OHHH THE HORROR! An auction story.
Shamika
Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭
Most every Friday night I leave work for a local auction house that sells just about everything you can imagine. In truth, it's more like a large tag sale or flea market than an auction. But there are two auctioneers that professionally call for bids so it legitamately can be called an auction. Its unusual for me to ever find anything worth bidding on although I have purchased an antique bed frame for my daughter, a beautiful old blanket chest, and even picked up a box of old coin books for next to nothing a few years ago. It's more fun than anything else.
Anyway, on rare occasions there are coins to be offered, but usually they're cleaned gold or junk silver. There once was a mint state Trade Dollar, but I wouldn't know a good counterfeit from the real thing so I didn't give it a second thought.
So here's the story: Large stand alone items that are to be auctioned do just that; stand alone. But smaller items or collections of small items are placed on old cafeteria lunch trays or within cardboard boxes. So there I am rummaging through some hard-to-get-at boxes and under a pile of old highway maps I spot a
Wayte Raymond album hidden from view. Since I'm a collector of old coin albums, I was somewhat excited to find an old album such as this. But when I pulled it out, it's significant heft told me immediately that it was full of coins. My heart was now starting to pound with excitement. On the cover was printed UNITED STATES SMALL CENTS so I'm now fantasizing of the monster rip I'm about to win. I open the book and it's FULL of Indian Head cents including all dates except for 1877, 1908-S, and 1909-S. It even has two flying eagle cents (1857 and 1858). And even better, many of the Indian cents are mint state RB!
But guess what? EVERY SINGLE COIN WAS HOLED! I've never in my life seen so many hold coins before. Ohhh the horror.
I stuck around to see the lot sell for $75.
Anyway, on rare occasions there are coins to be offered, but usually they're cleaned gold or junk silver. There once was a mint state Trade Dollar, but I wouldn't know a good counterfeit from the real thing so I didn't give it a second thought.
So here's the story: Large stand alone items that are to be auctioned do just that; stand alone. But smaller items or collections of small items are placed on old cafeteria lunch trays or within cardboard boxes. So there I am rummaging through some hard-to-get-at boxes and under a pile of old highway maps I spot a
Wayte Raymond album hidden from view. Since I'm a collector of old coin albums, I was somewhat excited to find an old album such as this. But when I pulled it out, it's significant heft told me immediately that it was full of coins. My heart was now starting to pound with excitement. On the cover was printed UNITED STATES SMALL CENTS so I'm now fantasizing of the monster rip I'm about to win. I open the book and it's FULL of Indian Head cents including all dates except for 1877, 1908-S, and 1909-S. It even has two flying eagle cents (1857 and 1858). And even better, many of the Indian cents are mint state RB!
But guess what? EVERY SINGLE COIN WAS HOLED! I've never in my life seen so many hold coins before. Ohhh the horror.
I stuck around to see the lot sell for $75.
Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
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- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
<< <i>And even better, many of the Indian cents are mint state RB!
But guess what? EVERY SINGLE COIN WAS HOLED! I've never in my life seen so many hold coins before. Ohhh the horror.
I stuck around to see the lot sell for $75. >>
Umm... methinks you missed out on a serious opportunity there. If that many of the pieces were RB UNCS, even holed you could easily have made your money back... let alone the variety potential of the lot.
1/2 Cents
U.S. Revenue Stamps
<< <i>I think you could have bought it and flipped it to a couple of guys on this forum for a tidy sum. >>
You're probably right. But without a clear idea of what they were worth, I didn't want to bother. The stress of trying to sell a collection that I knew I wouldn't want for myself is more than I want to take on. After all, this is and always has been a hobby for me. If I see a good deal on coins that I don't collect or already have, I'm more likely to point it out to a fellow collector than to flip it for my own profit (not that there's anything wrong with doing otherwise).
For what it's worth, the two Flyers were heavily circulated. If those had been in better condition and without holes, I would have easily bid over $100.
<< <i>Bummer. But, the anticipation leading up to the opening was such a rush. Wasn't it. >>
Certainly the biggest thrill I've had in a long time. In hind sight, I should have just held off opening the album for a few minutes to just let the anticipation soak in.
i have had similair things happen to me with comic books.
i will see an old old world's finest DC book and i pull it out
of the box only to find a mouse had chewed a big half circle
out of the spine. you open it up and it is holed! lol.