My Heritage auction experience - Update

[rainier2004]

So i received my 1st of 2 lots today, 15 days after payemnt and s/h of $8.25.

http://sports.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleN...05&lotNo=41005

I contacted them prior to the lots and was told "consistent for the grade". The card comes nowhere near as bright inthe image, multiple small wrinkles hidden in the bs contrast and that lower left corner sure looks a lot worse than in the scan. I contact them and was told by Peter, a director, we can take it back for a 10% restocking fee! He refused to admit any error and said "its just your computer or monitor settings" on top of a lot of other bs...I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THEM AGAIN. THEY ARE RUDE, INCOMPITENT AND SLOW AND LIVE BELOW EBAY STANDARDS! Yes Im cheap, impatient and critical but I would not accept this from ebay, let alone a major auction house. Let hear how out of line my attitude is, but I am awfully frustrated getting cards below their description and/or scans.

My 2 cents....

Steven Suckow - bash away boys

[4815162342]

Post your scans so we can compare?

[rainier2004]

and to continue...

I had one issue with PWCC and received "I am so sorry" and took back the item, insisted on refunding the s/h and sent a f/u apology email....I do like some people. Love Huggins and Scotts, sportscardlink and sterling...I think Id like Br. and Luckey but i always get outbid. NEVER AGAIN HERITAGE!

Scan added - they sure look a lot different to me; i don not know how to adjust the size and my scans will not show the wrinkles to the back bottom...ive always thought when contrast is altered wrinkles/creases seem to sure look less noticable. Maybe Im full of sh!t though...im sure you guys will let me know.

[t206hound]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

Post your scans so we can compare?

+1... those are some super hi-res scans on the heritage site and I didn't see any wrinkles at all.

[rainier2004]

My scan sucks but i was thinking i was getting a nice colored cj with a lttle writing on the back accounting for grade with a soft lower left corner. Ill stop now, Im taking the wife out for valentines.

[chaddurbin]

this didn't deserve a whole thread.

it's a 30...expect wrinkles/creases. if you have a problem take it up with SGC (spoiler: they will also tell you it's on par for the grade).

[effe]

Did you use the "look closer" function? A 30 certainly seems like a reasonable grade for this card. What specifically did you ask them before close?

[chaddurbin]

my guess is OP was expecting something like a psa4mk...a VGEX card with writing that knocked it down to a 2. the board's popular opinion makes SGC out to have some super tough, strict grading standards...but most of the time they put their pants on one leg at a time and have similar standards to us mortals.

CJs hide their wrinkles well, and it's not surprising they don't show up on hi-res scans.

[Jaybird]

Heritage is one of the few auction houses that I don't complain about the scans. When you hit the closeup, you can see it 6x bigger than the actual card. Not sure they can do much more than that with an SGC 30 card. I'd be happy if all auction houses didn't describe the card at all but provided those large scans. I don't need to hear about "corners that will draw blood, etc.". Just show me the scan. Which is what they did.

If I see an SGC 30 that looks too good to be true, I look deeper until I find the thing that caused it to be graded that low. Occasionally I don't find anything but sometimes I do. And I would certainly expect it.

[autograf]

Hmm.........the card does look awfully bright in the photos but like the others, I'd think it was consistent with the grade--with or without creasing. A 2 is a 2. Thought the price was okay and the $8.25 is a fair price for shipping. 15 days is a little long but their shipping department ships stuff for ALL different kinds of auctions. I could see it being that way. It's easy to think the larger guys should have quicker shipping but that's not always the case. Have always found Heritage to be easy to deal with and the scans are second to none--at least size-wise. Good luck whatever happens with it.......hopefully you get some resolution.

[glchen]

Steven, I can just tell you as the others have, that the card is consistent for the grade (SGC 30/2). Heritage gives some of the largest scans possible, just larger than just about any other auction house and even virtually all ebay listings. I really don't know anyone with consistently larger scans. However, some imperfections just do not come across in scans. I know that I scanned a card once, and when I was getting ready to ship the card to the winning buyer on ebay, I saw a surface crease that I could only see when the card was looked at from an angle. And from that angle, it was REALLY obvious. This was a graded card also. I offered to let the buyer cancel the transaction or receive a 25% discount in the price, which he decided to accept. This could be the case for this card.

