

<< <i>you can go to the page and change the price or make it unavailable if you choose. >>



Go to your My Collection and choose Not Taking Offers and refresh... I had a bunch of coins automatically set up for offers that I did NOT want to sell.

adamlaneus

<< <i>How do you view coins that others may wish to sell? >>



View auction archives. Coins that have sold in the past are there; and the ones that you can bid on with this new system have a special button for making an offer.


Personally, i'm not seeing the downside. It's not like you have to take an offer. This is like free market information to the owner of the coin.

BAJJERFAN

Well at least they aren't making your collection public, YET.

barbershopper

I took a cursory look at the terms and on-site info.

If it doesn't involve a lot of time on my part answering emails, it doesn't sound bad.
10 % one-way only is a lot better than charging both buyer and seller.
It'll sound much better to the buyer.

Most of my HA purchases have been a little on the high dollar side.
I'm intrigued to know what they will be worth to prospective buyers.

I guess my only faultfinding would involve some of the changes they've made to the site.

JT

illini420

<< <i>Looks like we will be getting lots of spam e-mails with lowball offers on coins we don't want to sell anyways. >>



The only offers you'll ever get are 10% or more above what you paid... not sure how that could ever be lowball unless you're taking about coins you bought 5-10 years ago? And you can change the default price anyways or opt out.

Broadstruck

Everything must be in Strong Hands as the 2 of 3 item's I've Made and Offer on the Offers where Rejected.

Number 3 is pending... but Not looking good?

TomB

There were some serious problems with this feature and they have been partially corrected. I attempted to use the feature on multiple occassions only to have each of my offers rejected with no counteroffer or other note. Apparently, if you have purchased a coin via auction through Heritage and have not removed it from the "My Heritage" database then Heritage is by default assuming that you still own the coin for the purposes of this program. Therefore, the coins listed in this program not only might not still be owned by the winner of the auction, but they might not still be in the holders that they are shown in and they might not be for sale at virtually any price. How do I know so much about this? I wrote a long email to Heritage detailing issues with this feature that included my rejected offers as well as coins showing up on the Heritage site while being listed in other dealer inventories and even coins listed in this program at Heritage when they were in live auctions on other sites. Heritage has reworded some of this program at my suggestion, but I cannot stress enough that you are likely wasting your time if you put a good faith offer on any of these coins.

yellowkid

<< <i>I opted out. A little too big-brotherish to me. >>