Thats it!! I am finished with Teletrade!!

[Schatzy]

Last night I was bidding on 16 different coins. I was just kept bidding the min. and I

would be winning for 30 minutes and then I would get out bid. I bid my max with 5

minutes to go and closed the laptop. I woke up this morning and only 2 of the

coins actually sold. I understand why they have a buyback thing but why cant they

just set the limit at the amount the seller wants instead on making it look like you

are bidding against someone else. I will not be bidding on any more coins on

teletrade unless they change the policy.

 

 

What am I going to do with my 2,702 points!!

 

Well I guess the only thing I can get is the 2010 Redbook.

[physics-fan3.14]

That's a bummer. I agree, it makes more sense to just put the opening bid at the sellers reserve. I guess they treat the seller like any other bidder, with a secret high bid. I have not yet encountered this problem on TT, but I can see why it would make you mad.

[Schatzy]

I have not yet encountered this problem on TT, but I can see why it would make you mad.

 

Thats good, but I have a problem when the coins that I bid on keep magically get bid up to my max bid.

[michael]

a thinly disguised retail site masquerading as an auction site

[$ilverHawk]

Damn good point michael. Although I have been able to buy some Morgans below Grey sheet bid and a few at Blue Sheet. There is definitely something going on with some of their auctions.

[Old Pueblo]

Coins seem to vanish off the radar if the undisclosed reserve is not met

 

[World Colonial]

I have not bought anything there in years because there is almost nothing I want to bid on. But recently, there have been a few items that I liked that did not sell for the reason originally given. These items appeared on many different days and still did not sell. You would think that this might be just a little itty bitty hint that their reserve is too high.

[James_OldeTowne]

a thinly disguised retail site masquerading as an auction site

Yep, I agree. I gave up on TeleTrade years ago.

[Schatzy]

a thinly disguised retail site masquerading as an auction site

 

[jackson64]

true story..a friend of mine recently consigned 40+ coins to Teletrade and actually set low-ball to reasonable reserves on each coin. Every single coin sold !! ( but not necessarily to bidders)

 

For you see, the story does not end there...... less than a month later while perusing Teletrade, PRESTO!! about 25 of his coins are now listed at auction but with start bids $100-300 higher for each ?? It seems that Teletrade will purchase lower bid coins, keep them in inventory and resell them themselves.

 

This information, in conjunction with bid bumping, really stinks..possibly of illegality..at the very least it is unethical..

[physics-fan3.14]

true story..a friend of mine recently consigned 40+ coins to Teletrade and actually set low-ball to reasonable reserves on each coin. Every single coin sold !! ( but not necessarily to bidders)

 

For you see, the story does not end there...... less than a month later while perusing Teletrade, PRESTO!! about 25 of his coins are now listed at auction but with start bids $100-300 higher for each ?? It seems that Teletrade will purchase lower bid coins, keep them in inventory and resell them themselves.

 

This information, in conjunction with bid bumping, really stinks..possibly of illegality..at the very least it is unethical..

 

Isn't that very similar to what the big stink is at Heritage right now?

[michael]

true story..a friend of mine recently consigned 40+ coins to Teletrade and actually set low-ball to reasonable reserves on each coin. Every single coin sold !! ( but not necessarily to bidders)

 

For you see, the story does not end there...... less than a month later while perusing Teletrade, PRESTO!! about 25 of his coins are now listed at auction but with start bids $100-300 higher for each ?? It seems that Teletrade will purchase lower bid coins, keep them in inventory and resell them themselves.

 

This information, in conjunction with bid bumping, really stinks..possibly of illegality..at the very least it is unethical..

 

(thumbs u

 

or in this model its called business

 

coins is capitalism in its rawest form; eat or be eaten

[James_OldeTowne]

true story..a friend of mine recently consigned 40+ coins to Teletrade and actually set low-ball to reasonable reserves on each coin. Every single coin sold !! ( but not necessarily to bidders)

 

For you see, the story does not end there...... less than a month later while perusing Teletrade, PRESTO!! about 25 of his coins are now listed at auction but with start bids $100-300 higher for each ?? It seems that Teletrade will purchase lower bid coins, keep them in inventory and resell them themselves.

 

This information, in conjunction with bid bumping, really stinks..possibly of illegality..at the very least it is unethical..

