World Coin/Ancient category growth at Heritage
Zohar
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"A tremendous year was also had by Heritage’s World & Ancient Coins category, which grew its 2013 total auction sales of $36.9 million by 65% to more than $61 million, the most significant growth seen in any category of the company for the year.
“The popularity of World & Ancient Coins has skyrocketed in the last few years,” said Ivy. “Between the global reach of Heritage’s Internet platform and the use of reliable third-party grading you have a formula for tremendous expansion, which is exactly what we saw.”
"A tremendous year was also had by Heritage’s World & Ancient Coins category, which grew its 2013 total auction sales of $36.9 million by 65% to more than $61 million, the most significant growth seen in any category of the company for the year.
“The popularity of World & Ancient Coins has skyrocketed in the last few years,” said Ivy. “Between the global reach of Heritage’s Internet platform and the use of reliable third-party grading you have a formula for tremendous expansion, which is exactly what we saw.”
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Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
But if you have to pay 12-17% in buyer fees, even on a $20 or $40 purchase, those add up and feel like a tremendous waste of money when you are collecting Constantine copper (to use NiceCurrency's premonition). Ebay and some very great dealers on VCoins and on personal business sites really fill the void for collectors like me. I've been working to develop more personal and extensive relationships with some dealers over the past year and I feel that I have made some good business friendships along the way. I lay out my realistic goals and budget and so far everyone has been happy to work with me. My repeat ebay sellers are in the same vein because I buy maybe only $20 of items a month from them maybe, but I do it every month. And frankly, inventory sitting in inventory does no one any good, so knowing you have a buyer for all price points of your business makes good business sense.
I can not claim to know all of the particulars of the auction house business model, basically speaking. What I am thinking though is that if Heritage really wanted to grow their market and future long term buyers, it might behoove them to explore different aspects of growing their business base. Something like a $15-20 a month fee for members who spend under x amount of dollars per year (to stop folks from registering a thrift account to make a large purchase and waive percentage point based fees and therefore make out like a bandit) might bring folks like me who like and want to use Heritage to buy coins but just can't make the math work.
<< <i>“The popularity of World & Ancient Coins has skyrocketed in the last few years,” said Ivy. “Between the global reach of Heritage’s Internet platform and the use of reliable third-party grading you have a formula for tremendous expansion, which is exactly what we saw.” >>
How much of this is Heritage's international presence vs increasing popularity of world and ancient coins amongst American collectors?
I suspect more the latter, given the explosion of slabbing among these coins, something that American collectors, rather than international collectors, are demanding.
Another question, does NGC (or PCGS) provide a guarantee authenticity with their slabbing? I thought not but perhaps this has changed?
Regarding fees, I view these as part of the price. Hammer plus fees are what you pay.
Lastly, as much as there is pushback to slabbing, it's a way to facilitate global sales and credibility of a sort. I can not buy based on European Auction house descriptions as they dismiss problems with coins that grading services would flag. It's another opinion. I personally don't need to touch the coin to enjoy it, yet do care about authenticity and issues. As Andy noted, coins are out there and auction/grading will only expand their reach which educated the collector and expands options. It does add competition yet doesn't the Internet do this for pretty much everything?
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
Well, just Love coins, period.
The US TPG's have woefully little knowledge about too many areas of world coinage. Greek, Roman and those that intersected heavily with the Greek and Roman worlds may be fine with NGC, but I've seen them (NGC, PCGS as well as others) seem like too much of an exercise in humor than anything else. I say this not just about areas like early Islamic or pre-Islamic Central Asian, but also more main stream areas like British (Anglo-Saxon and later) and Italian States.
Using the US TPG's as a means of liquidity makes sense, but don't lose sight of their imperfections.
EVP
How does one get a hater to stop hating?
I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com