Featured GreatCollections Review

I do not post reviews Ever but the service and outcome I have recently experienced at GreatCollections has motivated me to post a POSITIVE review about Ian Russell (GC President) and GreatCollections.

Let me start by setting the tone. I'm in an industry that is highly litigious and I normally hear more about the negative than the positive. In my environment, first class service and communication is the key. I received both of these from Ian at GC thus this post.

Ian has consistently overly impressed me with his communication. I send emails direct to him (his email address is on the website) and he typically responds within a day (sometimes within hours). I typically ask direct questions and expect a direct response. Ian replies with an email that could only be described as "Southern Hospitality" with the answer to my questions as well as some additional insight.

My most recent submittal worked out very well for me. One of the coins sold for about 2x PCGS price guide value. Coin Porn Below!!!

I just sent in 38 raw coins for grading and auction to Ian. I am shipping out another nine graded coins Monday.

I have seen several posts here recently where there were some cherry picks on GC. I have now been on the lookout and hopefully I find one too!

I am tired of typing and you are probably tired of reading. Long story short.... GreatCollections is Superior to Ebay, Heritage, etc. due to their client base, marketing, and very low fees when compared to the others.

Pics below from GC.... they are good!

Here is the porn:

 

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Their fees are higher than eBay in all areas. They're higher in other areas compared to the others as well.

It all depends on what you are selling for what venue is better. There are MANY areas and price points where eBay is far superior fee wise and for what a seller nets especially for coins 1k or below.

There are also areas where Legend or Heritage even with paying a slightly higher fee would net the seller more especially with mid 5 figure and up coins.

As far as marketing goes though Heritage, Stacks, and Legend all blow them out of the water with marketing. They actually have descriptions, sometimes floor bidding, catalogs ect, GC takes two pictures and lists it and if your lucky you get a picture on the front page in the scrolling screen shots or a post from them in the BST section on CU.

Your pics are showing some great coins that would do well no matter where they where sold.

Pretty much everyone will agree that they are a more accessible and friendly venue than some of the elite auction houses, but that said there are also a lot of threads around and a lot of sellers that had very different experiences in terms of prices realized.

 

I've been really happy with all my consignments there. I'm not a coin dealer who needs to maximize every cent to keep the lights on so I appreciate their quick turnaround and painless process a lot and don't worry if I could have squeezed out an extra $50 by letting it sit on ebay for 6 months. Personally I send them anything over $500-1k or so and anything else I'll just list myself on ebay. Have never had an issue on ebay but if I ever do would prefer it to not be with an expensive (for me) coin so that's a great benefit of just shipping those ones off to GC and not worrying about anything.

Again, it's not my main reason for sending them consignments since like mentioned in posts above the hammer is going to be pretty similar no matter the venue, but I have gotten some great prices on coins. Coins that have sat on my ebay for months without even an offer have sold on GC for hundreds more than my OBO price (the price I would have accepted ~10% less on).

 

I agree with Ibet. I've recently started selling all coins over $250 on GC. The rest go on Ebay. I disagree with the OP on fees. In my Ebay store, I get hit with around 13.5% as a seller. On GC, its 5% for those under $1k and 0% for those over. ADVANTAGE GC. On eBay, there is no fee to buyers; On GC, the buyer pays 12.5%, which is a disadvantage for the buyer. One would think that the buyer would price the GC fee into their bid; however, the coins on GC sell for more than Ebay and that's not including the buyers fee. Hence, I'm going to follow this model going forward. Forget Stacks & Heritage.....their fees are borderline usurious!

 

Great Collection misrepresents their so called grading auction program, if your coins are not silver or gold high dollar coins do not bother to send your raw coins to them. Little do they know we sent 58 raw coins that were thoughtfully picked by someone that works in the same arena as Ian, some were not worth much but some were worth quite a bit just for the high grade. They excepted the coins ,to logging them in then rejecting them. Not to mention oh yah unsuitable for the auction i had to tell them to send them back already. We sent the photos of the coins elsewhere and most are sold. Since when is a 1982 smd copper cent, a 1992 close am cent, not suitable for auction i believe they didnt even bother to look but dont lie about it. Bad business almost prudish.

 

Welcome to CT, Lori.

Steve

 

I've only been a buyer at GC but their customer service has been first rate.

 

I’ve only bought from GC, but my experiences have been good.

 

Post them here so we can see what GC rejected.

 

My only quibble is that some of their auctions last 30 days -- maybe more !!

Why let them last that long ?

 

Ditto....bought a couple of those Saint-Gaudens Silver Commemorative coins, got a decent price and it was nice not to be gouged at 20% and then expensive S&H.

So nice when the Total Bill is not much different than the price you won the item at !

 

I see a couple of reasons: 1) potential buyers on GC don’t care about modern cents and the seller would be better off selling them somewhere else. 2) As the cents were raw, the variety would have to be confirmed by a TPG service first, right? 3) They don’t want to sell low value items on their web site to differentiate GC from eBay and other venues.

 

Because the consignor wants it that way. That didn't start becoming widespread on a lot of them until things started shutting down. Everything that was active when they thought they had to shut down for a while was also changed to 30 days

 

I see lots of quality stuff with NO BIDS because they have 22 or 28 or 34 days to end.

Nobody seems to want to bid when an item has WEEKS (if not months) to run. I know I don't.

 

I have been a buyer of coins on GC. The coins are 85% just what I thought they were, 10% better than expected and 5% worse. Sometimes the pictures are "overexposed" and hide flaws that are obvious when you have the coin in hand. Sometimes the attribution (Full Bands and Steps) are borderline but that is the TPG not GC's fault. The staff is extremely nice, pleasant and always helpful. I get prompt answers to my inquiries. I would highly recommend GC as a buyer to others.

 

Two weeks ago I sent off a good-sized box to GC for consignment, about forty coins and six notes. In a couple of months I'll be able to give a review of how things went.

Steve

 

I can only speak as a bidder/buyer, not a consignor: I have found GC to be responsive and businesslike. I have corresponded with Ian by email and found him very responsive.

I agree that the coin photos are often over-exposed so my determination of a coin's desirability takes that into account, i.e. if I have a doubt it colors whether I bid and how much I bid.

I suspect that a bidder/buyer perspective can differ markedly from that of a consignor.

 

Welcome to the neighborhood, RBR! ~ Chris