The "TRUE" Difference between a Heritage and Ebay Auction..

I really want your expert takes on the differences between these two when going to buy or sell your coins..

Here's my quick snap take,

Ebay is low end, lots of stupid money to be made, but don't expect true quality or expect to pay great prices on higher end items like you would on Heritage.

Ebay however is GREAT for selling mostly I think.

Heritage I think is not that good if you want to sell lower-midrange coins because of the consigner fees but, you can find some great gems for great prices on that site..

Do your experiences match up with mine? Thoughts?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I'll also be taking notes from my recent ebay and Heritage searches on this thread but I have to say, I can spend HOURS sifting through ebay newly listed buy it nows and auctions and boy, do I get the impression the public/dealers know what they are selling. I just HOPE just HOPE to find someone who mispriced an item to capitalize on it.. Illini420 found it with the 1909 VDB MS64 RB PCGS priced at around $65 shipped a week ago. So it's possible, just not PROBABLE.

 

The difference is that while you have a chance, however slim a chance it may be, of getting a steal on eBay....there is virtually NO chance of that happening at Heritage. They know their business. eBay is a big salad...and every so often you encounter a real deal. Most of the time not...true...but the beauty of it is that there's no entrance exam.

I bought a complete silver washington quarter set last week INCLUDING the 32-D and 32-S for 7 dollars UNDER melt.

Nightowl

 

Would buy from Heritage..never from E-Bay..

 

No my experiences do not match up with yours. You can get good deals at both sites if you show patience. The difference is the client base is more experienced on Heritage. So they know the better coins. Now the difference between heritage and ebay is that heritage has auctions where the coins are graded in slabs with the issues. Which makes it easier. Now on Ebay the sellers crack them out of the problems slabs and say something like "you grade them". So since most people do not know what they are doing they overpay for them.

I don't think you mean mis-priced, but maybe priced lower or an auction you win at a lower rate. Mis-priced to me means you are looking for someone to make a mistake like a typo. That I would not do on purpose. But Cherrypicking or varieties are fair game. I would love to find an R-6, R-7 or R-8 coin in an auction to win. Those are out there, but they take a lot of work to find. Not only can you do that on ebay, but dealers also - since they do not attribute everything.

 

Thank You. Somebody needs to support Heritage....and leave the "junk" to me.

Nightowl

 

heritage used to put alot of their coins on ebay, still still sell some of them there

 

Heritage did? Or the buyers of Heritage auctioned coins?

 

At any given time you can find some of the finest American coins in the world on Ebay.

case in point:
http://cgi.ebay.com/5-DECADES-OF-WH...mQQptZCoins_US_Individual?hash=item27acdd380d

 

Heritage used to make their signature sale lots available on E-Bay Live which carried a higher buyer's premium than purchasing directly through Heritage.

I used to bid on the Goldberg auctions using E-Bay Live but Goldberg has since switched to I-Collector.

Goldberg requires all bidders to be pre-approved. Heritage does not under a certain $ amount. Why anyone would bid on a Heritage lot using E-Bay rather than simply registering for free as a Heritage user is beyond me.

 

um.. yeah.
lol

 

Actually, I found a seller selling 1909 VDB Lincolns in PCGS MS65RB for $65 shipped. Big difference between 64RB and 65RB. That's part of the trick, you need to really learn and know the prices of a given coin or area of coins so that you can just know a good deal when you see it. And it's not just about someone making a mistake and mispricing an item, it's just about knowing the market better than the other person.

For those VDB Lincolns I bought, the seller was happy to sell each for $65 as they probably bought them even cheaper or made them themselves by submitting to PCGS. Upon seeing them listed I bought all that were listed by the seller because I knew they are really $75-$100 or so coins and I'd get to keep the best of the bunch and sell the rest and make a few bucks.

 

Oh.. My mistake, Mike.. My mistake.. I know there is a big difference from 64 to 65 I just had made a typo.. Well, anyway, getting a 65 for 65 on ebay is a darn good deal!!

 

Originally, eBay Live was useful as a way for people to bid live in Heritage Signature auctions against the floor, but with the advent of Heritage Live, that advantage went away. However, the way the auctions had to be posted also meant that people placed proxy bids through eBay, and all that did was cost them (and us) money and frustration. I lost count of the number of people who called asking about bidding on eBay who I then persuaded to sign up with us directly and (potentially) pay a smaller Buyer's Premium.

In any event, eBay Live went bye-bye at the beginning of the year, which caused absolutely zero tears here at Heritage Auctions. I would guess that this is why the Goldbergs are using I-Collector (which eBay Live was built upon).

In the past, we also listed occasional items in regular eBay auctions; I do not know whether we still do that, at least with coins.

 

I have to agree. There is a lot of junk, but theres also some really respected dealers of some really spectacular coins who use Ebay.

The biggest difference between the two for me, is unless you use one of the better known Ebay dealers, there's always that gamble....not knowing for sure what may arrive in the mail, if it arrives at all. I never have that worry with Heritage.
Guy~

 

Oh I think the difference is about $1,000. Traci

 

There are good coins on eBay, but I was joking (click on the link).

 

Difference is obvious to me.
I sell on eBay because there is no need to sell on Heritage. Heritage is more of a high end type of auction site...Why sell some crap on there and in the end basically come up with nothing? I'd rather sell on feebay, and hope for some snipers to at least drive the price up.
Most of the time I LOOK for coins to BUY, I will go pretty much anywhere to find a good deal.