Great Collections SELLERs ..... how are you doing?

Dave99B

Seems like the listings are improving, quality-wise. I like the site, in fact I just picked up my first coin, at a very decent price.

Just wondering, how are the recent hammer prices? We know it's all about eye-balls.

Hope they do well. We need alternatives!

Dave

Bochiman

In addition, if I may, Dave, it would be good to hear how those with TONED coins are feeling about the sales.
NORMAL people consigning and selling through them.

It looks good and easy, and I like Ian, but I have been less than impressed with the images I see of toned coins and am not willing to chance getting one and finding out it sucks as much as the picture showed.
At least, with TT, I had learned the imaging on toned coins over a period of time...

MsMorrisine

<< <i>In addition, if I may, Dave, it would be good to hear how those with TONED coins are feeling about the sales.
NORMAL people consigning and selling through them.

It looks good and easy, and I like Ian, but I have been less than impressed with the images I see of toned coins and am not willing to chance getting one and finding out it sucks as much as the picture showed.
At least, with TT, I had learned the imaging on toned coins over a period of time... >>




Tell Ian

jdimmick

I sold one higher dollar piece last month. I got pretty close to what I was needing.

Friend of mine just sold about 150K with Ian. Some pieces he did very well on , others not so good, but I don't think it had anything to do with the GC site. HE(friend) has a tendency to compulsive buy at shows and ends up paying extreme retail for coins, and then shortly after decides to sell them. GC does get active strong bidders, because one coin in particular he did well on went for serious money almost 4x what it should have. It was the right coin, and it had buyers willing to step up and pay.

I can say this with my one coin I sold thru them and talking with my friend, they are very easy to work with at GC, and Ian is really good at keeping you informed on your consignments, and always available if you need assistance.
I know when the time comes for me to liquidate others, I will be calling them .

MacCrimmon

<< <i>I sold one higher dollar piece last month. I got pretty close to what I was needing.

Friend of mine just sold about 150K with Ian. Some pieces he did very well on , others not so good, but I don't think it had anything to do with the GC site. HE(friend) has a tendency to compulsive buy at shows and ends up paying extreme retail for coins, and then shortly after decides to sell them. GC does get active strong bidders, because one coin in particular he did well on went for serious money almost 4x what it should have. It was the right coin, and it had buyers willing to step up and pay.

I can say this with my one coin I sold thru them and talking with my friend, they are very easy to work with at GC, and Ian is really good at keeping you informed on your consignments, and always available if you need assistance.
I know when the time comes for me to liquidate others, I will be calling them . >>




Thanks, good to know.

lordmarcovan

I've only been a buyer once, never a seller/consignor. But I was pleased with the coin, and the images.

Images are very important to me, not only for looking at the coins before purchasing, but also since I suck as a photographer and usually recycle past owners' images in my sets.

I like that GC has some decent Darkside and ancients, too.

I wish them and their consignors the best.

blu62vette

I had some toned coins go off about two weeks ago, they did great.

TwoSides2aCoin

Not yet. I'm thinking about it. Maybe after I get married.

pcunix

I didn't even know about it, so I'm glad you asked.

I'm bidding on a few things now.

derryb

Great business model, highly recommend. My only concern is I believe some of the buy it nows are in-house inventory with no buyer fees which I personally think gives the house an advantage over consignors whose hammer price gets raised with buyer fees. If I am wrong my apologies to Ian who I hope will correct me here. My only purchases have been buy it nows and they were always at a great price. Consigned some stuff that didn't sell, but only because of my minimum.

Walkerguy21D

Registered and bid on my first coin last week....with about one hour to go, suddenly 7 more days were added to the auction.
I don't know if this some kind of ploy to help get prices higher or what.....so perhaps that is a good feature for sellers, but as a
potential bidder/buyer, I'm likely done.

derryb

<< <i>Registered and bid on my first coin last week....with about one hour to go, suddenly 7 more days were added to the auction.
I don't know if this some kind of ploy to help get prices higher or what.....so perhaps that is a good feature for sellers, but as a
potential bidder/buyer, I'm likely done. >>


That sux.

pcunix

<< <i>Registered and bid on my first coin last week....with about one hour to go, suddenly 7 more days were added to the auction.
I don't know if this some kind of ploy to help get prices higher or what.....so perhaps that is a good feature for sellers, but as a
potential bidder/buyer, I'm likely done. >>



That would cause me to never go back, deffers.

