I have always been a collector but since I retired last year am selling off my coin collection. I started consigning my low dollar coins to Teletrade but am wondering which auction house would be best to consign high dollar coins to between Teletrade, Heritage or David Lawrence? Thank You in advance, Robert
I agree with Heritage. A lot of dealers and collectors view Teletrade as the dreck auction site. Although I don't agree, I believe Heritage will garner you the best exposure if you have truly high end coins.
One thing to remember about Heritage is that they are, if not the Walmart of Auction houses for lower value coins, they tend to act like it. If you have high value (I'm talking 5 digits beyond the decimal point) coins, see what they will do for you, other than 1) have your coins sent off for grading (which, I believe you end up paying for), 2) take pictures, 3) have someone write a short paragraph description and 4) put it in one of their sales. From what I've seen, high value coins do tend to get consigned to auctions associated with specific nationally known coin shows. The rest get put in their weekly auctions (sometimes without photos). Unless they put it in writing, don't assume they will do any advertising of your coins (beyond what could be as short as a couple of sentences). If your coins are high value coins, talk to the other major auction houses (Stacks-Bowers, Goldberg, etc) and see what they will do and then compare their offer(s) to Heritage.
It also makes a difference as to what the total value of the coins being consigned is. Heritage will only accept lots worth $5000 and up, most other auction houses have similar rules with varying limits, some higher, some lower. And what the coins are makes a difference. Are they all US or are there some world coins as well ? Gold, silver, copper, or a mix ? All of these things matter. Auction houses are just like dealers and collectors, some specialize in certain areas and will garner you better results than others.
I haven't auctioned coins with Heritage, but we have used them to auction other items. I just wanted to chime in and say that I thought they were very professional and overall it's one of my favorite auction houses.
There is also Stacks/Bowers and Scotsman to consider. Personally, I would contact all of them and see who would give me the best deal. Who says that competitive bidding only comes from buyers? Chris
If I were in your shoes, I would consign my high-dollar coins to Heritage. DL (and some of the others mentioned in this thread) would be 2nd, and Teletrade would be a distant third. If your coins are not worth $5k, you might consider working through a dealer who does that amount of volume (and likely has better terms than you ever could get from Heritage).
Answer Thanks to everyone for the polite and informative responses. Teletrade, Heritage and DL are the auction houses that I assembled my collection from over the years. By high dollar coins I mean over $2000 and up to $9000 I paid for a particular coin. I seem to detect a little antagonism toward Teletrade by the responders with an affinity toward Heritage. I have bought some very nice coins from DL but already know that is not the place to sell them. I wish to ask why Heritage is better than Teletrade to consign my high dollar coins to. Thanks again, Robert
Simply put - because there are some who think that Teletrade only sells bottom end (low for the grade) coins. So those folks don't even bother looking at the coins on Teletrade. And - for the kind of coins you are talking about you will realize better prices on Heritage than you will on Teletrade. And - if your consignment is large enough, Heritage will make you a better deal than Teletrade will. Heritage sometimes will even offer 105% of hammer price. But like we said, check around and ask them. Not just Heritage, and not just Teletrade, ask everybody !
Again, I don't have coin experience with them, but when we ran into a problem with Heritage they were extremely kind about making amends. Without even being asked, they waived shipping charges that would have been in excess of $75 and continued to follow up throughout the process to make sure that all proceeded smoothly. I personally liked their attention to detail which I think is important when you have to trust an unknown person/company with your valuables.
To clarify, our minimum total consignment value is $5,000. Individual lots can be of any value, within reason (I wouldn't recommend consigning anything worth under about $100).
