Local Auctions - Any Experience with These?

C0inCollect0r · December 21, 2011 1:33PM

Hi Folks,

I was just reading through an ad from a smaller local auction house - They supposedly run monthly auctions of "Antiques, Collectibles, and Coins." I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with these types of auctions - Does the material tend to be good, bad, or ugly? Same question for the prices realized - do items tend to go relatively cheap or relatively expensive, compared to eBay for example.

I know there's certainly a lot of variability among the different auction houses but I was just curious if anyone has had any experience with these local auctions in general, one way or the other.

Happy Holidays.

kimber45ACP · December 21, 2011 1:36PM

Sometimes there is some good stuff, but the biggest thing I learned is to watch
for the shill bidders in the room. Stay near the back to see who you're bidding against.
It can also be a place for local "dealers" to dump problem coins to the unaware.

commoncents05 · December 21, 2011 1:36PM

There's a local auctioneer where I'm from, and I used to go to their auctions every once in a while. Looking back, the stuff was a lot of junk, but I did score a couple of decent deals. 95% of it though goes for ridiculous money. A lot of the bidders overbid problem coins, and when a nice, original piece comes up, it usually gets overlooked.

-Paul

michiganboy · December 21, 2011 1:38PM

Where I live they have local auctions, all the prices are usually bid to high by old ladies willing to pay way too much for junk and then add on the buyers premium and I just don't even bother going anymore. They also serve alcohol which i'm sure doesn't help.

hockeyfan9 · December 21, 2011 1:53PM

Check out Proxibid and you can decide for yourself.

LanceNewmanOCC · December 21, 2011 2:20PM

<< <i>Check out Proxibid and you can decide for yourself. >>

and auctionzip

itsnotjustme · December 21, 2011 8:29PM

I went to a local auction house in rural VA with a large collection of coins being auctions.

Vast majority raw. 90% silver, Commems (most modern), proof and mint sets (1940s forward). There were at least 10 smart collectors or dealers present. Most items went at exactly the price you would expect... one that would leave 5-10% in it to re-sell. With one great exception, I did not see anything go for stupid (as in uninformed stupid vice need to have choive coin stupid) money.

This was an early dime or half dime. The variety sighted in the catalog was not the actual variety. It was an easy to identify difference (curle vice flat base 2). It went for very significant $ above value.

kranky · December 21, 2011 9:28PM

No personal experience but I have talked with a vest pocket dealer who does them regularly. Lots of junk, some nice stuff. If you can grade well, detect counterfeit gold, pick up on VAMS and desirable varieties, and know where you can resell things then you could have some success. You'll never get a You Suck on proof sets (for example) since everyone there can look up what they are worth, but you hope to spot an undetected good VAM or a raw coin that will grade higher than it might be marked.

And he told me this tale, where he was at a auction and ran into another dealer who does mail order business.

Friend: You bought that lot of Unc Standing Liberty quarters?
Other dealer: Yeah.
Friend: Did you take a good look at them?
Other dealer: Not really.
Friend: I looked at them during the viewing and I thought they all had rub. They weren't Uncs.
Other dealer: Well, they are now!

scotty1419 · December 21, 2011 9:54PM

My experiences at estate auctions have led me to no longer try that venue for purchases.

Lots of excited buyers who are happy to pay more than retail for something. Lots of low quality items.

jdimmick · December 21, 2011 11:08PM

Same comments as above:

Lots of junk, prices realized on stuff like common gold, common dollars, common large cents go nuts. Last one I went to people were paying $45-50 each for $16-20 large cents.
Lots of counterfeit gold, make sure you know what you are looking at. A few years ago I went to preview a complete gold type set that was comingup the next sat am. The $10 indian, the $2 1/2 lib, the $3.00 piece were all bad, plus a few of the others and one of the 20's were cleaned to death. The set sold for upwards of 8k

On some of the suction companies, they have shillers pushing people up , I have seen this first hand, becuase the next auction the same coins are in it again, and it appeared that a customer bought it the first time, when it fact it was an auction rep shilling.

I quit going a long time back, but I have seen folks who recently attended bring in fake silver $ of all sorts especially CC's.

JIm

golfer72 · December 22, 2011 12:31AM

"Friend: You bought that lot of Unc Standing Liberty quarters?
Other dealer: Yeah.
Friend: Did you take a good look at them?
Other dealer: Not really.
Friend: I looked at them during the viewing and I thought they all had rub. They weren't Uncs.
Other dealer: Well, they are now! "

Walkerguy21D · December 22, 2011 12:56AM

I used to attend these frequently back in Ohio, as two houses had coin auctions regularly.
Like everyone else said, lots of junk, and you can't touch popular items, like Morgan dollars.
A damaged and questionable 1877 cent would bring strong money, meanwhile I picked up a choice XF 1869 cent for half of Bid.