Tookybandit

<< <i>Registered and bid on my first coin last week....with about one hour to go, suddenly 7 more days were added to the auction.
I don't know if this some kind of ploy to help get prices higher or what.....so perhaps that is a good feature for sellers, but as a
potential bidder/buyer, I'm likely done. >>




Maybe there was a reserve or something? Call or email them and find out what the reason was.

DaveWcoins

<< <i>

<< <i>Registered and bid on my first coin last week....with about one hour to go, suddenly 7 more days were added to the auction.
I don't know if this some kind of ploy to help get prices higher or what.....so perhaps that is a good feature for sellers, but as a
potential bidder/buyer, I'm likely done. >>




Maybe there was a reserve or something? Call or email them and find out what the reason was. >>



I agree. That does not sound like their normal policy. You should investigate and report to us what the story is/was.

amwldcoin

<< <i>Registered and bid on my first coin last week....with about one hour to go, suddenly 7 more days were added to the auction.
I don't know if this some kind of ploy to help get prices higher or what.....so perhaps that is a good feature for sellers, but as a
potential bidder/buyer, I'm likely done. >>



Perhaps you didn't notice it was from the next week. The auctions do overlap each other week to week.

Walkerguy21D

<< <i><< Registered and bid on my first coin last week....with about one hour to go, suddenly 7 more days were added to the auction.
I don't know if this some kind of ploy to help get prices higher or what.....so perhaps that is a good feature for sellers, but as a
potential bidder/buyer, I'm likely done. >>

Perhaps you didn't notice it was from the next week. The auctions do overlap each other week to week. >>


Well Darrell, if I looked like your avatar, I suppose that could be the reason
But I tracked the coin from the previous week, on a daily or multi-daily basis, bidding and increasing my bid, right up until the last couple of hours.
I know what I saw, the coin had 30 bids on it, was sitting at $1667, and 7 MORE days were added. Now it's at $3500, with 4 days left. There was nothing about a reserve and the initial starting bid was quite low. So like my earlier point, this was great for the consignor. I know Ian Russell is very well respected, and there is probably a good reason within his business model for doing this. But as a bidder, I do not like it. If others are Ok with that, that's fine by me.

moosesr

I have been to the site looking a couple of times, I didn't want to bid on an auction, but I had trouble figuring out how to search for BIN coins only? I finally gave up and just started looking at all listings.

ModCrewman

Sold my first coin with them about a month ago...sent in a 1953 Re-Engraved Tailfeathers PR65 Washington Quarter. PCGS guide has it as $2,500, I'd tried to sell it on Ebay for a couple months from $700-2,000 BIN's without so much as a nibble. I sent it to GC allowing them to set the starting bid which they set at $400, a single bidder won it at the opening bid, I received my net check of $375 this week 5 days before the scheduled settlement date.

I was a bit disappointed with the sales price, but was willing to let it go at whatever they could get for it...if that hadn't been the case, I'd have set my own minimum opening bid. A very hassle-free sales experience...with a sales price that IMHO likely represents the current market for the coin.

I was pleased to have received the PCGS registry e-mail with coins offered at GC matching my sets which included my coin, so at least I know that portion of their promotion was working.

machoponcho

I'm a regular consignor to GreatCollections. I am pleased overall with their smooth service and email communication when my account has activity. As for coin prices, the coins sell for a little less than average what they would on eBay. Mostly that is because the 10% buyer's fee that bidders have to figure into the hammer price whereas eBay has no buyer's fee. Some coins go quite cheap for me, but some coins exceed my expectations so it pretty much evens out in the end. I consign coins mostly in the $50 to $400 range, every once in a while some more expensive than that, some cheaper than that. I've probably consigned around 200 coins to this point mostly in groups of 15 or 20 at a time. The number of watchers/lookers I get to my GC consigned lots is more than I got when I used to sell on eBay myself, since I had established no regular following on eBay.