It's possible the coins actually were purchased by someone, then re-consigned back to TeleTrade. Aside from that, it's neither illegal nor unethical for an auction house to bid on coins in their own auctions.

 

However, what IS unethical is for an auction house to purposely under-grade or under-describe coins in such a manner that they receive low bids, and the auction house (or a confederate) scoops them up for cheap. As a cataloger, I can tell you that this is a fine and delicate professsional line, and something I am constantly aware of. We all hate it when an auction description excessively hypes up a coin, but we must also realize that it is just as unethical to be "too conservative" in a coin description if done on purpose.

[RareSov]

Nasty.

 

Solution ? don't play their game. Sell the coins yourself, keep them, or consign elsewhere

[Conder101]

For you see, the story does not end there...... less than a month later while perusing Teletrade, PRESTO!! about 25 of his coins are now listed at auction but with start bids $100-300 higher for each ?? It seems that Teletrade will purchase lower bid coins, keep them in inventory and resell them themselves.

What is the evidence that Teletrade was the consignor in the later sale?

 

And even if it was what is the original consignors complaint? That the person who bought his coins, and paid him what he wanted for them, is now trying to sell them for more than that? If so then every dealer in the country is in trouble. How about that dealers. Did you know you are not supposed to sell coins for more than you paid for them?

[jackson64]

ah , if nobody else here sees the potential for "shadyness" here then maybe it is just me...

 

--you send your coins for auction, not outright sale to Teletrade ( why don't they just make an offer to the consignor?) so they can cherrypick through your coins while they have them in hand

 

-- Teletrade has the advantage of seeing the coins in hand, compared to other bidders

 

-- Teletrade is the one imaging the coins, often very poorly, ( and the images at the future auctions are often very much nicer)

 

--Teletrade often adds ( and did add when they resold but not the first time) " Toned", "Rainbow", "Registry", " etc.. to the descriptions

 

-- Teletrade knows what another bidder's max bid is ? ( possibly) and even if they don't, as a buyer you don't have issue with the auction house driving up the bidding? You try and get a decent deal on a coin, maybe even a chance for a nice sleeper, and the auction house--coin in hand--has already pre-determined with the coin in their hands to look at, that the coin is not selling for under $XX amount...how is this really an auction?...

 

Say what you want, but to me it stinks...

[Conder101]

Do you have evidence that Teletrade actually buys coins out of their auctions? I haven't read their terms of sale so I don't know if they reserve the right to bid in their auctions like the other auction houses do. Unlike the other auction houses, as far as I know Teletrade does not have a retail operation

[nwcs]

BTW, anyone know how to stop getting their emails? I have no idea how to leave Teletrade.

[erwindoc]

I wish that they would post the reserve or at least say reserve not met.

[Houston Investor]

A scary thought.

[Rktekt 007]

Starting to get the feeling that we are being screwed by these auction sites. I have had similar results. Been high bidder up to last minute, bid goes up. Coin back on auction about a week later. I think you need to hit their magic number.

[dopy02]

Starting to get the feeling that we are being screwed by these auction sites. I have had similar results. Been high bidder up to last minute, bid goes up. Coin back on auction about a week later. I think you need to hit their magic number.

 

Ed Zachary

[MarkW]

Who here has not had a similar situation with Teletrade? With a hidden reserve and "phantom" bidders, many of us have thought we were the high bidder until the auction ended. I've also gone to bed with high bids on multiple items only to wake in the morning and find that none of those items sold. I've purchased many coins from TT. Granted, most of those were purchased when I was stupid, I have learned that this auction house lets nothing leave the building before the "number" is met. In my opinion, it is not an auction if the bidders have no idea of any hidden reserve. Outside of the occasional bid on an inexpensive coin, my days of serious purchases from TT have disappeared.

While we're on the subject of internet auction houses, let me say something about David Lawrence Rare Coins. DLRC does not initially reveal reserve prices. However, the day before an internet auction ends, almost all coins are at a bid point where the "next" bid will reach reserve. Is this real? Probably not!, but this is to their credit. They have, at least, revealed the reserve and let us, as bidders, know that our next bid is valid. I'll take this 24 hr notice over "mysteryland" anytime.