Watch out for fakes and altered items. I once told the auctioneer prior to the auction that I thought the 1799 cent
was altered. He announced this when it came up. It still brought $1200 for a worn, corroded POS 10 yr ago. And I later found out
that my prognosis was correct.
Another friend bought a very large bundle of mint sets. When he got home, he found that all the 1970 sets had the halves cut out of them.

shorecoll · December 22, 2011 12:58AM

In our area there's a cabal of low-end no ethics dealers who are actually the suppliers to most of the "estate" auctions. They shill for each other so I'm not sure that's exactly illegal and most of them work hand-in-glove with the auctioneers. They only time you get a deal is if they don't know what it is or where prices guides are totally out of whack. There are always counterfeits and/or altered dates, removed mintmarks, etc. so you must know what you're doing.

habaraca · December 22, 2011 1:02AM

How does one find out about these auctions

I haven't seen any listed or mentioned, so maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

any search hints???

DAM · December 22, 2011 1:43AM

My experiences at estate auctions have led me to no longer try that venue for purchases.

Lots of excited buyers who are happy to pay more than retail for something. Lots of low quality items

My experience also. People go nuts over a coin from the year of their relative, or other.

How does one find out about these auctions

I haven't seen any listed or mentioned, so maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

any search hints???

A lot of times you can find them listed in your local newspaper.

rec78 · December 23, 2011 1:17AM

<< <i>Hi Folks,

I was just reading through an ad from a smaller local auction house - They supposedly run monthly auctions of "Antiques, Collectibles, and Coins." I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with these types of auctions - Does the material tend to be good, bad, or ugly? Same question for the prices realized - do items tend to go relatively cheap or relatively expensive, compared to eBay for example.

I know there's certainly a lot of variability among the different auction houses but I was just curious if anyone has had any experience with these local auctions in general, one way or the other.

Happy Holidays. >>

Depends. I have got a lot of coins cheap due to auctioneer naivety - For instance they miss mintmarks-They don't know varieties and cannot distinguish a BU from a Proof a lot of times. On the other hand some dealers unload junk material that they cannot sell openly or even try to deceive people by placing altered coins in albums etc,etc,etc. If you get a true estate you have a much better chance or getting something at a decent cost. I have gone to many over the years--Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. You need to be know what you are buying. What irritates me the most is when there are "reserves", then I know damn well I won't buy a single coin and just go home.

I find that in mixed auctions (i.e. when they offer other items besides coins) you can usually pick off varieties and better date and better grade coins at low bids if there are any. I used to be pretty good at calling which auctions I could make buys at. For instance I went to an auction where they had about 50 raw silver dollars mostly common dates. However there were two choice BU 1892-P Morgans in there. The auctioneer gave choice-I said to my friend these people are not collectors so they will overpay for the common stuff and we can buy those 1892-P's for just over common price. That is exactly what happened. We bought them for $35 each. The rest of the Morgans (common date worn coins VF-AU) sold for 20- $30 each. This was an auction house that was packed by the way- but the usual fair was antiques or run of the mill house auction material.

Another time there was an altered 1914-D Lincoln cent in an album and it was brought to the auctioneers attention and he just said "you are buying what you see-no returns, you had a chance to look at the coins."--Well,well,well. I just happened to see a lot of three silver dollars in a see through bag listed as 1891-o,1885, and 1921. I was going to mention that the 1885 was a CC, but after that remark I kept it quiet and " bought what I saw". NO one else noticed the 1885-CC as I bought the lot for $35. A few weeks later I sold it for $150. (this was a few years ago when silver was about $8 per ounce). I have many more examples.
I also picked up a 1843-o quarter XF and 1845-O dime XF listed as 1845 dime and 1843 quarter as the auctioneer missed the mintmarks.

Just one more thing - If a woman is bidding against you and has her hand in the air you may as well forget it, she will pay moon money for the coin if she has to. These kind of people I usually just bid up an extra bid or two because they usually are buying a gift for someone and don't care about the cost. JME

In my opinion auctions are fair game. If the auctioneer or owner does not want to get the coins appraised, or do research themselves, or have someone do it for them, then they deserve what they get.
Bob

BillJones · December 23, 2011 1:25AM

It's been my experience that an auctioneer who sells, "Antiques, Collectibles, and Coins" often doesn't have much in the way of coins and as others have said are involved in shady practices. The guy who sold the contents of my mother’s house was a case in point. He sold coins and just about anything else in his auctions. The auction I attended had low grade, fairly common coins, and the prices were high. There were no bargains. As for the guy’s ethics, I’m sorry that we dealt with him, but that’s another story.

rec78 · December 23, 2011 1:30AM

<< <i>How does one find out about these auctions

I haven't seen any listed or mentioned, so maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

any search hints??? >>

Local newspapers-classified section- or try Auctinzip.com and do a search.

magikbilly · December 23, 2011 1:43AM

Hi,

In general - usually a lot of salted piles of useless junk. Having said that, one can find the goods with persistence, but I prefer to look elsewhere these days. I especially stay away from the more "routine" auctions that set up here in NY. They advertise and list all these coins and paintings and so on. Same junk after a while. They will bring it with them sometimes, especially the junk they buried themselves in. They will hit all the "keywords" in the ads to get action and attention - but often a lot of shady stuff goes on as Bill mentioned. Yes, you can find stuff - but the venue...it's not worth it in my opinion.

Best wishes,
Eric

Mission16 · December 23, 2011 6:57AM

Every time I go to one of these, I find myself thinking I should have consigned some of my junk.

Local Auctions - Any Experience with These?

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