Heritage now charging for using credit cards.
Fishpro
Posts: 389 ✭✭✭
They will be adding 2.5% for using your credit card, starting October 21st.
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Fishpro
Posts: 389 ✭✭✭
Comments
Ridiculous...as if the huge buyer's premium is not enough...
What about Paypal?
Did you see a press release?
So they're probably also ending the 1% discount for not using a credit card.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Not sure about PayPal.
Saw the message posted on the Coins home page.
Yup.
The liquidity vice turns a little tighter.
Maybe heritage will raise the max to $10,000 again.
Got lot's of miles on the CC before they cut back on that years ago - oh well.....
So we have 20-25% buyers premium, 7% sales tax, and another 2.5% for using the card.
Jeez, soon we won't have any money left for the actual bid.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Add the $20 shipping on a $400 coin.
Man, how can I forget about shipping fees.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Is that legal in NY State? It was my understanding that you could offer a cash discount but not a credit penalty. Or maybe they've changed that.
No matter, I've been forced to do electronic transfers ever since I registered my resale certificate.
Don't worry. All the business will go from eBay/Stack's/GC to eBay because they are cheaper!!!
As I understand: Surcharging is legal only on purchases where both the seller and the purchaser are in states that allow for the practice. Otherwise you would need to see the card merchant’s contract - I think American Express disallows merchant surcharges.
GC shows a CC included realized price and offers a cash discount off of that which seemingly is ok. Presumably Heritage will do the same.
Rules for Merchant surcharges
I would think Heritage could get a better rate than 2.5% on their merchant account. Mine is under 2.5%.
Which is basically a reverse way of charging the surcharge.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Heritage pricing themselves out ,, Cutout most of ebay, with their sales tax ,, use primarily GC
Yes, but it is consistent with existing laws which do not permit a surcharge but allow a discount.
Stopped buying from them years ago, this just strengthens my position.
EAC 6024
Will coin collectors be remembered as long as Custer?
I haven’t been newly active in the hobby for all that long - 6 or 7 years at the most. During that time Heritage has gone from one of my favorite ways to acquire coins to one of my least favored ways. I don’t begrudge any person or business the opportunity to make a fair profit, but the major auction houses have gotten greedy to the point that I’d prefer to do business elsewhere.
Pretty telling post. Maybe Mark Feld can respond.
Maybe you mistook the shipping costs for another (high end) item in your order
They may well be able to, but if they can charge 2.5%, they keep the difference. PayPal charges 2.9% and is certainly paying well below that. Everything left is profit.
Yeah, I consider Mark to be a great friend but I’m sure he has little or no say in the business model. Price increases are a routine part of many businesses, but in this case they’ve been numerous and relentless.
The net effect to me, as a potential buyer, is that the real cost of owning a coin goes way up if there isn’t a reasonable way to eventually sell it without taking it in the shorts. Collectors are propping up a very large and increasingly sophisticated industry that siphons off a ton of money in the process. Maybe I’m just jaded and maybe most of it is the current market, but it was MUCH easier to move coins I no longer wanted without taking a huge hit a few years ago. For me, greater transaction costs = less buying enthusiasm.
Add to this the new issues with sales tax and........ putting together albums from junk silver looks better & better.
I’m confused by the above comment, since as a buyer, I take into account the 20% buyers premium. So if I’m willing to pay $1,000 for a coin, I’ll place a maximum bid of only around $825 or so. In reality, it’s not the buyer, but it’s the seller that’s getting hit with that 20% buyers premium! Yes, the buyer now will get hit with the 2.5% credit card fee if not paying by eCheck, along with shipping, but don’t lump in the 20% bp to the buyer, as it’s really getting paid by the seller with a reduced hammer price adjusted for that bp.
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
I like Heritage but I do struggle to understand some of their pricing decisions. This 2.5% surcharge is like the $54.50 charge to post a single slabbed coin to New Zealand: obviously above their actual cost, which, of course, just annoys the client base. GC, by the way, charges $16.00 to post a single slabbed coin to NZ (same class).
Smitten with DBLCs.
I bought from them at the international show that used to be held in the spring
in Chicago. Credit Card payment was only accepted if the invoice was less
than $2500. Pay Pal was not an option, so I was told. Since I was a first time
customer, a Certified Cashiers check was acceptable.
The fees and charges will continue to seek "what the market will bear". It's business.
GC should also have to charge sales tax once they hit the threshold. It's not an eBay sales tax it's a STATE SALES TAX. [I remain baffled that people don't understand this.]
Is that Heritage or Stack's? The $2500 number is the one Stack's uses.
This is not exactly the same thing. PayPal is a payment processor, much like the CC company.
*
Typing in caps should make it sink in better.
simple solution, don't use a CC. that was easy.
Lol. Apparently not.
I blame you. HA! You keep making it sound like it's an ebay tax.
Lol. I agree. BUT, if you have a cashback 2% (or more) CC, it is still like you got a price increase.
All those add-on expenses is exactly why I never attend auctions.
Much cheaper to buy on the floor at a coin show.
Add also the fact that I don't trust a coin auction to be a 'true' auction and that about seals the deal for me.
"“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)
"I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
Ridiculous...as if the huge buyer's premium is not enough...
Another reason to avoid buying coins at auction.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
Looks like Great Collection has been getting more big coins in the past year. I know I would be doing business with GC before Heritage.
This is a logical fallacy. The cheaper coin is the coin with the lowest total price tag. It does not matter how that total cost is sliced.
I buy coins at Heritage all the time for less than they cost in the bourse floor.
I'm sure part of it is becoming a huge conglomeration just like our government has. Just think of all the overhead they have now compared to say 10 years ago.
Yes we know. Just back this new fee off your original bid. We've heard it a million times on here by all the intelligent people. But...
If nothing more, it is starting to take the fun out of the hobby. It's fun to browse auctions and look for new and interesting items.
Not at all fun to start thinking about all the add on fees that are beginning to look like my Verizon bill.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Problem is, as the transaction costs goes through the roof, there is less incentive to sell one's coins at least from the standpoint of the once active collector. In the early days of do-it -yourself online auctions (Ebay and Yahoo,) the savvy collector could switch out of one series and get into another for a cost of about 6%. If he tries that today at one of the major auction houses, He is in the 30% range (sales tax included) to sell off a decent but not spectacular set. Maybe 20% for a more significant group where he is negotiating a settlement well above hammer.
Taxation requirements imposed on the auctioneers is certainly not their fault, but still impacts performance. Suddenly keeping the Barber half set makes more sense than selling and getting into seated half dimes (for example.)
It's always an option to write one's state reps and ask for a coin exemption, like Illinois has.
The other thing I'm wondering is if this will incentivize more sellers to create their own websites, like using Shopify, to get around needing to collect taxes.
It’s an interesting issue. Not considering the legal angle, from a practical standpoint businesses can jeapordize their contracts with AMEX, Visa, etc. if they impose these fees on customers.
Would you buy a $1000 coin from a website run by someone you've never heard of? How would you even find the website? eBay still has eyeballs. Hard to reproduce that.
I'm thinking of a dealer I, and most people here, have heard of and recognize as one of the top dealers. Any guesses?