Scott E. Strahan Collection of $20 Gold Auction - Anyone Win Anything?
Sonnys88
Posts: 180 ✭✭✭
Did anyone here win anything in Leslie Hindman's coin auction yesterday? They were selling a nice collection of high grade $20 gold - The Estate of Scott E. Strahan.
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/121029_numismatics-the-estate-of-scott-e-strahan/
I placed bids on most of the auction, but didn't win any - losing by only a bid on most. But, I think there was still some money to made if you are a big dealer in $20 gold. The 26% BP and bid increments kept some of the common lower grades (MS 61 to 63) below the current market price (many $1400 to $1500 coins selling for $1320 with the BP).
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That is a very impressive collection.... You mentioned a 26% BP... How long before it hits 50%?.... Cheers, RickO
The higher the premium goes, the more opportunities for competitors to gain market share
Surely 26% is within trolling range, if nothing else for the insult to calculation. A careless analysis of Sotheby's commission structure show big savings (for a while) after $300K. If I misquoted and am too lazy to go back and check exactly, I hope others besides @ricko get the joke
Pretty good imaging,
However....
It would have been better if, instead of mimicking the very staid and perhaps pseudo-British pretentiousness in heading each lot in the style of "A United States 1852-O $20 Liberty US Gold Coin",, they indicated in the heading the coin was TPG graded.
In fact, nowhere in the auction except in individual lot descriptions does it note anything whatsoever about TPG grading.
From the one lot I looked at, the coins likely did well, so ignorance is bliss. If you want me to act on my lust or greed, get me as thoroughly engaged as quickly as possible. A good design and pathetically uneducated use of it by the cataloguer.
When I started in computers in 1966, someone had already conceptualized "table-driven logic".
Jimmy Halperin recognized this immediately, and the unsurpassable head start he gave himself has created much dust to eat.
Sorry, Spectrum, you ditched the wrong IT guy when StacksBowers came into being, or at least the one you kept either didn't have the balls to tell management their old work could be replaced and improved, didn't even realize it, or if they tried, couldn't get management to listen.
Sorry, Leslie Hindman, your problem is not that complex. In fact, it's childishly simple. People selling $20 items on ebay know better.
Yeah the 26% BP is pretty high, but it never concerns me as a bidder, as I just calculate it into my bid. The bid increments were more of a factor in this auction for me.
But, if I were a seller, that high of a BP would definitely keep me away from selling with that auction house. You would do better selling it outright to a dealer on most of the collection. I wouldn’t be surprised if the seller was charged a commission as well as this auction house mainly deals in antiques and fine art (don’t think they cut deals for coins).
I completely agree about the cataloging. The grade is a vital factor and they left it out of the titles. Makes no sense.
They don’t sell many coins, so I doubt they know the industry standards on how to catalog a coin collection. But, if they did the slightest bit of due diligence, they could see how coins are usually catalogued and follow that format.
I wonder why the collection didn’t go to Heritage, Stacks, GC, or one of the other big guys?
I won a few lots. I have no idea why their terms of sale are listed as they are in that link you provided, but the buyer's premium was 20%....I know this for a fact cause that's what I paid'em. Col. J...completely agree the lot headings should have indicated these were TPG graded. In fact, I didn't realize this until I went over to view the lots in person
Harlan J. Berk, Ltd.
https://hjbltd.com/#!/department/us-coins
I believe it’s 20% for in-person and absentee bidding via their website, and 26% for all online bidding (due to the fees that the third party auction sites charge).
Hope you got some good deals!
All I read is $1300.00 coins sold for $1600.00 seems the only one making money was the Auctioneer.
Since the consignor's estate had no idea on how well he did or how well he might have done or what they left on the table in their commission rate, nor likely did the auctioneer, The collector was a serious one, and I saw quite a few serious coins. I hope you didn't have to pay too fairly.
More out of prurient interest than a desire to promote a friend's inventory, anything you might safely, without getting bitched at for marking up more than 6.25% share to pique our curious palates
Several interesting varieties brought ordinary prices. But there's no detailed guide so few know what to look for.
Col. J, your palate shall remain dry to curiosity...sorry. RogerB, there are prices realized, however, the house doesn't make it easy to discover.
Harlan J. Berk, Ltd.
https://hjbltd.com/#!/department/us-coins
The link in the 1st post will give you the prices realized. Depending on how you placed your bid, you need to add 22-28 percent to account for the BP and the shipping charges. You need to arrange shipping and No credit cards accepted, also. So that adds to the hassle of getting involved. The prices for the good stuff were strong all things considered as mentioned in this thread. The real shame for the estate is some nice PCGS certified coins realized near and below melt net to them. This is a great example of where just a little bit of knowledge for the estate can be worth serious cash.
I couldn't find them on the first link. But did find them on the company's own website.
catalogues.lesliehindman.com/asp/search.asp?pg=1&st=D&sale_no=608&_ga=2.85902426.2980996.1527078758-825464485.1527078758
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