greatcollections.com

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Coll3ctor, May 27, 2021.

  1. johnmilton

    johnmilton Well-Known Member

    I have never bought from them, but I would take Great Collectors over eBay by a wide margin. Great Collections has a good reputation. eBay is whom ever the seller is, which could be a total crook.

    Also, if I know who the dealer is, I will go to him directly and ofter get a better deal with eBay out of the way getting their cut.
     
    wxcoin likes this.
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  3. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    I believe they have it intentionally blocked. Personally as a buyer or seller I would want it allowed as it will get higher prices for sellers, and for buyers it allows you to bid on multiple things ending very close together
     
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  4. Burton Strauss III

    Burton Strauss III Brother can you spare a trime? Supporter

    Wonderful site, excellent selections, and amazing customer service.

    People have posted about issues here Friday night and they've been fixed by Saturday morning.
     
  5. Santinidollar

    Santinidollar Supporter! Supporter

    I’ve bought quite a few coins over there. Low buyer premium, nice coins and great service!
     
  6. cplradar

    cplradar Talmud Chuchum

    I'm not paying the buyers fee. I understand that dealers are getting fustrated with ebay, but frankly, as a buyer, I don't care. I have been able to return ebay purchases without trouble more than once. I can check previous auction results. None of these guys are giving me what I REALLY want which is proof of pedgree and non-annonymous sales... not to mention cooperation in ferreting out hot coins and merchandise. So they all suck and are rife with fraud.
     
    john65999 likes this.
  7. Mkman123

    Mkman123 Well-Known Member

    love greatcollections. I love their selection of world crowns that people send to them for consignment, lots of great stuff lately
     
  8. Revello

    Revello Well-Known Member

    I use Great Collections and Stack's Bowers pretty often for purchases. Haven't bought anything yet from Heritage. Only drawback for Great Collections is that if you want to buy raw coins (for a Dansco album, or whatever), that's a no go at GC. Only slabbed coins. Purchasing raw coins is always a risky bet on Ebay or other online auction platforms such as Proxibid, Hibid, Liveauctioneers, or Auctionzip. Sometimes, if you're willing to buy a details coin in slab and then crack it for your album slot, GC also serves well as they offer slabbed details coins, often at reasonable prices.

    Example of one of my purchases of a details coin for my large cent album - hard to find 1834 Lg 8, Lg Stars, Med Ltrs large cent, which I got at a reasonable price.

    Obverse of 1834 Lg Cent.jpg
     
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  9. Jim Dale

    Jim Dale Well-Known Member

    I bought many graded coins from ebay. I am familiar with many of the sellers and those that have what I am looking for, and those sellers have it in stock, I will buy from them, even if the price is a little higher. I don't like auctions and have never bought anything from an auction, other than Louis L'Amour books. (I have all of his books, and have several duplicates, bought in a batch.)
    I buy my coins from ebay "BUY IT NOW" options so I know exactly what I have to pay. I may get a better deal through an auction, but I don't like them.
    My contact with ebay started several years ago. It was before the new owners took over and lost the premise that the original owners had set. I bought select MFSL 180 gram LPs from them. I had to bid more than I should have though. I also bought plastic model airplanes from them. I did bid on them and got great deals. But, when ebay changed hands, I quite bidding. I also found the prices were jacked up.
    Back to coins on ebay, I like to buy silver coins and I like to have a set, i.e., I got all the FDR Silver Dimes (1946-1964). I'm working on "Mercury" Dimes (1916-1945) and Washington Silver Quarters (1932-1964). I did get all of the "War Silver Alloy" Nickels (1942-1945), and several others. I like to complete them with NGC coins to that they set together. Many, many of these coins came from ebay, and I never had to return any. Anyway, maybe I need to check out GC, how are their prices compared to ebay. Are they all for bidding?
     
  10. For the specific coin types I am looking for (not US coinage), eBay and VCoins are the best. I use MA-shops too, but I tend toward US-based transactions if at all possible.

    I usually shop eBay first, identify a coin in which I have interest, investigate the seller (as best as one can), and then add the item to my watchlist (if the seller checks out).

    My next step is to then search the same coin type on Vcoins.

    Sometimes, I find a better example for the same money at Vcoins… sometimes, not, in which case it’s back to eBay for the purchase.

    I have searched Great Collections several times for the coins in which I am interested. Very small selection of those and grossly (grossly) overpriced for condition and scarcity.
     
