My Review of Great Collections
oldslab
Posts: 22 ✭✭
I have been a customer since 2024.....bought 451 coins...sold 106....returned a coin....had a shipment lost and great collections refunded.....great place to buy and sell coins...no sales tax and no 1099 form....i would give them A+ reviews in a areas...
21
Comments
Double post, sorry
Happy to hear all the great reviews on them
It’s good to hear when collectors are happy.
Sales tax (or the lack thereof) should depend upon factors outside of the control of the seller, and to my knowledge, it would be out of the ordinary for an auction house to issue a 1099.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Ian and the GC folks are fantastic to deal! I agree!
I have sold nearly 200 coins thru GC in last 5 years. Ian has treated me as professionally yet friendly as any business I have dealt with. What few issues have occurred were immediately resolved. Cannot say enough for this sales venue. Best of luck to all users and to Ian's organization.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
I would add that settlements have been very fast. Shipping is lightning fast. Bought a coin Sunday and I will have it in hand tomorrow, Wednesday. Great business model. I wish all businesses were run as well.
GC is rock solid. I’ve had all three of my submissions go extremely well. I’ve also purchased around 60 coins since they launched. I’ve yet to have any issues at all. Their site gets better and better, and the photography is amazing, as we all know. A1+++
Dave
I have been using GC (among many other sources) for a number of years. I have never been disappointed in them.
But, yes, they do collect and remit sales tax, at least for this Washington resident.
Just don't send them coins with non-CAC stickers as they tend to remove most of them without warning you.
Most others, yes, but they do not remove Rick Snow’s Eagle Eye Photo Seal’s (@EagleEye).
Steve
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
They call you now. Ian called me a few weeks ago to politely request the CMQ removal and explained as to why.
This is the coin...
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Been a satisfied buyer at GC few times, but I've never yet consigned to them. They'd likely be my first choice to do that, were I ever to auction any of my US coins. But for my World and Ancients, I dunno... I wonder if Darkside stuff would get as much exposure on GC as they would on Heritage?
Kind of a moot point for now, since I'm not really selling at the moment. My recent selloffs have been single pieces here and there, mostly on the CU and CoinTalk BST forums.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
What was the why?
I agree that other alternatives should be explored when considering other than US Federal, especially a sizable specialized collection. Call it a hunch, but I don’t see much of interest outside of their sweet spot.
I've only been a buyer so far, but having nothing but praise for them!
I echo others positive remarks and would add their shipping rates are very reasonable, particularly when compared to other auction houses.
I've already posted my two thumbs up for Great Collections on this forum:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1120314/two-thumbs-up-to-great-collections#latest
I'm both a happy purchaser and consigner.
I like GC and have bought a lot of coins from them that I succeeded in getting good retail sales / nice margin on them.
They shipped to me even before I paid, has that happened to anyone? Is there a dollar threshold whereby they ship regardless if payment is made?
I’m not complaining, just thought it was strange
It's been discussed here on this forum a few times over the last couple of years since CMQ was created - a couple of links below for reference...
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1102037/greatcollections-scraped-off-my-cmq-sticker
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1116051/cmq-label
I posted the gist of the phone call elsewhere, here's what I said about the 1903-O pictured above...
"On the GC Consignment form, I had requested that they retain the CMQ sticker for possible added value & prestige. I had read that GC will remove stickers other than CAC… MAC, Sight White, & QA stickers come to mind – but CMQ?. More on QA in a sec…
Then the phone call came (I’m paraphrasing below). Ian was polite, yet straightforward with requesting permission to remove the CMQ sticker before imaging for auction. Noting that CMQ is a non-independent, in-house service under Stack’s Bowers, a dealer. I said, “well, Stack’s is a competitor of yours, so it makes sense” – “No, not at all, I Know & work with them”, etc… He reiterated that CAC is independent which matters, and no verification service even comes close, adds proven market value, etc.. (which I knew & agreed), and that slabs can get cluttered with too many stickers. I can agree. He also said that JA (John Albanese-CAC founder) was a mentor of his for years…JA is an amazing grader and coin expert…
I then said “I have won top-pop moderns (Kennedy’s), that have a QA sticker attached”, etc..”Yes, however (QA) is not a dealer and is independent”. He continued.. “If I could do it again, I wouldn’t have the QA stickers stay”, etc (Paraphrasing)…
So for now, at GC it’s CAC (& Snow's Eagle Eye) for the Classics & QA for the Moderns, FYI…"
As of last week the list is: We recognize CAC, Eagle Eye Photo Seal, WINGS, QA and VSS only.
Thanks @ProofCollection
I’m not sure I see the downside of leaving the Stacks sticker alone. I’m aware of its dubious value but would simply ignore it and would remove it myself as clutter. However, if only a few fans are out there, one might get a little more action.
My favorite.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
@MFeld (and @ianrussell if he's reading)
**Auction houses that offer to sell merchandise (including numismatic and precious metals items) owned by others and serve as a third-party payment network between the owner of the merchandise sold and the purchaser of the merchandise (i.e. the funds pass through the auction house instead of direct between the seller and buyer) are almost certain to experience an explosion of forms to file by early 2024.
Further, it is quite possible that any coin dealers who handle merchandise on behalf of consignors may also have to file a Form 1099-K for merchandise consigned by a single owner and then sold by the dealer in excess of $600 for all items that together total at least $600 for a calendar year.**
The above was taken from this article in Numismatic News
https://www.numismaticnews.net/coin-market/irs-imposes-more-paperwork-on-dealers
www.brunkauctions.com
In late 2023 (well before Phil joined), I made a negative comment about a GC photo, prompting Ian to ask me about it. I explained my position and provided additional examples to further it. At the end of my reply, I included the paragraph below. I never received a response. I appreciate that many folks here like GC and laud their customer service, but unfortunately I haven't had the same experience.
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I've received the "Great Collections Misses You" email many times. I finally wrote back after receiving it for the umpteenth in December of last year [2022]. I spent 30-45 minutes putting together feedback about why I don't buy (or, frankly, look at) GC. You likely sell coins I'm interested in, but I don't bother to look. I assumed my feedback would at least be acknowledged. It wasn't. But you sent me the email again in February of this year [2023], so I replied a second time, this time from a different email just in case the first one got filtered to spam and was never seen. I heard nothing, again. Then in April I sent you a message here, just in case both emails were missed. I never heard back. I spent a signficant amount of time trying to offer thoughts to a company I've never patronized in the hopes that perhaps some changes would be made that could make me a customer, or better yet, improve the experience to get more business from existing customers and bring in new ones. I was completely ignored. It's a shame that the only way to be acknowledged is to levy criticism in public.