What was your worst auction consignment blunder?
Coinstartled
Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭
Please don't insult or blame the auction house as that is poofable. 
I watched a circulated common, minor mint error Peace Dollar hammer at $7 on Wednesday night. (I got outbid 
)
It was clearly not a coin destined for auction, though the hit the consignor took was relatively small.
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I would pay $7.20 for that Peace dollar
I have so many stories to tell...mainly about varieties that seemingly very few cared about.
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my worst error was a non consignment. sold a coin to a dealer for what I believed was a reasonable amount (it was) and then the dealer promptly put it up for auction where it went for double the price.
Plus $19 buyer fee plus shipping!!!
I had a similar but opposite situation. Dealer made a strong offer for $18,500 for some coins. Sent to great collections instead and I netted $16,200
Don’t want to talk about how much I was into them for.
I consigned a Civil War sutler token at a low price hoping that it would draw more bids at an auction that usually did well. Darned if it didn’t sell for only one bid.
The price paid was half of what it was worth. Who ever bought was in a position to come close to doubling their money.
For those who are not familiar with sutler tokens, they were Civil War tokens that merchants who served the soldiers in the field with goods and special food, sometimes liquor. They range in rarity from quite scarce to rare. This piece was only scarce. Today they can sell for prices that range from several hundred to a few thousand dollars.
piracy
Let Bowers & Merena put a group of error coins into a single lot. I think it ended up being about a 50% haircut.
I sent a box of PCGS double dimes to GC last year, and accidentally included a 1875-S BF-16 with an 80% rotation. Oops!
I wasn't sure if GC would allow me to bid on my own consignments to get it back, so I had my girlfriend open an account and bid.
She won. Got it back for $45.
Had to admit to girlfriend that I spend much more on coins than I do on her.
I had purchased a 1799 Large Cent In PCGS VG-10 Once from a dealer at a show, enjoyed it for a year but then changed directions. Was at a Baltimore show, and showed it too a copper dealer (who lots of folks know) and was insulted at the offer he made, Something like 15% of what it was worth. Lets say, never offered him a thing again. So I decided too place it in a national auction. They recommended a reserve at a fair price, one that should guarantee a sale. But when the auction came, It didn't meet the reserve. So I had to cover the fee for not meeting reserve it was like 3% of the reserve price. I then contacted the dealer I bought it from prior, and was able to sell it for what I would have netted selling it through auction had it met reserve. this was about 8 to 10 years ago.
If, after finding out, she's still your girlfriend....MARRY HER!!
Lost a grand on an svdb at an auction house that everyone brags on here. Let them talk me into a 60% starting bid. Nice coin, but only one person shopping that particular night.
Still too painful to talk about.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
She's a hottie, but no can do. The cost of maintaining my collection of ex-wives is prohibitive.
Do almost blunders count. Recently, I wanted to consign a particular coin for auction that I had received in return for a loan. I talked to the man who owns the auction service. He intimated that $ 2,000.00 was likely all it was worth. I told him that I would be really upset if the coin only sold for $ 2,000.00. He didn't like that I doubted his expertise and we parted ways. The toning on the coin was exceptional and the coin was very low mintage. I sold it to a national dealer for $ 2,900 just a few weeks later. just sayin
Man I could rant with specifics on this thread but I won't. It's a bad thing when you have to buy back your own auction lots because of poor pictures and descriptions. I did net more selling myself after buying them back. That was a several thousand dollar lesson!
Haven't consigned anything in years and doubt I ever will again. I may not consign 6-7 figures at a time but I could now. Karma is a good thing! Had a bunch of coins(Russian) consigned and they would not list them when the market was hot! I pushed and they returned them with a note saying they were not good enough for their venue! I went on to sell the 3-400K worth of Russian coins for more than their top prices realized! Since when are $1-4,000 coins not good enough? 4 or 5 of the coins returned were Platinum 3 Roubles along with early Gold and Many nice Roubles!
I will say I did well with what they did sell for me but to counter that all the stuff that was closer to Bullion Value they put up(and they did put it all up) and I would have done better selling myself.
one more for me. bought a coin from a dealer who made a big deal on his site about buying back his own coins. changed direction and asked him for an offer a year or so later. his reply was he didnt need it. when I asked him for any offer and i knew I would take a haircut , he wrote back he isnt a bank. when i quoted language to him on his site and how much i spend on coins a year he was much more deferential but still no offer. Ended up auctioning it and took the haircut I knew I would take. normally wouldnt blame the dealer for not making the offer back but his site really emphasized the security of buying through him because of the buyback. Never bought another coin from him and he probably lost alot of sales to me not only because he didnt make an offer (60% I would have taken) but also because he was short with me about it.
Planchet wasn't all that was clipped.
Best, Steve Deeds, "Superior". Worst, Goldberg. HA always seemed to bring strong market prices even for details coins. I came to realize in a less than robust market you are taking big chances on a lot of coins that would do better with straight offers from major buyers or online.
Previously there was a post, that seems to have been revised, about how one of you “took a haircut” on a big lot of errors in an auction. The late Steve Tannenbaum told me about a lot of tokens he bought in a major auction for a few hundred dollars that had a $10,000 token hidden among the pieces. His quote was, “The auction house showed a total lack of respect for the material,” (by going through it to see what was there.
Those multi-item lots can be frustrating. Recently there was one in a political items auction that had eight pieces in it. There are two or three pieces in it that really had my attention, but “the big item” was something I already had. I had to pass because to get the two or three I really wanted, I had to buy five others I didn’t want. Unfortunately I don’t have any viable outlets for political pieces.
Auctions can be risky....I have purchased a couple of good deals...lost some to deals to high testosterone....I just drop out when it appears ego is involved....Cheers, RickO
The worst results I ever experienced from a consignment occurred whenever I was foolhardy enough to consign to an auction during a slow show at a slow time of year. Other than that, there were lessons learned from lots listed with no reserve, multiple items lot and buybacks. Many times it's a crap shoot, and you either shine or eat a turd (guess I wasn't thinking about dice).
picked up an uncirculated Moustache Peace dollar early this year. Could not live with it when I brought it home, so I had to make it go away.
ended up losing 50% in a quick month or so. At the end of the day, I am just glad its gone