Back in early December I sent 100+ PCGS/NGC certified coins to Great Collections for consignment. Before I go further I want to say that I've had good experiences as both a buyer and seller with them over the past 10+ years. One thing I noticed right away was that it took longer to get the coins listed for auction. I have no issue with that since the most likely explanation is that their business has grown with more consignments being received for auction. When the coins finally got listed, 90 were scheduled for the January 29th auction and the other 30 for the February 5th auction. After the January 29th auction was completed I noticed that the February 5th auction only listed 29 coins and that one of the coins, an 1865 3CN was flagged as being returned to seller. Of course I was surprised as this was a coin that I had sent in to NGC a number of years for certification and shouldn't have any ownershop issues. I sent a message to GC and got a reply stating that the coin was wrongly listed as a 3 cent silver by NGC. Huh? I had the coin in my NGC registry and they properly listed it. So after the February 5th auction the coin in question showed up in the February 19th auction listing in which it was subsequently sold. Now here is my issue with this. As far as value, 90+% of the money coming to me came from the January 29th auction. As of the time of this post, I have yet to receive any payment from them. They state on their website that payment to consigners are within 30 days from end of an auction. Obviously, they were holding payment until the last item was sold. It seems a bit fishy to me that one coin was pulled out, delaying getting the payment to me; the longer they hold my funds they can collect interest on the money. So the question here is, "Is it just me thinking that they are playing games with my money?". Again, I've had good experiences with GC and am in no way trying to bash them here.
I would probably wonder if they were playing games with my money if it were me. They may or may not be, but the thought would certainly cross my mind.
It's definitely an unusual case. I think they have seen large volume increases, which explains why it takes longer to list coins for auction. However, I don't know what would cause them to flag your coin. One potential answer might be that they intended to flag another coin (as I have seen a few mechanical error slabs over the years-even bought one, knowing what it was) and some employee made the mistake of clicking on your listing. Regardless of the answer, without a good explanation, I would be skeptical just like you. Please keep us updated and hopefully you receive your full payout soon.
I had a similar experience as a seller. Without telling a long winded story I was less than satisfied.
I’ve never dealt with them and that same thought would have crossed my mind as it did yours. I can’t help but wonder if the coin that was to be returned but listed later was pulled by accident and the mistake was corrected. I think from what you stated, that it’s time to call GC and n MB ale an inquiry into why the payment to you is taking so long. They are out of the 30 day window that they set. A short friendly discussion may resolve all issues.
Considering the fact that I severely dislike auction companies and the hegemony that they have over collectables markets, it takes a lot of effort to not let my biases run away with me on these topics. I mean... they feel justified in taking 20+% of sale prices as "Buyer's Fees" (which are actually an underhanded way of implementing "Seller's Fees"), sometimes pile seller's fees on top of that, and then charge overblown prices for shipping. All of this based on the value of other people's stuff! And for simply having provided an electronic user interface for making buying/selling convenient. This type of web-based interface isn't difficult to produce, I develop database/user interface packages as a hobbyist, and I could reproduce their websites and mechanics in a month! (Probably take 2 months including debugging and beta-testing, but still!) But, to avoid letting my biases run away with me, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt: - The confusion about NGC's listing of the 3C coin was probably honest human error on their part. - I'd assume that auction companies parse coins out over multiple auctions in an attempt to maximize variety (and therefore profits) in each auction. - So long as you eventually get what you are due, then I wouldn't assume anything nefarious on their part when it comes to your money. All that being said, it still really sucks that hobbyists have to continue feeding them inordinate amounts of money for the purpose of buying and selling collectables. I really wish that we could develop and system for buying/selling/auctioning/trading with each other that eliminated middle-man money skimming. But, with such a system, there will always be garbage people that try to abuse it for their own gains, and therefore, it will probably never happen The things that auction companies have going for them are exposure and security (they know who the buyers and sellers are). Avoidance of the extravagant fees would account for "exposure", especially for low value items (<$1K). But, covering security would always be the hang-up.
Hhhmmmm…… I don’t know the amount of money you have coming, but checking account interest rates are woefully low. I doubt that they would be holding the cash for additional interest. The culprit here I believe is digital. I am an old school guy and my little business has net thirty day payment terms. These terms are fine for 75% of my customers but the really big guys allow their software to pay me… Which is NEVER thirty days. I spent years pleading my case with these outfits and the people care…. The software does not. I would bet your payment is lost within the digital network of GC. Shouldn’t be this way, but the software has no regard for pity.
I have never dealt with them before, but look forward to see the resolution of your issue, so please do post the end results. Seems to me that you sent 120 coins to them for consignment. They chose which auctions to present them in. According to their own policies, your payment should have been sent to you within 30 days of the sale. Each auction = a payment within 30 days of sale, not holding the check(s) to save them paper work. Bad policy on their part, in my opinion, and I would certainly let them know.
Three things. 1. I have had numerous sales through great collections and a few times the check was a little slower but no one is perfect. 2. Great Collections has the lowest rates, (far below20% plus as someone claimed) and they have the cheapest shipping anywhere. 3. They have an actual person you can talk to with their phone system. Any time you have a question give them a call. they are very accomadating.
Echoing what Randy Abercrombie stated regarding interest rates being so low the amount due to you is negligible. I=PRT I=5,000*(.0420/12)*3 would be the interest accrued at an annual rate of 4.20% for 3 months. Or about $52.50, so what, $10 per thousand due to you? I have no idea their scale or sell through, but theoretically, it could be a couple thousand dollars a month? Nothing to sneeze at. The bigger issue, which is probably just paranoia and has no basis in reality, is Bernie Madoff may be running things. Look at the South Korean jeonse market. Basically a renter pays 50% to 80% of the value of a residence in cash to the landlord up front. In return they get to live rent free for 1 or 2 years, pay utilities, and have to keep up the place. The owner gets capital appreciation and interest income. Until Government controls, it worked out okay for all parites. What's happening is that the pool of jeonse applicants is shrinking and owners were not good stewards of the capital entrusted to them, and it's causing all sorts of problems. Renters are losing their life savings. But that's probably not the issue at all here.
I have many transactions, both buying and selling, through GC with Ian and the crew (even more so with Teletrade before GC). I have not had any issues at all. I think, as Dave states above, a telephone call will resolve all immediately.
Despite the longer time frame from submission to auction to receiving payment, I'll continue to consign to GC. I was very surprised at how high some of the bids went. Their fees are reasonable IMO. The intent of this post wasn't to criticize, just get other's feedback and opinions. I've never consigned to Heritage so I don't know what their turnaround times are.
