I’ve bought from HA several times and while I’ve always had fantastic experiences with them I’ve always wondered why they charge such a large “buyers premium” of a whopping 20%. Well I found out. I got this in the mail a few months ago for FREE (even though I didn’t request it). I imagine they thought I would be interested in some of these coins. To be fair I was. There was a lot of good stuff in there. Way outside my budget though. But these thick, heavy catalogues with glossy high quality photos are NOT cheap. Both of them combined weighed 4 pounds and not only that but HA paid to ship them to me. I can’t even imagine how much they’re paying the full bill to make and send these to hundreds or thousands of people.
You just received your first auction catalogue! Wait until you have a big stack! Lots of enjoyment if your internet ever cuts out. Lol I haven't gotten them for more than 3 years and still have quite a selection.
I’d rather have a lower premium . If I could opt out for a 5% BP discount I totally would. To me it just seems like they’re going overboard with advertising spending. They don’t need to though since I already check the website regularly to look for things I’m interested in.
They get HUGE volume discounts not only on the catalogues but on the postage. They send out tens of thousands with each auction. They are one of the top 3 numismatic auction houses in the U.S. The 20% BP is in line with the rest of the auction houses.
I hate catalogs too @Inspector43 , if that's what you mean. I use to get the Sears catalog . That stopped .
I keep them in case I ever get something with provenance. I'm sure a lot of info can be seen online but sometimes you can't find the pics. Who knows if I'll need it or not. I have many years left on this Earth and plenty of room to store the ones I get.
Nothing wrong with a few auction catalogs, I have bought a few from the second hand stores. They know I don't buy online. Never had, not sure I ever will. I photo coins for fun. The coin would have to be enticing.
I just wish they would save some money by focusing on customers who have a history of buying stuff similar to what they are showing in the catalogues. They sent me catalogues containing Chinese coins & banknotes even though I’ve never bought a single Chinese coin in my life. The only coins I’ve bought from HA are Roman denarii and then one Greek Athenian Owl Tetradrachm. IF they sent me a catalogue of Ancient Greek & Roman coins coming up for auction I would understand why they pay the expense to do so since I have a history of buying similar coins.
It's not just the catalogs. I get flyers on every auction they have coming up. All I did was use their site for coins. In order to be a profitable auction house you have to put out the best quality in every aspect. #1 is advertising, I did that for about 5 years. Nothing the customer hated more than poor quality of paper or print. Once you sold them on the piece of advertising, they became hooked on the highest quality of print and paper. #2 is customer service. #3 is keeping all the employees happy. It probably takes 20% to make a good living. They aren't in this to take a loss.
Everyone seems to hate these giant catalogs I’ve never bought anything from HA but I wouldn’t mind flipping through a nice big catalog of coins I can’t afford (But jeez, 20%!!?!?)
Yup 20%! If you bid $100 on a coin and win you pay $120 + shipping. If you bid $1,000 on a coin and win you pay $1,200 + shipping. It really gets crazy when you see coins sell for like $3,000,000 and realize the buyer ended up paying $600,000 just in premiums alone that doesn’t go at all towards the seller of the coin you buy. Personally I feel like 15% would be a fair premium but then again I don’t know what HA’s numbers are so I can’t say for sure.
Oh yeah I forgot! None of that counts towards taxes. You also pay taxes on the full bid + 20% premium. For me in California it’s 7.25% as seen in the invoice above. Even worse is the 2.5% credit card processing fee. But at least I get that money back via rewards miles on my credit card.
Many high rollers who buy "Moon" money coins usually get special terms. Heritage may even have in house printing company. The catalogues are lavish and so are the coins they are trying to sell. Production of said catalogues is usually very cheap. The auction houses may also get special terms when it comes to postage.
Keep in mind, some of these big auction houses also charge a seller premium that we don't even see. Granted this fee is normally a graduated fee based on hammer price and the negotiated terms. However, the smaller, lower priced items there's typically no negotiating the sellers fee. The big boys get the breaks on that end of the deal. So the auction houses are making even more than the buyers premium.
Do you throw them away? That’s what I did. I couldn’t afford those coins anyway. All of them were between $5,000 and $300,000+. However I have noticed the Chinese coin & banknote market is HOT right now. Same with Portugal and the Philippines.
Get a load of these. Three really nice hardcover catalogs, shipped to me internationally via FedEx, by a firm I had never done business with! They've obviously mistaken me for someone with much deeper pockets!