Has anyone received a letter from Heritage outlining why they are #1 and masters of their domain?

Longacre · April 28, 2005 10:38PM

I got a letter from Hertiage signed by Steve Ivy with a very nice auto-pen, and it is basically a point by point analysis as to why Heritiage is #1 in a bunch of different areas in the coin auction business, such as having more active clients, best website, , best catalogs, etc. What I found interesting was in the first paragraph it mentioned that "Heritage has always taken the high road when discussing competitors, but now several firms have attempted to copy our advertisements and mimic the way we do business...", and that is why the letter is being written to clients. Does anyone know which competitors of Heritage have been doing such things? Also, has anyone else received this letter, or did they only send it to clients that make high six figure purchases per year with Heritage?

mhammerman · April 28, 2005 10:42PM

Yes, I got one a couple of days ago. My feeling after scanning over it was that they were trying pretty hard to convince the reader that they are the very best at what they do. Also, last week, I got a nice little gift from B&M for filling out a questionaire...a 1/10 oz gae. There must be some bucks in all of this or folks wouldn't be trying so hard to smooth us out of our coins.

LeeG · April 28, 2005 10:54PM

Got my letter two days ago. Had some good points. But I can't get past this thought: With all the money they make the could increase sales by hiring some good photographers? They are the worst when it comes to coin photography. Has anyone notified them of this?

hyperizer · April 28, 2005 10:54PM

I got one and I buy very little from Heritage....

Barry · April 28, 2005 11:00PM

<<

Got my letter two days ago. Had some good points. But I can't get past this thought: With all the money they make the could increase sales by hiring some good photographers? They are the worst when it comes to coin photography. Has anyone notified them of this? >>

I got it also.

Reagrding your question, I got a phone call from Bob Marino a few months ago, trying to drum up some auction business, and I told him point blank that I'd probably never sell through Heritage because their pics are so poor. He seemed very surprised by my comment (guess he never looked at his own auction pics) and said he'd pass it along.

mirabela · April 28, 2005 11:01PM

Yes. I think they used an ANA-derived mailing list too, because in the past I've given Heritage a different mailing address than the ANA, and it came addressed as my ANA mail does.

coinmickey · April 28, 2005 11:02PM

got one and I buy very little from Heritage....

Ditto...it went into the round file.

RYK · April 28, 2005 11:04PM

Also, has anyone else received this letter, or did they only send it to clients that make high six figure purchases per year with Heritage?

I also received it (twice) and do not make high six figure purchases with Heritage.

LeeG · April 28, 2005 11:14PM

<< and I told him point blank that I'd probably never sell through Heritage because their pics are so poor. >>

Thanks Barry. I guess change comes slowly? Also I didn't get a free pen?

BAJJERFAN · April 28, 2005 11:22PM

<<"Reagrding your question, I got a phone call from Bob Marino a few months ago, trying to drum up some auction business, and I told him point blank that I'd probably never sell through Heritage because their pics are so poor. He seemed very surprised by my comment (guess he never looked at his own auction pics) and said he'd pass it along.">>

If they spent any amount of time here they would they woulda realized that their pics were poor long ago.

GAT · April 28, 2005 11:22PM

I receive so much spam from Heritage, both on Internet and by mail, that I automatically delete the E-mail and toss the letters into file 13 without reading.

BASEagle · April 29, 2005 1:34AM

<< did they only send it to clients that make high six figure purchases per year with Heritage? >>

Yeah, that must be it! LOL

No, they sent it to people like me who make low two and three figure purchases, too.

Mike

Longacre · April 29, 2005 1:50AM

I was just kidding about the high six figure purchases. I guess no one caught that!

BuffQuarter · April 29, 2005 2:21AM

Why anyone would consign to them is beyond me. I'm surely not going to consign my small but nice Standing Lib Quater set to them, just to have it buried in a phonebook sized catalog, and then have to photographs look terrible as well.

dwssws · April 29, 2005 3:19AM

I received one and I have never bought anything from them

ss350camaro · April 29, 2005 3:23AM

<< I received one and I have never bought anything from them >>

ditto

i've bid but never won

coinguy1 · April 29, 2005 3:23AM

<< I was just kidding about the high six figure purchases. I guess no one caught that! >>

I caught it, alright - I know you didn't want to let on that you are really in the 7 figure (or is it 8 figure?) group

grip · April 29, 2005 3:45AM

If I kept all the auction books they send me,I would have no room for coins.
Al

TommyType · April 29, 2005 3:54AM

<< If I kept all the auction books they send me,I would have no room for coins.
Al >>

Catalogs? I didn't know they published catalogs!!

I just get this email when a new auction is posted.

"As a bidder in previous Heritage Auctions, you might be interested to know that the catalog for the _____ Signature Auction; Signature Auction #___ has been posted on the Heritage website"

I feel special.

K6AZ · April 29, 2005 3:54AM

I got a phone call from them a few days ago. First trying to drum up auction consignments, then offering their buyer credit. I brought up the imaging problem as well, which fell on deaf ears.

Vet · April 29, 2005 4:00AM

I have only bought 1 coin from them. I got the letter yesterday to

swhuck · April 29, 2005 9:05AM

Folks, we pay attention to these boards, and we hear the complaints about our images. We are always striving to improve our images, and we are exploring a number of technologies and processes that will allow us to deliver more crisp and detailed pictures than ever before.

Dark copper and toned coins, as you might expect, cause the most problems. Proper lighting is the issue, and we are trying to make the coin look exactly as it is and not any better. We often find that we can make a better image but it isn't truly representative of the coin. And, unfortunately, many older coppers and toned silver coins tend to be nearly black in color, which means that although you may be able to see plenty of detail if you examine the coin first hand, they may initially show up poorly in our images.

As you probably know, our Pan and Zoom feature allows you to interactively enlarge the image of a coin. If you use Pan and Zoom, you can also lighten the image of a dark coin. There are four settings, ranging from normal to Level III (lightest), provided to the right side of the obverse image. I've found that for most dark coins, level II works very well.

We are always looking for ways to improve our images and we appreciate any comments you might have.

K6AZ · April 29, 2005 9:09AM

<< We are always looking for ways to improve our images and we appreciate any comments you might have. >>

There are several accomplished coin photographers on this board, many of whom I would suspect would be thrilled to work for a large coin firm.

Barry · April 29, 2005 9:55AM

Stewart,
With all due respect, you don't need any new technologies and processes. All you need is someone who knows how to take coin pictures. There are plenty of superb photos posted on this board daily, taken with digicams, copy stands, and illumination costing under $1000, total.

Has anyone received a letter from Heritage outlining why they are #1 and masters of their domain?

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