Teletrade

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Posted By: warshawlaw 

After hearing about their revamped site and seeing some decent press on the cards available, I signed up again with Teletrade and bid on a couple of items.

The system works ok and the cards arrive, but the "vig" is brutal. They have an extortionate shipping and handling fee. I bid well below "book" on some cards I wanted (even considering their hammer fee) and ended up paying nearly full book on the cards when their "handling" was factored in.

Anyone else have any views on them?

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Posted By: Lloyd Taylor

.....and if your from Jersey that hit you with sales tax on top of the overcharge on shipping and the juice...I gave up on Teletrade.

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Posted By: Elliot

I don't find the S & H charges from Teletrade out of line. They charge $5.25 up to $200, which includes insurance. If the item is less than $75 it might be a bit excessive. On amounts over $200 the charge is roughly the $5.25 plus about .50 / $100 which still results in a reasonable charge. Yes, it's a pain paying the 10% vig., but I factor it into my bids. I find that from time to time they can have reasonable prices, and at least it's painless to pay for the items online with a credit card.

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Posted By: Tim Newcomb

that I always find only one item per auction that I want and can win-- that's what makes the extra costs seem excessive! They don't combine shipping over more than one auction, which would make a big difference. Other than that, no problem-- and sometimes the prices are pretty good!

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Posted By: Plastic Dog

is that Teletrade started as a consignment site. They shifted gears and tried turning it into a premiere auction site by hiring a buyer to purchase high-grade, rare cards. Kind of worked, but they lost money on a fair number of these transactions. That buyer was let go at the beginning of the year, and now they're going back to consignments. My guess is that it will be the end of Teletrade (at least as we know it).

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Posted By: Brian K. Hodes

My experiences with Teletrade have been positive over the years. They have allowed me to return the one card I was unhappy with (although their grading has generally been fine). Really, the P & H charges aren't all that out of whack with most -- no bogus phone fees or anything like that.

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Posted By: vorthian

It's not that they "shifted gears", they had to do something because the consignments were very low. Their buyer would spend millions a year at the larger shows to keep the auctions filled.

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Posted By: Jim/jverri01

I'm kind of in the middle on this. I used to buy quite a bit through them. For a while, I was getting great deals. Probably because so many people were turned off by them, I was getting everything I wanted at great prices. Then alot of people started going back. About the same time, they seemed to have less and less "true vintage" merchandise. To me, "true vintage" is pre-war, and even more preferably, 1915 and earlier. They have consistently had a dozen or so graded tobacco cards each auction, but the number of ungraded cards has diminished considerably. Given a preference, I always look to buy ungraded cards. Always. Anyway - Andy Sandler, who was overseeing buying, left a few months ago. I don't know that he has formally been replaced, not sure. And - I am certainly not saying the fluctuations are in any way related to him being there or not being there. I tend to subscribe to the philosophy that there are just too many big players out there now that try to carry a big, yet fresh, inventory. It makes it harder and harder for them to get the cards - and harder and harder for us to find any deals. I do have to say that the few things i have returned (because of trimming, completely out of synch grading, etc.) have been accepted back without any question. They always relist these items, tho. And, usually do not revise the listing in any way from the original. I still bid at Teletrade - but much less frequently. Two years ago, there were auctions I would spend $5,000 or $6,00 on. Now, I may win one item here and there. I do have to say that "getting" the PSA 8 Crawford UZIT did seem to "bring back" a scattering of "old" clientele. (BTW: The card seemed to go awfully cheap to me. Is it just me who thinks this?). I also think there new initiative to periodically advertise in the SMR monthly with regard to upcoming auctions was a good move. Just my two-pence. Jim