GreatCollections has a regular following and for all types of material.

I do better on the lots that have a specific following: nicely toned, special variety, etc.

I don't do so well on the generic stuff like common date MS65 Morgans, for example.

A common MS65 Morgan will sell for $150, for example. Greysheet Bid is $155 currently. Now, the buyer pays $150 for the coin, which means it actually hammered at about $130 because of buyer's fee plus shipping. Consignor fee of 5% so now we are down to $124. I could go to the local coin show and get a dealer to pay me $125, or $130, or even $135 for it and would be paid right away. Getting $124 and waiting a month for my money through GreatCollections isn't as optimal. ModCrewman's example in the post above mine surprises me a little in this regard. Of all places, you should have been able to find two bidders on GC to bid each other up who would appreciate this esoteric variety.

Bochiman

<< <i>I had some toned coins go off about two weeks ago, they did great. >>



Todd,
Are you willing to give links to them on GC and also show your pics? That would be great to see.

numisma

We have done very well with our consignments to Great Collections. Ian and the whole staff are just great to work with. Their secret is an old-fashioned blend of work ethics and customer service. I also wondered if Ian drinks 10 Red Bulls every day, as it seems he is always working hard.

We just consigned another six-figure lot to them, so that tells you how pleased we are with their service and venue.

georgiacop50

I both buy & sell at GC.

The images could use some improvement. They are quite "average".

As a seller, I wish the images of toned coins showed off the colors a bit more.

As a buyer, I am often VERY pleased when I get a toned coin in-hand and find it is way more colorful than it appeared in GC's image.

But I have no real complaints. Their business model is very elegant.

BAJJERFAN

<< <i>I sold one higher dollar piece last month. I got pretty close to what I was needing.

Friend of mine just sold about 150K with Ian. Some pieces he did very well on , others not so good, but I don't think it had anything to do with the GC site. HE(friend) has a tendency to compulsive buy at shows and ends up paying extreme retail for coins, and then shortly after decides to sell them. GC does get active strong bidders, because one coin in particular he did well on went for serious money almost 4x what it should have. It was the right coin, and it had buyers willing to step up and pay.

I can say this with my one coin I sold thru them and talking with my friend, they are very easy to work with at GC, and Ian is really good at keeping you informed on your consignments, and always available if you need assistance.
I know when the time comes for me to liquidate others, I will be calling them . >>



Saw the same with some recent toners at H. Some exceeded my expectations while others that I thought would do well kinda ho hummed. Over time it all balances out. Had I got hammer plus juice numbers in a private sale, I'd have been happier than a pig in a new mudhole. Then again a few weeks time and things may have been just the opposite. You just never know, so you pays your money and you takes your chances.

blu62vette

<< <i>

<< <i>I had some toned coins go off about two weeks ago, they did great. >>



Todd,
Are you willing to give links to them on GC and also show your pics? That would be great to see. >>



I did not supply pics on these, dont think I have any pics as I bought them for auction.

1881-S

Another 1881-S

1879-S

66*

1887

ianrussell

<< <i>

<< <i><< Registered and bid on my first coin last week....with about one hour to go, suddenly 7 more days were added to the auction.
I don't know if this some kind of ploy to help get prices higher or what.....so perhaps that is a good feature for sellers, but as a
potential bidder/buyer, I'm likely done. >>

Perhaps you didn't notice it was from the next week. The auctions do overlap each other week to week. >>


Well Darrell, if I looked like your avatar, I suppose that could be the reason
But I tracked the coin from the previous week, on a daily or multi-daily basis, bidding and increasing my bid, right up until the last couple of hours.
I know what I saw, the coin had 30 bids on it, was sitting at $1667, and 7 MORE days were added. Now it's at $3500, with 4 days left. There was nothing about a reserve and the initial starting bid was quite low. So like my earlier point, this was great for the consignor. I know Ian Russell is very well respected, and there is probably a good reason within his business model for doing this. But as a bidder, I do not like it. If others are Ok with that, that's fine by me. >>



Walkerguy, you are correct, that listing was delayed by a week, since the coin was listed in the incorrect category/end time and I thought extending it was the right thing to do. I did contact the current high bidder on the coin Sunday. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

(Btw. the coin does not have any reserve. We don't have hidden reserves. If something starts at $1, it means the reserve is in effect $1, even if it's a $1,000, $10,000 or $100,000 coin).