This is the thing about ebay. In general, buyers love ebay for the DSR's because the general feeling is that this improves customer service. However, sellers hate it because they feel the system is being abused. In general, I still think you get better deals and better service on ebay than you do from auction houses. However, there are just some cards that you don't see on ebay (or at least not often enough) for real auctions, which is why you still end up going to auction houses.

[murcerfan]

INCOMPITENT

classic!

[Wite3]

INCOMPITENT

classic!
Reply With Quote

Beat me to it by 1 minute! +1

[rainier2004]

Yeah, I suck at spelling....I get it, I get. Like someone said, I was expecting a nicer 2...i thought writing would knock down the grade? Ifs its a tpg 4 with a mk whats that makes it w/o the qualifier?

Their scans are nice, I guess I just hate their attitude and I dont think the card is worth $235....after i eat the 8.25 s/h, return the card plus the 10% i think the card is worth the 195 id have left into it and that sucks. I also find it a lttle backwards to hear board members go "a 2 is 2"...what hapened to buy the card, not holder? I did look harder, missed 6 wrinkles in the scan and thought the writing was th reason for the grade...I guess that was dumb?

[slidekellyslide]

In the magnified scan on the Heritage site I can see a small wrinkle on the reverse side. Maybe you need a bigger monitor?

[Jaybird]

Originally Posted by rainier2004

Yeah, I suck at spelling....I get it, I get. Like someone said, I was expecting a nicer 2...i thought writing would knock down the grade? Ifs its a tpg 4 with a mk whats that makes it w/o the qualifier?

Their scans are nice, I guess I just hate their attitude and I dont think the card is worth $235....after i eat the 8.25 s/h, return the card plus the 10% i think the card is worth the 195 id have left into it and that sucks. I also find it a lttle backwards to hear board members go "a 2 is 2"...what hapened to buy the card, not holder? I did look harder, missed 6 wrinkles in the scan and thought the writing was th reason for the grade...I guess that was dumb?

I think it's a darn good looking card for a "2". So, in effect, the higher price for that "2" is because it presents well. Though I really don't know the market for that card so I couldn't tell you if that is high or low for that card.

[kmac32]

Grade was a bit generous for the card in my opinion. Would have given it a 20 at best. I've had cards graded by SGC that graded 10 in better shape than this one. I have heard that any writing on the card at all would make it a poor/10.

[rainier2004]

Originally Posted by kmac32

Grade was a bit generous for the card in my opinion. Would have given it a 20 at best. I've had cards graded by SGC that graded 10 in better shape than this one. I have heard that any writing on the card at all would make it a poor/10.

Exactly....

[Ladder7]

I gotta say, the scan says vg or vg-ex to me. No wrinkles visible on that ginormous scan. Are they Photoshop'd out?


Heritage has a guy that posts here. Lets hear the other side. Jonathan?

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by rainier2004

Their scans are nice, I guess I just hate their attitude and I dont think the card is worth $235....after i eat the 8.25 s/h, return the card plus the 10% i think the card is worth the 195 id have left into it and that sucks. I also find it a lttle backwards to hear board members go "a 2 is 2"...what hapened to buy the card, not holder? I did look harder, missed 6 wrinkles in the scan and thought the writing was th reason for the grade...I guess that was dumb?

Steve, I know I'll get ripped for this, but here goes. Several of us had a bad experience with Heritage in their November auction (shipping delays), and Chris came on the board and made it clear that he would make everything right - he didn't say how, he just promised us. He then went overboard trying to fix the situation. Since then, I've won items in two additional monthly auctions of theirs, had a small issue in one and a billing problem in another, and each time they bent over backward to rectify things.

They have some problems, no doubt. I think it's because they are a huge company and the left hand often doesn't mesh with the right. However, all the issues (shipping, auction descriptions, etc.) can be rectified through their customer service. If not, contact one of the Chris's. As many issues as I have run into with them, their selection and these two guys have caused me to keep going back.