[swhuck]

While we're on the subject of internet auction houses, let me say something about David Lawrence Rare Coins. DLRC does not initially reveal reserve prices. However, the day before an internet auction ends, almost all coins are at a bid point where the "next" bid will reach reserve. Is this real? Probably not!, but this is to their credit. They have, at least, revealed the reserve and let us, as bidders, know that our next bid is valid. I'll take this 24 hr notice over "mysteryland" anytime.

 

What you describe for DLRC is about what we at Heritage Auctions did until about four or five years ago. On Signature auctions and until very recently on our Internet Only auctions, we leave bidding open for a while before we implement our reserves. At that time, when it was time to implement the reserve (a week before close on Signature auctions as it still is now; three days on Internet auctions), we'd bump up the current bid of the item until the next bid would meet the reserve. This effectively kept people from being outbid by unseen reserves, but we had lots of questions about the practice (and I had to answer them all ), so we decided to call a reserve a reserve and make it clear that either the item had met the reserve, not met the reserve, not had a reserve, or that the reserve had not been posted yet. And you still will never be outbid by a hidden reserve in our auctions; if there is a reserve, it's either there for all to see, or it's already been outbid and therefore irrelevant.

 

Keep in mind that, at least on Internet only auctions, the later in the auction you go, the more bidding activity there is. Snipers lurk everywhere, so bids can and will rise dramatically at the end of an auction.

 

I cannot comment on Teletrade's reserve practices; my one transaction with them went very smoothly.

[Rktekt 007]

Well, it is unethical. JMHO. You can not call yourself an auction house AND bid up the coins. Try doing that on ebay. Sell a coin. Put it up on the site. once a person bids $100 on the coin, place your own bid on the coin at $125. Then another bidder will bid $150. So you bid it $175. Then another bidder comes in at $200. You don't like that price either so you bid your own coin up to $225. so on and so forth. Wait and see what happens. It is why reserves are placed on coins. You can not shill bid. TT and DLRC seem to do this. But what choices are left to us? I just bought a coin from DLRC. Nice coin but I know that in a true auction I probably would have gotten it cheaper. Now I have to sift through the "auction" houses coins on ebay to deal directly with other coin collectors/sellers.

[bartlesvilleok]

There are things I dislike about pretty much any auction house the reserves being the biggest. I am sure we could all come up with about one bad thing to say about anyone however I would like to give teletrade credit for one thing. I won a auction with them on Tuesday night and my coins were here on Thursday and no I did not pay some crazy amount for overnight shipping. This is also with free shipping.

[HiHoAudio]

I have never used Teletrade, but have good things to say about Heritage, Scotsman and Goldberg. Usually I am outbid 95% of the time but my heart is rarely broken. Patience is the key.

 

The thing I like best about buying from the Goldberg's is that if you buy a certified coin the holder is never scratched/scuffed and in perfect condition.

 

Maybe not a big deal to some people but I appreciate the care they take.

[braddick]

The trick I've learned with Teletrade is this:

 

I check out the coins I'm interested in advance and save them on my tracking list. The day the auction starts, usually within the first hour, I check the price. If it is high I then know the seller has placed a sort of reserve.

 

If it starts out low, I know he has not. Sure, the seller could still come in and bid on his coin but the fees jump up quite a bit if he does this vs simply place a high bid type of reserve at the beginning of the auction.

 

For example, say you're looking at a nicely toned NGC MS64 Morgan. If the opening- or close to it- bid is say $20.00 you're pretty much set (and assured the coin is going to sell). If it's at $800.00 already, you can be sure the seller is actively involved.

 

It's worked for me.

I recently picked up an 1800 ANACS AG3 (with a hole) Bust dollar and paid $220. for it knowing the seller wasn't involved in "protecting" the coin.

 

I also picked up a wonderfully toned PCGS 1968-S Kennedy the same way. It had been listed twice before- each time starting out at something like $500. Each of those times I didn't bother to bid.

This last time (just last week, in fact the coin arrived the day before yesterday along with the bust dollar and I'm pleased with both coins) it opened at a nominal bid and I won it for $130.

 

The same thing is happening right now with a couple of nicely toned PCGS Proof Ikes. The prices are much to much at the start.

I'm waiting for the seller to tire of that game- not finding anyone who is willing to pay the ultra high price, and let the true auction process start.

 

It is a gamble though as sometimes the seller simply has the coin(s) sent back to him and you never see it again.