Auction Reserve or buyback
Coinobsessed
Posts: 73 ✭✭✭
I wanted to share a recent experience and get thoughts/comments. I was discussing coins with a dealer when they said they had a certain coin that I may be interested in. They have owned it for a long time. I had a lower grade coin but could consider it. Next I noticed they had put it in an auction. I called the dealer and they said it would have no reserve. They said what they thought it would sell for. I bid in the auction for more than they bought it back in the last auction. I dropped out and the coin sold for one more increment. After the auction I saw the dealer had the coin again. I understand that technically they had no reserve, but they bid it up to the equivalent of a reserve.
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Comments
Not someone I would do business with. But JMO.
I assume this dealer had to pay the auction company both the buyer and seller premiums on that coin.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Hopefully.
Some auction houses don’t allow consignors to bid on their own coins.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Mark, this was Heritage.
Heritage doesn’t allow consignors to bid on their own coins - I even have personal experience with that, which I’ll get to shortly. Until then…If a consignor has someone else place a winning bid under a different account, the consignor pays the full agreed-to seller’s commission and the winning bidder pays the full buyer’s premium.
Now, for the personal experience part…
When, before joining Heritage, I had my own coin dealership, I frequently participated in their sales as a consignor and/or a buyer. Typically, I’d view auction lots, either at shows or in the Dallas office and once I got back home, I’d start placing bids on-line. Every once in a while, when I tried to place a bid, a message would pop up, telling me that consignors couldn’t bid on their own coins. You see, in viewing hundreds of lots, every once in a while, I ended up viewing, liking and wanting to bid on a lot that I’d (unknowingly) consigned.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
If a dealer wants to bury themselves in a coin, I'm not going to spend any time worrying about it.
_ They have owned it for a long time. _
And now we know why…. Must think it’s more valuable than the market believes it is. Or as suggested they’re buried in it and keep hoping someone with a big shovel comes along.
I saw the same thing happen with a coin a dealer had on GC. I thought the coin sold on GC but a week later it was back in dealer's inventory.
Having consigned to both GC and HA in the last couple of years, I recall that I wasn't allowed to bid on my listings, but there are work arounds if you friends I guess.
http://ProofCollection.Net
Wouldn’t the bidding “friend” of the dealer just be a non payment bidder, no fees charged to anyone, and I’m guessing the coin would get returned to the original consignor (the dealer)?
If this happened more than a couple of times, I would imagine the dealer would be told to take his business elsewhere and the dealer's "friend" would be banned from bidding in future auctions.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Interesting they could bid on their own material. What auc house is this? Well I guess you did not bid high enough / he did not want to give it away at that.
This just points out you need to do your pricing research and not let yourself be caught up in auction fever.