Ever been to a non-coin, coin auction?
JeffersonFrog
Posts: 1,090 ✭✭✭✭✭
So I attended my first small-town USA auction recently. The location does not matter - all that was missing was an American Gothic print on the wall. There were 250+ items, ranging from tools to furniture to household items to vehicles. And 10 coin lots. There might of been 30 of us bidders in the audience.
The first coin lot was an NGC-62 Saint. The auctioneer told us he had no idea of current gold and silver prices (all of the coin lots were either gold or silver). Six of the lots were slabbed, but no mention was made during the bidding of PCGS/NGC (4 lots) or the 4th tier (2 lots) grading entities. He had no Red Book, Greysheet, Price Guide or eBay reference data. I thought this guy had just fallen off the turnip truck. He had the last laugh though. Six of the lots sold at 40% -200% over current market. Three did not sell. On the other hand, one fortunate soul bought a large lot of BU silver for below melt!
Do you think my experience was pretty typical, or did I just happen to visit on "one of those days"?
Whatever the norm, I found the experience worthwhile.
If we were all the same, the world would be an incredibly boring place.
Tommy
Comments
I went to one of those once, and saw the same thing. If I remember correctly, a group of 5 worn Standing Liberty quarters sold for $50. The dealer friend I went with was paying 12x face at the time.
Maybe a good place to move your common stuff and get top dollar for it from the public who overestimate worth.
What are the typical fees for this type of auction?
Attended property auctions run by licensed auction houses. Bidding is usually fast and furious because the auctioneer controls the pace. Even with preview time for people to inspect before bidding, it appears that many people throw caution and control out the window. It is apparent that people do not know the numismatic value of most coins. And that's life. Peace Roy
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Only one I've been to was the same story. People overpaying for damn near everything and the auctioneer was horrible. I don't plan on going back.
Collector, occasional seller
Here in flyover country, practically no estates or households have any worthwhile coins, but almost every single estate/household auction has 10 or 20 coins included.
Several of the auctioneers regularly visit the coin dealers in the two nearest big cities and get some moderately passable coins for their auctions. The auctioneers are no fools, and there are shills in the crowd too.
Should an estate actually have some decent coins, the 'coin community' gets wind of it pretty quickly. Most often, however, heirs (or some individual heir) will jump on the best stuff first.
These auctions are not a consistent source for coins which actually lie outside the regular marketplace.
They're the best. I'm leaving work right now to go to one. LOVE getting the deals that come up every now and then.
Wish me luck.
The auctions in our area are scams with a small group of vest pocket guys seeding coins into each auction. Cleaned, repaired, fakes, etc. and the auctioneers disavowing all knowledge, yada, yada. One of the auctioneers is an ex-cop and still allows fakes in the sales.
I’ve been to a few. Lots of shill bidders were there. Easy to spot if you paid attention. Some stuff went cheap and some stuff sold for more than retail new. I saw a couple of “complete” merc dime sets with dubious 16-Ds.
I went to one that had a bunch of Redfield, red holders. (My main interest) Those suckers sold for more than the full MS-65 grade on the holder. The 91-S sold for 3 grand!! The 92-CC, maybe a 62 at best, sold for 10K. I wish I had brought a few of my hundreds along. I would have sold them to all the underbidders, and then to the under-under-bidders.
Yes, I've done the same in rural Nevada. Small town fever drives the prices up.....License plates showed more than half of attendees were from Las Vegas. Foxes on the hunt looking for the unsuspecting but alas they were fooled.
bob
I have never been to a coin auction. I have been to firearm auctions (held by the State Police, selling confiscated arms). Unbelievable.... I know there were no shill bidders due to the controlling venue, however, there were insane people.... Final prices (no juice) were above what they could have gone to a firearms store and bought a new gun (same model). Occasionally, there were good buys, when it was an obscure brand or model. Just testosterone fueled insanity. Cheers, RickO
Been to a few in TX over the years. It was fun the first few times. Comments above pretty well describe - ignorance prevails. Things that are actually scarce or rare don't generally make it that far. Same with "antique" stores and malls, flea markets, etc. No doubt there are things of value hiding here and there, but would have to have a ton of spare time to make the effort worthwhile, once the fun wears thin, which it did pretty quickly for me. As a strictly pecuniary exercise, better to buy lottery tickets IMO.
Those coins are probably seeded into the sale by the auctioneer. He is looking for "live ones" to overpay on generic coins (often gold). This has been going on in this type of auction for many, many years. Another trick they use (when auctioning estates with dead consignors and heirs that just want quick cash) is to seed in low quality items similar to the high quality items that the estate actually contains. My own personal experience with this type of auction back in the 1980's was very negative. If the auctioneer owns an item (and they won't tell you if they do) watch out.