  11. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    Depends what it is. Some things are cheaper on average some are more expensive on average.

    Pretty much everything is an auction
     
  12. Jim Dale

    Jim Dale Well-Known Member

    I'm going to need help on knowing how to do an auction to buy coins. At 73, I've only purchased a very few things through an auction. Reading the Forums on Coin Talk scares me that first of all, will I get a fake coin. I hate the idea that I will have to know how to identify a fake coin. Most of you have been collecting coins for quite a while. I didn't start coin collecting until 9 years ago, and only then bought from the Mint. The other thing that makes me hesitate is knowing how much a coin is worth. The Red Book isn't as good a source as it use to be because prices are all over the place because of coin-flation. The price so fluid and changes so rapidly, you can't know what it is worth while trying to bid on it.
     
  13. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    You dont have to worry about that from the legit auction houses Great Collections/Heritage/Stacks/Legend/David Lawrence types. Basically everything is already graded anyways

    There's sales histories for most things already on the sites you can look for.

    There's also this
    https://www.pcgs.com/auctionprices

    But it's just the the BIN listings on ebay just pick a price youre comfortable with and if you win you win if you dont you dont. Just keep in mind most auction houses have buyers premiums
     
    Revello likes this.
  14. johnmilton

    johnmilton Well-Known Member

    The legitimate auctions houses back their coins with a guarantee of authenticity. Many years ago, I bought a raw "1798 dime" from a dealer. He had bought the piece in an auction that was run by Dave Bowers. I sold the piece to client who sent it to ANACS. It came back fake.

    I had to spend about 10 minutes with the piece before I could see what was wrong with it. It only graded Fine-VF, but it was a darn good fake.

    I returned it to the dealer from whom I had purchased it. He refunded my money. He went to Bowers and got a full refund despite the fact the auction had been over for almost a year. I can't speak for other auction houses, but Bowers stood behind his "forever guarantee."


    Chances are very slim that you will end up with a fake coin if it is in a PCGS or NGC holder. I know that some fake coins in those holders have been posted here, but those instances are very rare.

    I would stay away from most problem coins that in "details" holders. Pieces like that provide the best chance for a counterfeiter to get their product certified because they have opportunities to alter the fake to make it look real. Many of the fake coins in genuine holders got in there because they were altered.

    At best The Red Book can only give you relative prices. For example an 1877 Indian Cent sells for more than other dates.

    One of the best places to look for prices is PCGS Coin Facts, which is on-line. They have auction results for every major U.S. coin from over a period of years. If you are into really inexpensive stuff, you can subscribe to "Coin World." They issue a monthly magazine that provides retail prices.

    "The Coin Dealer Newsletter" is expensive, and some people say it's inaccurate. I can't speak to that because I've not been very active in the U.S. coin market for a while.

    And yes, I am close to your age, and I have been collecting or dealing for over 60 years.
     
    markr, wxcoin, -jeffB and 1 other person like this.
  15. john65999

    john65999 Well-Known Member

    bid on there a lot, win sometimes, they have a buyers fee which sometimes is almost as much as the coin if under 10.00, lol other than that they have been cool with me, even let me pay on lay away one time i had 4 months to pay for my wins..to date i probably won maybe 20 items from them as opposed to thousands on ebay..and also they do not have raw coins..so there is that as well
     
  16. john65999

    john65999 Well-Known Member

    i use pcgs photograde for grading and numismedia, their prices are more realistic than pcgs or redbook, redbook is good for varities and mintages and that is it!!
     
  17. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    12.5% with a $5 minimum.
     
  18. john65999

    john65999 Well-Known Member

    like i said, iffin ye get a coin for 5.00 or 7.00, the fee is almost as much as the coin, though most of theirs go sky high...saw a proof ike over a half dollar error go for 15k and change...but they do have a few inexpensive coins as well
     
  19. Casman

    Casman Well-Known Member

    Only encountered a few issues as of late. Unilateral change to the selected grading tier. Special instructions not being followed. I’ve referred several people during the year and I’ve gotten lots of flack regarding messed up submissions and a rude CSR.
     
  20. micbraun

    micbraun coindiccted

    34223EF4-654D-4CF1-A9E3-9376CF13E94F.jpeg
     
  21. Casman

    Casman Well-Known Member

    So if I got this right he wants the seller’s home address, birth certificate and their dog? Seems a bit unreasonable.
     
    john65999 likes this.
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