[E93]

IMHO it is a great looking card for a 2. I'm not sure what you are complaining about. Maybe it is just a case of displaced buyer's remorse. It is a professionally graded 2. What did you expect?
JimB

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by chaddurbin

this didn't deserve a whole thread.

it's a 30...expect wrinkles/creases. if you have a problem take it up with SGC (spoiler: they will also tell you it's on par for the grade).

agreed

[MW1]

I looked at the largest scans and am able to see multiple creases. Also, the SGC grade seems pretty accurate. The card is definitely better than "Fair" or "Poor" condition but not good enough to be "VG". "Good" is the correct grade.

[yanks4]

Steve......This is a HOF Cracker Jack ....I have been tracking these for 8 years......I can't remember a HOFer of anybody for under $200......The card looks fairly graded....These things are expensive to most folks I know but you usually get what you pay for ...You didn't steal it but you didn't IMO over pay ......You might pick up a 4 for $375- 450 Good Luck with your journey.....

[sycks22]

Forget the card, are you really complaining about $8.50 to ship an item that's valued over $200? What should it cost? $1.58? I know it's been discussed previously, but $8 for shipping is pretty cheap. If they put any insurance on it and shipped it even priority that's $8 right there.

[rainier2004]

Originally Posted by sycks22

Forget the card, are you really complaining about $8.50 to ship an item that's valued over $200? What should it cost? $1.58? I know it's been discussed previously, but $8 for shipping is pretty cheap. If they put any insurance on it and shipped it even priority that's $8 right there.

No i wasnt. My point was $8.25 for s/h + 10% (22.70) + return s/h 8.25 brings the total to 39.20 to return the card equating to approximately 195 id get in return. The card is worth 195, but not 235. Im missing how thats a complaint about shipping costs.

[Cat]

I had this very same thing happen with Heritage a couple years ago. I have spent considerable sums with Auction Houses and never had it happen before. The first two scans are Heritage's, the next two are mine. They tried to give me "it's your monitor" excuse too (BS). Were they intentially trying to deceive or does their scanning suck? I don't know. I called and complained and in short desciption was told to pound sand. All creases are not created equal. All 30s are not equal. That "crease" is deep and pierces the paper. When spending $20K on a card, I would have liked to have known that.

[smtjoy]

The card looks graded correctly at a 30, very nice card and sold for about what i would expect. Good luck.

[slidekellyslide]

Wow Cat...that's a huge difference in scans...I'd say Heritage needs a new scanner or they're fiddling with the settings to hide defects.

[D. Bergin]

The Dimaggio Heritage scan looks like it was done using a Document setting instead of a Photo setting.

[Bridwell]

I see 2 issues. (1) Heritage scans seem to hide the creases, and (2) SGC is pretty generous with a 30 grade. I've seen 30's with creases but also back damage or writing on the back.

[Jewish-collector]

Did it show clearer in the auction catalog ?

[ScottFandango]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

The Dimaggio Heritage scan looks like it was done using a Document setting instead of a Photo setting.

as a collector of CJ's i can tell when the scans are "enhanced"

when the color red POPS off the page like in their scan, its usually too good to be true...that red color is way too red in their scan IMO..the scan looks like it was sharpened or something...

op i hear you

[rainier2004]

Ron: Agree with both points

Alan: I didnt get a catalog

Scott: Thanks for the heads up as this has been my experience as well. My error was TRUSTING an auction house to ensure proper representation...19.5% b/p?

I found out yesterday my account has been suspended and only Peter, the director I talked to originally, can further discuss the matter with me. The associate asked a couple questions about my experiences and after disclosing my conversation with Peter and the internet posting on net54 was told "that would do it" in reference to my suspension. I wasnt going to pursue the matter further, but feel I should contact a gentleman there referenced by another member. I truly feel bullied in the situation.

Thanks to everyones replies as I asked for them. To those that think this didn't deserve a thread, it was at 1400 views nearly 24 hours after posting...sorry it wasnt a t206 question, wait a minute I just dont click on those let alone takes the time publicly to try and embarrass the OP.

Enjoy your Hobby!

