Teletrade

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Posted By: Dan

I am new to the forum and have enjoyed reading the different topics. I have a question. Does anyone know why Teletrade quit selling sports cards? I remember buying some nice items from them in their auctions. I put my collecting on hold, when I moved. I decided to check their site and now all they have are coin auctions. Thought I would check to see if anyone on this board may have any information. Thanks.

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Posted By: brian

I heard somewhere that the number of consignments went way down due to eBay. Also, prices realized were too low to satisfy the consignors. Maybe someone else has inside info? Teletrade was really a lot of fun over the telephone about 15 or 20 years ago, when I picked up T3 cards in EX+ for 60 bucks apiece.

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Posted By: dstudeba

I think the Sportscards division was bought by Superior who then ceased to exist. They haven't been around for 3-4 years.

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Posted By: Dan

Thanks for the information. I know I enjoyed their auctions and was curious to find out what became of them.

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Posted By: Fred C

The last Superior Sports Card auction was a mess. They had a LOAD of N172 cards. There was no NO indication of a reserve price on the card. By the time the auction ended more than half the cards were not sold although they all had bids. The scans were not that great and the image on many of the cards was lighter than the photos indicated. After the auction a few people made a few deals with Superior and purchased some cards outright. The unsold cards were later distributed to a few auction houses that auctioned them on ebay.

Teletrade was a good way to get cards many years ago. As mentioned, the demise of Teletrade could be paralleled to ebays popularity as an outlet to sell cards. I liked Teletrade. It was run by some nice people.

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Posted By: Paul

I liked Teletrade too, but was it really 15-20 years ago when they were around? It seems more recent to me than that.

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Posted By: Dan

I think I bought items up to 1998 - 1999.

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Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

Fred,

The N172's in the last Superior auction had undisclosed reserves because they made an enormous error in buying the cards at any price let alone at the ridiculously inflated prices they did pay. They had to have lost a lot of money on them. It was also well know that the cards, while having graded EXMT to NM-MT by PSA, had all been professionally restored prior to Superior buying them in their PSA holders. Many collectors knew that or at least suspected that and stayed away.

Greg

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Posted By: leon

I might be incorrect but didn't Bussineau (sp?) start Teletrade? I remember the Superior Auctions too...I always thought it was a conflict of interest to grade cards and then auction them (as I think they were owned by Collectors Universe)....Just as ironic I got this card that was in an old SGC slab in one of their last auctions. I since had it put into a newer holder and it crossed fine.

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Posted By: Aaron Conyers

If I remember correctly Teletrade was affiliated with Greg Mannings Auctions. Superior Auctions is now legacysportsrarities.

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Posted By: David Goff

Teletrade...that brings back some memories.

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Posted By: Rich Klein

Was their fees when you consigned to them. I remember reading certain posts about people who sent them in cards for sale who ended up having to send Teletrade $$$ after only a small percent of their cards were sold. Yes, I know this happens with EBay nowadays with unsold items, but in those days, not everyone was using EBay or familiar with the concept of having to spend even more $$$ even in their card(s) were sold. Great business model for the auction house, terrible for the seller, many times it worked well for the buyer

Rich

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Posted By: Misunderestimated (Brian H.)

I especially miss the voice on the phone... So warm and friendly.

as I recall Dave Foreman -- now of SGC -- ran Teletrade for a while.