Numismatic companies bought out by larger ones
logger7
Posts: 9,074 ✭✭✭✭✭
I remember Ellesmere for many years, enthusiastically promoting popular classic US coins. It got bought out by Stacks/Bowers. Spectrum was either bought out by them or merged, not sure which. Teletrade got bought out and moved West becoming part of that company. What other companies have gotten bought out by larger numismatic companies? Have they improved or not?
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I don't know about any of the others, but as far as I'm concerned, the Teletrade buyout was a loss to the hobby. Teletrade was fun. As I recall they had three auctions per week plus a no reserve auction once a week. There usually wasn't much quality in the no reserve auction but with so many auctions a week there was always something to keep busy with. Stack's bought them out and then that was it. I followed Stack's for awhile but the website was a mess and I lost interest. Oh well, nothing lasts forever. Great Collections stepped into the void and nothing to complain about with them. Like the name suggests, they truly are "GREAT." Still, I miss Teletrade.
I still have a VHS tape from the first, or one of the first Teletrade auctions! They used to mail the tape to you to view the lots.
Unfortunately I don't have a VCR to play the tape anymore.....
W. David Perkins Numismatics - http://www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com/ - 25+ Years ANA, ANS, NLG, NBS, LM JRCS, LSCC, EAC, TAMS, LM CWTS, CSNS, FUN
I agree the loss of Teletrade is disappointing. They were a great site and a very fun party of the hobby.
Have the VHS Tape transferred to DVD...lots of photgraphic places can do this.
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What is this VCR and VHS you speak of?
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
What this VCR and VHS you speak of?
Don't you remember it's a large Victrola with a huge
speaker over it & a little white dog is listening to it.
Those were the days!
R.I.P. Bear
I think it could happen one day some billionaire possibly in Europe will buy PCGS and NGC (after it had got its feet wet buying ANACS and ICG) as part of a worldwide TPG, tie up CAC with lawsuits to keep their stickers off their product and run them off. People holding the old holders scrambling to move over to the new.....just think a worldwide TPG. The sticker / holder game would be something back in history like the days before slabbing.
I really liked TTR, started buying there in 1986 or shortly after it came out. A lot of my inventory at shows was TTR material and even dealers would come up to buy them. I still remember my old TTR ID number and remember bidding from a pay phone at an airport, on the sneak at work (it felt good to get paid bidding on TTR lol), or hotel. I buy a lot of nice material from GC, and sometimes it will sell in a week or so from my Ebay store or at some show I attend. I really like GC. TTR was one of the venues that put me straight to the source and I never looked back...
Now I can buy and sell with my iPhone.
Are any hedge funds showing an interest in collectibles or business related to collectibles?
I wouldn't be surprised if GC has had buy-out offers. Actually I don't think businesses that get bought out maintain the quality they had before from what I have seen. There may be exceptions.
Buy out to reduce the competition.
In a recent issue of Coinworld, a large national dealer ran an ad stating just this. I believe it was "We buy coin shops" , more or less. What an ad!
I think gov mint bought mcm...
It would seem that very few of the mergers or acquisitions in numismatics has really created value for the acquirer or for the merged entity. Save Ivy and Jim Halerpin merging to form Heritage being a notable exception.
Spectrum being the combination of Stacks, Bowers and Merena (QDB and Raymond Merena), Teletrade, Ponterio, and Spectrum Numismatics does not seem to have realized the same strategic acceleration through their consolidation.
Latin American Collection
I liked Teletrade because there was always some action going on...GC is good but the auctions run too long for me...3 days is sufficient...
One successful merger, although on the paper money side, was when Heritage bought out Currency Auctions of America (CAA) in 2001. Heritage wanted to make a serious entry into the paper money field and their solution was to buy the foremost auction house that dealt exclusively in paper money. Over 15 years later, two of the three major principals of CAA are still with Heritage and it is, by far, the largest auctioneer of paper money in the world.
Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA