In this hobby a deal like this is well worth mentioning!

Greetings,

Just wanted to share a little something that happened to me. I get a large majority of my coins through auctions, mainly Teletrade, Heritage and e-Bay, in that order. I don't think I have ever heard of something like this happening before and know it has never happened to me.

I sent off several large submissions to NGC several months ago and even made a comment in a previous post about some of my coins being returned in "body bags". Two of the coins were ones I had won on Teletrade. One was an 1820/19 capped bust half in an old style Anacs holder grading 10. I have had this coin for a couple of years. The other was my first Type one gold dollar, an 1852 that was in a ICG holder with a grade of 53 or 55, as I don't remember exactly. Both appeared undergraded, and was the main reason for the purchases. Anyway I cracked them out of their holders and off they went to NGC along with some other raw items. The half came back "improperly cleaned" and the gold dollar came back as "obverse improperly cleaned". Needless to say I was more than disappointed. I was borderline p-----. Here I had two coins that up 'til a few minutes before they were shipped off to NGC, they were in "third party" holders. I did not clean them so what I wanted to know was why these grading companies did not catch it that the surfaces had been altered? I even briefly pondered as to why the means of a major auction house did not catch it also? That latter question is maybe expecting a little much. Anyway I took the flips and tossed them into a reject box in the safe and forgot about them for a month or two.

I came across the two coins again just recently and started thinking about the wasted funds I had in both, as in the purchase price, the buyers fees, postage , insurance, and the grading fees. I then decided to send an e-mail to Ian Russell, the president of Teletrade to let him know what had happened. I thought that his first thought would be "he cracked them out so it's pretty much "tough luck", they are yours now". I even mentioned that in my e-mail to him and went one further by saying that I would more than likely agree if I was just a casual customer but I went on to mention that I had spent "middle five figures" in the last two and one half years and even sent in a faily large consignment as well. Of course Ian was able to see the exact figures himself so it wasn't like I was trying to BS him.

I then received an e-mail from him the very next day and what he said really surprized me. He said that under normal circumstances, once the coins were removed from their respective holders, no refunds or credits are extended but he was willing to make an exception in my case and he gave me full credit, in the way of a check for the complete "hammer price", all the fees and ins. and postage both ways. All I did was mail them (the two coins) back and all monies were refunded. With Ian being a very busy man, he turned me on to Gilbert, to finalize all the details. Gilbert is another helpful person on staff that has been with Teletrade for years and has also helped me in the past with other minor issues. While I did not ask for my wasted grading fees and postage and ins. when the two coins were submitted to NGC, Gilbert met me halfway on those costs as well. This was done in the form of a reduction in price on two recently won lots.

As I said before I have been dealing with these great bunch of people at Teletrade for over three years and I have only had two other minor issues in the past, that are hardly worth mentioning but both were taken care of, promptly and professionaly. I have had dealings with Irma and Cheryl in the past also and just want to say that each and every time they are, as good a group of people as you would want to do business with. This goes for buying coins and currency or selling through them. These folks indeed "rock" It is not often things like this happen, but when they do and you are treated this way, it sure is a "breath of fresh air". This is a great example of "having fun with your coins". Happy collecting! WKF