I nuked my teletrade account last year over (in my opinion) ridiculous buyer fees, but I saw a coin I really wanted, so I started a new account. I put a max bid of $3600 on a 1995W Silver Eagle........all day, the bidding was at $3300, right up until the auction closed. Right at the close I refresehed my browser, and bidding was still at $3300, So assumed I won. An hour later I had not received an invoice, so I looked up the coin, and sure enough.....$3700, exactly one bid higher than my max of $3600. Short of miraculous timing, that seems a bit odd to me. Has anyone else experienced this after the "new and improved" teletrade supposedly said "you will never bid against a hidden reserve?" Best case, a bidder slid a (very) last second bid in and the online auction software teletrade uses sucks as it never updated....and worst case, there is something fishy going on. Either way it re-confirmed my previous thoughts re: Teletrade these days.
You got outbid. It happens a lot lately on the "new" Teletrade. As for refreshing? The number of snipe bids being posted in the last couple of minutes really bogs the system down. Just try logging onto Teletrade with 2 minutes left on an auction. Teletrade has pretty much lost my interest and business.
Sounds like you just got outbid to me as well. Some people manually snipe, waiting on the auction and placing a last second bid. Its sound bidding strategy, I just don't have time for it usually. On the rare occasions I do this on other auction sites, (I do not use TT), I have the same thing happen. The screen does not refresh quick enough, and I do not see I lost until well after its too late.
I agree, nothing fishy going on. You simply got outbid. I agree with Lyds above...TT has gone down the tubes in the past 2 years. I haven't bid there for a long while.
I look at TT every once in a while because there are deals to get there, especially if less people are bidding. You just need to factor in the buyer's fee for your price and base your bidding on that. TT is also a good place to sell certified coins because right now, there are no fees for selling. This is a direct challenge to eBay. I've gotten some great prices on Teletrade, even with the buyer's fee added, that would be very improbable on eBay. Especially rainbow coins or coins with a lower liquidity factor. Sellers on eBay for these coins would have either a very high Buy It Now price or start at a high price for auction. So there's no bargains in numismatics, generally. The sellers on TT can also set a high price, but then the coins don't sell. So everything works out. In your case, you just got outbid. I've never suspected any hidden reserves on Teletrade. Remember, the seller can also buy back the coin for no fee on TT, so that could have also happened. But in that case, TT may report the coin unsold. Anyway, you got outbid. That happens all the time in auctions. Good luck next time.
Thanks guys. Outbid is outbid.......but if I lost out to a seller who is "buying back" the coin at the last second for no cost, then I guess I fail to see how that is different than "never bidding against a hidden reserve." Oh well, time to move on, though it did re-confirm my opinion of TT.
