Interesting Legend Auction

BryceM

The Legend auction isn't terribly huge, in terms of numbers of lots, but there are always some interesting coins to see and usually a handful that I find both desirable and within my price range. For this one I set my sights on two coins and was completely blown out of the water on the first one, with the bid advancing about 7 or 8 increments in the live session. I was apparently a lot luckier with the second lot. It is, of course, bad karma to share too many details before actually getting the thing in-hand so details will have to wait. This rather inexpensive coin is significant to me for more than a few reasons.

What surprised me a bit was the large number of lots failing to meet reserves. This happened over a large variety of coins and price points, all the way from half-cents to commems. I didn't count them all, but there were 13 in the first 100 lots that didn't meet reserves. David Hall's huge set of toned Morgans were all listed without reserves. In the case of the MS67 1923 Peace Dollar, the reserve price didn't seem all that out of line. The blast white 1922-D Peace Dollar in MS66 CAC went for $1850 + 17.5% = $2174, which is OK, but slightly below other recent sales.

Your thoughts on the auction?

crypto79

I am not sure legend has done an adequate job attracting bulk meat & potato collectors to their auctions. While we all know these are not their target market one must realize that margins are made off of the back of countless underbidders and only collectors and not dealers will typically pay all the money retail and above at auction. I don't know about others but I am not an unserious collector but I haven't even begun to incorporate their auctions into my "gota check" routine. Not that I haven't looked or wouldnt buy, there just haven't been the resonating connection with this mid level specialists which makes sense as they do mostly high end type and elite set building and neither is a market I make moves in.

IMHO they need a couple registration pushes and incentives on active bidders to take it to the next level. I truly belive that there is a direct correlation to site traffic and prices realized. Little things like bidding on 5 lots get free shipping or 20 direct underbidder bid gets a free bid protection increment, who knows but with a high end product and an innovative bidding system plus their pictures the sky is the limit for them Imo.

OldIndianNutKase

I had two coins that I was serious about and I got one. Happy with that. The interesting thing about the one that I got was that another bidder placed 17 bids on the coin before I placed mine. With a $100 bid increment I thought the actual bid might be $1700 above the current bid. So, just as a probe late last night I bid $100 over the required next increment, just to see how far out the high bid might be. To my total amazement I was shown as the winning bidder. So, I went to bed thinking about if I really wanted this coin, which was over CoinFacts pricing, but way above CoinFacts look for a PR66BN MPL. When I awoke this morning I had been overbid, somewhat to my relief. But the competing bidder was very active on a number of very high quality coins, so I assume it was probably a dealer. And may have seen the coin in hand and thought it was more like a 67, which is very believable from the pics. So, I raised the bid just one increment about 5 minutes before the end of the auction and won the coin.

I'll post it when I get it.

There were a lot of really great deals on toned Morgans, some going for only a few hundred bucks, surprising to me. And some coins selling for more than an almost identical coin on Legend's web site.

OINK

Justacommeman

I looked at every coin in the auction the past two days. There were some absolute stellar coins, there were some interesting coins and there were some coins that will have go to good homes elsewhere. The best coins had mostly spirited bids and I thought some of the proof Cameo Morgans were gorgeous. To Jon's point they may need to market to attract active bidders in the lower to mid range camp.

In all auctions there are a few coins with warts. No exception here, just to a smaller degree then you would have in a heritage or stacks auction where you have to navigate through a lot of land mines.

I do love the Boutique auction Legend is running as a whole including their catalogs which are brilliant. There future is bright and I wouldn't mine being apart of it.

Mark

tradedollarnut

I bid on three coins and won just one - the nicest red proof two cent piece that I've seen in over five years of looking. It's for my wife's type set.

BWCoin

I was very surprised at the number not meeting reserves especially since Laura had been talking about how there were rejecting coins with too high of reserves.

keyman64

With just a little time left, I noticed that some of Bear's coins were doing well and others...not so much. I guess that is what happens when you pay retail-ish and sell quickly.