Has Teletrade turned into an expensive eBay?

Well, the showing in registry-grade Kennedy Halves was absolutely dismal tonight. I tracked 11 lots, all PR70DCAMS, and only 3 sold, and each only $5 over opening bid. Yikes.

At the beginning of the week, the opening bids on all of those coins was $6, but yesterday they were all bumped up - way up. So it wasn't a real auction after all, since many of the revised opening bids were significantly higher than what the exact same coins had sold for in the last 6 months on TT itself.

I really didn't appreciate the false carrot of low opening bids at the start of the week, and I'm sure it was intentional, because it got me to track the auctions, and I almost did enter a bid.

They better get smart quick.

 

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...there's always Heritage.

 

L&C got it right on eBay. Last week they put all their PR70DCAM Kennedys up with 0.99 opening bids. The bidding was lively and everything sold, at reasonable prices. This week they had a slew of 69s up and all of those sold as well.

TT needs to lower the opening bids and split the fees between the buyer and seller. Simple.

 

+1

 

TT use to be a great source of bargains regarding Morgans. With their new changes the opening bids on their Morgans are ridiculous - from a buyers perspective. No more good deals. I underbid their opening bids all the time but I never win anything - not that I expect to. It's time for me to find another auction source. Maybe ebay... I'm finished with TT.

 

Years ago I bought some key dates on TT when they had Tuesday auctions.
Since they got greedy I have not even looked at the auctions.
They lost me as a buyer but it won't hurt them one bit.

 

The high opening bids on TT are requested by the consignor, although perhaps TT should consider listing those high opening bids.

But this is not unique to TT. I see ridiculously high opening bids on eBay all the time.
Despite the high buyer's fee, I have found some good deals on TT from time to time, so I still look at it. But there is a high amount of lots that I would like to bid on but the opening bid is too high. But I also encounter that on eBay. It ultimately depends on the seller.

 

The stuff on teletrade these days seem to be overgraded and problem coins that somehow made it into holders. I see this on their early US copper. I dont collect much else, so I dont know if that speaks true for other series.

If I am ever going to pay a 17.5% fee, it will be to HA, where good pictures are taken and they are true auctions. I finished up with TT after they hiked up the fees and took away gold rewards. I still watch the auctions, but its always the same coins they cant seem to sell.

 

You pay a buyers fee no matter where you shop. Plus on heritage and teletrade you determine the price or value of the coin. Then subtract out the buyers fee and possibly even the shipping costs. Then that is what you bid on the coin. So if you think a coin is worth 117 then on heritage you bid $100 for a total of 117. Plus then you have shipping.

Now the coins on ebay just don't say - Hey my price includes a buyers fee and that is how I got the total. I'll take heritage over teletrade and very seldom will I use ebay. I like several dealers as much as heritage. Point in case I have watched several coins sell on heritage at x amount - go directly to ebay at a 20% to 30% mark up. Then sell on ebay. It is all built into the price along the way.

 

"Has Teletrade turned into an expensive eBay?"

Yes and No.

Yes in that everything is expensive whether its actually worth it or not.
No in the Teletrade now charges buyers a 17.5% buyers fee.

Hopefully, eBay doesn't start charging buyers a buyers fee.

Oh yeah, as for "expensive", I've seen MS65 1971-D IKE's on there starting at $90! $90 Dollars??

Tack 17.5% on to that along with a minimum $7.50 in shipping and handling and yer lookin at $113.25 in addition to whatever the sales taxes are!

I could only wish to sell an MS65 IKE for $113.25!

I think Teletrade whishes that as well since neither coin got a bid but then, under Teletrades "new" policies, those coins should never have been listed at all.

 

I quit TT a long time ago and moved on to Great Collections. I love GC, lowest Buyer's Premium among GC, TT and HA. And their shipping is cheap and FAST. I almost always have my coins from Sunday night's auction on Wednesday in N.C. from CA.

 

Um....I would talk to the state. That don't sound legal to me.

 

Shh...don't give them any ideas..

 

I like GC alot too. Think I've only won a single auction though.

 

When TT discontinued their no-bp auctions, I emailed them expressing my discontent. They never replied. Once I won a coin, and the slab had some kind of debris inside of it, it looked like candle wax. They were very snotty about trying to return it. They don't have very good customer service. When I won a few lots off great collections, they were very nice about answering some pre-bidding questions I had. Ian runs a tight ship over there.