Goldberg auctions, worth the premium?

Kaelasdad

Was looking at all the coins, ok, not ALL the coins, they have thousands and thousands, and saw some things that I liked, but when they tack on that 20%, ouch. Anyone care to share their experience with these auctions and if it was worth it or better to pass?

Thanks, Russ

coinguy1

Russ, simply take the buyer's premium into consideration when calculating your total bid and reduce your hammer bid accordingly. In the vast majority of cases the so-called buyer's premium actually comes out of the seller's pocket (in the form of reduced hammer bids upon which they are paid by the auction house).

Edited to add: All of the major auction houses have "buyer's premiums" similar, if not identical to that of the Goldberg's(bidders typically pay 20% instead of 15% if they bid via Ebay) - don't pick only on them.

Stork

You can go to their website, sign up, and get the 15% rate instead. Strangely, compared to many other ebay auctions, there is a direct link you can click on to get to their website. Or use this one: Linkage.

Cathy

edited to add:
BTW I've gotten three things from them...no problems with the slabbed coins--I got what I paid for--but the raw coin had been obviously (but not in the pictures) cleaned. I chalked that one up as a learning lesson, but I wouldn't buy from them unless it's slabbed, or you've got a buddy to look at it in hand for you (or look at it yourself for that matter if you happen to be in the neighborhood I suppose).

majorbigtime

Unless you like to overpay, ot would be stupid to bid via Ebay and pay an extra 5%,

Kaelasdad

Thanks Mark, I did not mean to imply I was only picking on them, they just happen to my first entre, I should have instead said "any auction that has a premium, are they worth it". You are of course correct in noting that I should have a total limit for any purchases, and I rethought what I was bidding when I saw what the premium added to the bottom line. I was not aware that there was less of a premium if you did not bid through Ebay, thats where i first saw the auction items. Im a newbie, I know it.

I will make any further bids through the lower premium avenues, theres a savings of 5% right there! yeah

Thank you for your information on slabbed versus nonslabbed Cathy, we all forget from time to time that we take chances on nonslabbed coins, and we should remember buyer beware. It is a gamble at best, some win, some lose, but the smart ones learn fast.

roadrunner

While no authority on this, I tend to think that Goldberg's gets more than their fare share of nice consignments for how few sales they do. If anything, they often underplay their consignments than to overplay them (Benson, etc.). Such is also true of ANR. Both work on a smaller scale than Heritage of course. If anything I've thought Goldberg's gets more great stuff per consignment than the others, but their volume is less. Unfortunately I rarely make it out to Long Beach anymore and miss participating in their sales.

roadrunner