- Ian

Walkerguy21D

Sounds fair and reasonable - thank you for the explanation, Ian.

TONEDDOLLARS

<< <i>I had some toned coins go off about two weeks ago, they did great. >>



Who's pictures did he use, yours or his??????????????

nk1nk

I just found this thread. I sent my first consignment to great collections recently, it was 60 coins from cents to Morgans mostly toned coins. My coins were received April 24, im still waiting for them to go to auction. They have been photographed which I have mixed feelings about, my coins with less attractive toning turned out nicer then I remember them in hand and my coins with nice toning didn't turn out as great imo. But all in all not horrible pictures. I will do an update once they go live and once they sell. I don't know if it would be considered spam to post links once they go live? Either way I will give an update.

Nick

bestday

sold several toned..... coins got 6x on GC , from what I was asking on BST.. High recommend as alternative to ebay

Bochiman

<< <i>sold several toned..... coins got 6x on GC , from what I was asking on BST.. High recommend as alternative to ebay >>



Are you willing to show a link to the completed auctions on GC?
I still question the photographs of toned coins there (haven't been willing to "pay tuition" to see how close they are, but the photos I have seen just don't look like they are the best).

As a venue, I would love to use GC as I respect Ian a lot. It's just a concern over the photos of toned coins looking good enough.

Did you take your own photos, and, if so, how do you think theirs compared to yours for "glamour shots" and "how the coin truly looks"?

LanceNewmanOCC

<< <i>

<< <i>I had some toned coins go off about two weeks ago, they did great. >>



Who's pictures did he use, yours or his?????????????? >>



this is a quote from his post:



<< <i>I did not supply pics on these, dont think I have any pics as I bought them for auction. >>


.

VanHalen

I have consigned about 50 coins to GC in the last 2 years and been quite happy with the results. I post links to the better pieces in the BST sections of a few numismatic websites and bump them until auction close. I felt nearly all my pieces generated retail (hammer/juice) and while most were $300 to $500 pieces, that's pretty darn good these days.

Casman

Why are there no descriptions or POP report info. My buddy told me anybody that is looking already has that info or can look it up...But are there no casual buyers?...meaning those that may just be looking and if they had more info, may bid.

erwindoc

I think that its pretty awesome that the guy in charge posts here about his company.

RYK

Very well, thank you.

Edit: As a seller, it is important to know what is the best outlet for your coins, and there is generally no one-size-fits-all solution. This year I have sold about 40% of my collection and have done so via the following channels:

Private offering and placement to collectors who previously expressed interest in the coins
BST board
Doug Winter
CRO
Legend-Morphy auctions
Great Collections
Heritage

AUandAG

Did my first deal, in April, with Ian on my PCGS Scarface. Guide was $9,500. True auction with no reserve,
sold it for $10,100. Ian sent it to CAC for me and got the greenie.

Will likely do more business with Ian as time goes along.

bob

ianrussell

<< <i>Why are there no descriptions or POP report info. My buddy told me anybody that is looking already has that info or can look it up...But are there no casual buyers?...meaning those that may just be looking and if they had more info, may bid. >>



For POP information, we will be including selective populations in the future, but not for coins with 1000+ in a particular grade. If anyone wants additional information about a coin - free free to e-mail me at ian@greatcollections.com or phone our office.

- Ian

ianrussell

<< <i>Very well, thank you.