[ScottFandango]

they took care of that disgruntled customer....

that should give "customer service" a new meaning..

i know where i wont be consigning my pre war sets...

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by rainier2004

Ron: Agree with both points

Alan: I didnt get a catalog

Scott: Thanks for the heads up as this has been my experience as well. My error was TRUSTING an auction house to ensure proper representation...19.5% b/p?

I found out yesterday my account has been suspended and only Peter, the director I talked to originally, can further discuss the matter with me. The associate asked a couple questions about my experiences and after disclosing my conversation with Peter and the internet posting on net54 was told "that would do it" in reference to my suspension. I wasnt going to pursue the matter further, but feel I should contact a gentleman there referenced by another member. I truly feel bullied in the situation.

Thanks to everyones replies as I asked for them. To those that think this didn't deserve a thread, it was at 1400 views nearly 24 hours after posting...sorry it wasnt a t206 question, wait a minute I just dont click on those let alone takes the time publicly to try and embarrass the OP.

Enjoy your Hobby!

Hmmmm...thin skinned over there at Heritage. I wonder if I've been suspended for comments I've made about Mike "banned from the Hall of Fame Library" Gutierrez?

[DJR]

Heritages Rule #21:

''21. The Auctioneer, its affiliates, or their employees consign items to be sold in the Auction, and may bid on those lots or any other lots. Auctioneer or affiliates expressly reserve the right to modify any such bids at any time prior to the hammer based upon data made known to the Auctioneer or its affiliates. The Auctioneer may extend advances, guarantees, or loans to certain consignors.''

I have already heard employees try to explain this away (yawn) but my attitude is if you don't plan to utilize this policy as written, don't write it. It looks bad! I wonder if I'm going to be banned next simply posting Rule #21 which is posted word for word on HA.com.

[leaflover]

On the plus side .... (1)The large scans.(2)No issues with the cards I won.

On the downside(1) They wait way too long before shipping.(2) The auction
was in Texas, the cards were shipped from Texas, yet I was charged 8 and
3/4 percent California sales tax because they(Heritage) has an office in
Beverly Hills.

Needless to say Heritage and I are divorced.

[rainier2004]

So I eventually got into contact with Chris Ivy at heritage after he was out of the office for a few days. The initail conversation was very unproductive as he initially admitted that peter, the director, was out of line but this was the way it was...i recieved an apology after I asked for one. He then offered the cancel my second purchase and take a full refund on lot 1 and at this point I was pretty upset over the suspension and felt this was not acceptable. Chris felt that I threatened peter if i didnt get my way id run to net54 and "tell on them"...I explained that was the case and offered the a way for the whole thing to be resolved. I asked for a reurn on the b/p on lot 1 ($37) and i would keep lot 2 and be satisfied as this would place the card at about what its worth. It was this time I apologized to Chris and Heritage for going public so quickly. My comments were strong and left for the world to see. In the future I will change this and continue climbing the managemnet ladder until I get an answer...for this I am sorry.


He countered by offering a $25 credit and overnight shipping on lot 2...i said no thanks, either b/p refund or you lost a customer. He respnded by saying no thanks and will refund lot 2...we are now19 days post-payment on lot2. I feel heritage could have fixed this and peter is a manger...i did try. "out of principle" were the words Chris used as he refused to refund any money on the card...the entire time i was offering to accept lot2 for what i paid w/o complaint. Even though chris was much easier to talk that peter, he did nothing to really fix the proble...overnight shipping doesnt change getting ripped off and a $25 credit means nothing if yu dont buy again. I stand by my original comment that heritage is a poor auction house and i will never do business again with them. We'll see if they allow me to return the crawford and both lots will be re-auctioned. This doesnt mention all the other he-said, she-said stuff on their end as the left hand at heritage seems to have no idea that the right hand exists. Chris did lift my suspension as I asked, but who cares...

Steven Suckow

[irishdenny]

Originally Posted by autograf

Hmm.........the card does look awfully bright......... Good luck whatever happens with it.......hopefully you get some resolution.

Tom, I gotta ask... Was that a bit of Sarcasm gone undetected?
If Not, I thought it was funny anyway