Below Expectations
Sunday night’s auction at Great Collections was, as far as I know, the first auction where there were 3 matched pairs up for auction at the same time. One of the pairs, serial number 07657842, was submitted on behalf of the two co-owners by Project 2013B. It managed to garner the highest bid of the three pairs auctioned, but was still below my expectations. |
| 07657842 sold at auction |
I allowed Great Collections to set the starting bid and they inexplicably, and lazily chose $1. Amateurs.
The other two pairs had a starting bid of $300, and $2000 respectively. The pair with the starting bid of $2000 (serial number 06827153), featured a matched pair graded 30 and 35, but received no bids. That pair incidently was first detected and confirmed here at Project 2013B back in December of last year.
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| Perhaps some promotion by Project 2013B would of helped. |
The third pair was languishing under $400 until Sunday evneing when it sold for a respectable amount. This pair (serial number 07548348) was also first confirmed on Project 2013B, way back in April 2023.
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| For only $400 more they oculd of bought a pair graded 64 & 25 |
A full history of Duplicate Serial Number Matched Pairs can be found here: https://auction-history.2013b.com
The rant
Overall, my experience with Great Collections with this particular matched pair was less than stellar. I made the ‘mistake’ of submitting 3 matched pairs (not to be confused with the 3 pairs of Sunday’s auction) at the same time back in MAY, and apparently it was too much for their brains to handle. Other than an email to say that they received my package, there was pretty much zero communication (a common experience I had with both Heritage Auctions and StacksBowers as well) for over 2 months. I was told there was a backlog at the grading companies so I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
One day the sparse seller dashboard of my account showed a new status that stated the bills were being RETURNED. It turned out a mistake on their part as someone was not aware that the bills were matched pairs, and was going to return them as they felt most of the bills were not worth grading on an individual basis. This was despite LABELLING each bill’s holder as to what each bill was, with the subtext of “1 of 2” or “2 of 2”, AND, a concise letter spelling out that these were 3 matched pairs and breaking down each of the 3 pairs and how I wanted the grading company to label each. It just twists my brain into a knot when a business that has a single purpose for existing, has difficulty in doing that one job. You had ONE job.
What followed was over a week of no responses to my email asking for the status of my consignments. No response from the acccount person I usually dealt with, none using the website's contact form, and none from the 'Director of Client Services'. I escalated it to the President, who to his credit emailed back right away that he would look into it. The following day, all 3 pairs showed up with the new status of 'graded'. There is one matched pair left of the 3 pairs in the batch I sent them that has not been auctioned yet. I was told November 11th they would let me know in a few days when that auction will occur. Still no word.
So what does a smooth auction at GreatCollections look like? In the middle of the long journey detailed above I sent a single pair to GreatCollections, and from the day I sent them the pair to the end of the auction took 2 months. Actual payment took 30 days to get to me by mail; to get the money wired is an option but they will charge you a fee of $50! Fees. Fees. Fees.
This experience (and my experiences with StacksBowers) is partly the reason I set up the Project 2013B marketplace which I cheekily named “13Bay”. It is still early days, but hopefully it can gain traction and we can avoid the need for auction houses and eBay, and at lower cost. For now, they are a necessary evil.
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| Auctioneer reference photo |
Matched Pairs at Auction
13Bay: Lot29 2013B* Duplicated SN Matched Pair CU64 & VF25 (Buy-it-Now)
13Bay: Lot30 2013B* Duplicate SN 08881993 Matched Pair VF30+AU58 (Buy-it-Now)
Current Auctions at 13Bay
Are YOU Missing In Action?
Project 2013B has a list of members who didn’t respond to our contact attempts. If your serial number or Owner ID appears on the following webpage, please contact us—you are part-owner of a matched pair!