Edit: As a seller, it is important to know what is the best outlet for your coins, and there is generally no one-size-fits-all solution. This year I have sold about 40% of my collection and have done so via the following channels:

Private offering and placement to collectors who previously expressed interest in the coins
BST board
Doug Winter
CRO
Legend-Morphy auctions
Great Collections
Heritage >>



Thanks RYK, I'm in good company. Appreciate your business and support.

- Ian

RYK

Thanks RYK, I'm in good company. Appreciate your business and support. - Ian

Thank you, Ian. You have always done me well.

BAJJERFAN

<< <i>I just found this thread. I sent my first consignment to great collections recently, it was 60 coins from cents to Morgans mostly toned coins. My coins were received April 24, im still waiting for them to go to auction. They have been photographed which I have mixed feelings about, my coins with less attractive toning turned out nicer then I remember them in hand and my coins with nice toning didn't turn out as great imo. But all in all not horrible pictures. I will do an update once they go live and once they sell. I don't know if it would be considered spam to post links once they go live? Either way I will give an update.

Nick >>



Post the links on the BST board.

WaterSport

Well I have been selling on Ebay since who knows when. But I also kept track of Lincoln Cent listings a few years back. Normally in 2004 - 2006 you had a spread of 55000 - 75000 listings that changed between summer and winter by about 15,000 due to more people playing with coins in the winter. Right now that number is ...128,000! A lot of junk repeated over and over with some mindless person thinking they are a coin dealer selling 1944 circulated cents. Anyhoo. I had some 300-400 dollar varieties and I could not even get an offer, bid, etc. over 3 week period. So I said thats it. I registered and sent the coins to GC. Ask me in a month how it went.

WS

nk1nk

I have a question for those who have sold on GC, how long did it take for your coins to go to auction from the recieved date? My coins were recieved April 24th and im still waiting for them to go live, I realize I can contact Ian and get an update on my particular lot. Im just curious to others wait times.

Nick

Lakesammman

GC and Ian are a class act. Very responsive and customer friendly. I'm a happy buyer and seller.

bestday

<< <i>I have a question for those who have sold on GC, how long did it take for your coins to go to auction from the recieved date? My coins were recieved April 24th and im still waiting for them to go live, I realize I can contact Ian and get an update on my particular lot. Im just curious to others wait times.

Nick >>


Within 2 weeks of package arriving ..items were in auction ... a long wait for yours best to call

Spooly

I sold a group of large cents a couple of weeks ago. Hope to get $1000 for them.... my cut $1200... very happy.

vibr0nic

<< <i>I have a question for those who have sold on GC, how long did it take for your coins to go to auction from the recieved date? My coins were recieved April 24th and im still waiting for them to go live, I realize I can contact Ian and get an update on my particular lot. Im just curious to others wait times >>



The first batch I sent in March was received on a Monday and taking bids by that Thursday. 3 days for all 52 coins. That was unexpectedly fast.

The second batch (another 18 coins ending this Sunday - see my BST post) was received by GC May 2nd, and was taking bids by May 15th, so about two weeks, which is more like what I expected.

In response to the original post, the only reason I sent a second batch is because I was satisfied with the results of the first. If Ian keeps the recipe and the fees the same, my days with selling on eBay are over. Enough said.

WhiteTornado

<< <i>I have a question for those who have sold on GC, how long did it take for your coins to go to auction from the recieved date? My coins were recieved April 24th and im still waiting for them to go live, I realize I can contact Ian and get an update on my particular lot. Im just curious to others wait times.

Nick >>



I sent two Peace dollars that were received via USPS tracking at Great Collections on May 10 (a Saturday). They were logged as received in their system on May 13 and just listed today for auctions that end June 1. You may want to give them a call regarding your pending listings.

SLQANDSILVERDOLLARNUT

I have been sending quite a few coins to GC each month and have received super performance and great prices especially for tougher numismatic material --- A lot less work than ebay and also cheaper in the long run.

lkeigwin

I like the site, I like Ian and the way he runs things, I check their listings often.

I wish there were more problem-free coins for those I collect. 80% of it is details (bust halves).
Lance.