I'm done buying coins at an auction. If you never been to a coin auction, read this!

After standing for over 4 hours in a 105 degree heat index, I'm done buying coins.

The biggest problem with coin auctions, is that they all look the same.

Cull large cents, low grade coins, junk silver, etc. I have very rarely seen a nice coin at these auctions.

Most of the auctions I attend are not coin specific auctions, meaning this is not where someone brought coins into sell. These are usually estate sales were an elderly person passed away.

From the 100+ collections I've seen, I cannot fathom what type of "collector" these people were. 90% of these collections were as I mentioned earlier, JUNK! Nothing old in higher grades.

So my idea is that family probably keeps all the good coins, and the junk gets sold to pay for expenses.

With that out of the way, let's meet the buyers.

The 1st kind of buyer, and most common, is the bullion buyer.

Bullion buyers buy silver and gold for melt prices. That is to be expected. You are never (maybe once if your lucky) going to buy a silver or gold coin for less than melt.

The 2nd kind is the "red book ron".

Red Book Ron always brings his red book with him. He has all of the coins looked up in the red book. Although red book prices are inaccurate, he will bid up to red book value. He never thinks to check eBay/TT/HA completed auctions. Not only does he bid red book, he assumes these coins are worth redbook.

The 3rd kind of buyer is the "collector". Folks like you and me. We have an accurate idea of a coin's value. We check eBay, Teletrade, and Heritage auctions to know the accurate value of the coin like the back of our hand.

However, the 1st two buyers often ruin it for the rest of us. Not so much the bullion buyers, because as I said before, never expect to get a $20 melt coin for $17, it just won't happen.

So, here we have two coins, a 1902 morgan dollar, and a 1864 two cent piece.

The bullion buyer bids $21, as that's the melt value of the coin.

The "red book ron" sees the coin listed for $30 in his red book, so he wins the coin for $28

The "collector" went up to $26, even though that's a tad high, he did not want to go home empty handed.

But as the final bid was $28, he went home empty handed, and so did the bullion buyer.

Now the 1864 2c. Red book Ron sees the coin listed for $25. The "collector" sees similar coins selling for $18 on eBay, so again, he goes empty handed.

I've been going to coin auctions for 12 years, and if you ever decide to go to one, don't your going to waste your time.

You can stand in the heat for 2, 3, 4, even 7 hours, waste $15-$30 worth of gas, and your time, and get nothing.

I'm throwing in the towel. IMO, coin auctions are stupid. Why waste all that time and money, when you can go on eBay, and get coins cheaper, and the farthest you have to go, is your mail box.

 

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:headbang:, Oh Detecto, you will never beat the :sniper:And you know that you are asking for :arguing: or encil: every time that you say something about :hammer:.

 

Please do not ever make a statement like that again. You are NOT EVEN CLOSE to being folk like me!

 

I got a "first look and first offer" rights to a coin collection before it went to auction. The family didn't keep the best - they didn't even look at it. Out of about 75 coins, most were common date clad coins, some 40% silver and a about 10 Morgan silver dollars with two dented 1921s and the rest G to F with a few VF to AU common dates. Most non-collector coin collections aren't really worth the time to check them out.

 

Oh how I wish this were true...

 

Hallelujah!!!

You'll probably never see this post because many, many members here had explained to you exactly what it is you've just discovered like it's some kind of divine revelation which means you obviously start a thread and don't go back to it to read the responses.

You state you've been going to auctions for twelve years? Then why is all this a surprise to you? I've been going to auction for the better part of fifty years and this is exactly what happens at each and every auction. It doesn't matter what the item is worth, because it's what the highest bidder pays for it that matters. If they want something then they have to be the highest bidder. They don't stop bidding because it's only worth "X" amount of dollars, they bid until they get it whatever their reasoning. They're not being greedy, they just want to own it. The auction doesn't stop at the market value of the item, it stops when the bidding stops.

 

Done with auctions: Yes. Done with flea markets: no. I like flea markets much better. Prices are fixed, you can haggle. No pressure to bid. Made more money at flea markets this year than all my years at auctions.

 

Detecto I've got to admit. I like your posts. Keep them comming. :thumb:

 

Years ago (5+) auctions were ok for buying coins. But it seems like (or just in my area) that coins are a lot more popular than ever.

You might think it's YN's buying more coins, but it's not, just older people. You would of think the advent of eBay would of calmed it down some, but it made it worse for some reason. I think more people buy them and go home to see what they are worth, instead of the other way around.

Up until about 3 years ago, I could buy "junk bullion" for melt, now its nuts. It just keeps getting worse, I used to enjoy it, now I just watch what coins sell for and laugh.

 

Yup... can't believe you stuck with it so long. Estate auctions are fleeced over by both the family and the auction company waaay before anything goes to hammer. Good stuff is always gone and junk remains for red Ron's. You'll also find that many auction companies will slide in their own junk within ol'grandpa's stuff. In general Estate auctions are for suckers. Definitely better odds at the flea markets.

 

haha...

 

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

Detecto, you must realize that Red Book, Blue Book, Grey Sheet and even you are not
the ultimate arbiter of worth or value, the winning bidder is the ultimate arbiter.
You win some, you lose more.

 

Chuckle - it only took me one auction to see what it was like.

 

If prices are fixed, you can't haggle.
If you can haggle, prices are not fixed.

It's like trying to teach a pig to dance.

 

I'm going by the eBay term. What I mean by fixed price is "non-auction". It's a price a seller "fixes" to an item, and may be open to haggling, unlike an auction where the price can go up (eBay, TT, etc) or up and down (open public auctions).

 

Detecto have you had any luck at flea markets? I've never been to one.

 

Oops, I have been to auctions, and accidently read the post anyway. But, since I'm here:

Like others have said, auctions have been this way for quite a few years. The internet, more than anything else, has fueled the increased bidding on any "collectible" item, not just coins. Most items older than brand new go for high prices. Reality TV has now added to the growing number of people who think they can strike it rich through auctions. One of my favorite things to do is go to a local auction on a Saturday, then go to the local flea market on Sunday to see how the high (and I mean HIGH) bidders are pricing their newly acquired stock.

I do like the local flea market, but I deal with only two or three coin vendors on a regular basis. I think one point needs to be addressed:

Prices are fixed, you can haggle. This is a contradiction in terms. If the price is fixed, you can't haggle. Prices at flea markets, for the most part, are negotiable. But keep in mind, the vendors know the game as well (and probably better) than you. They set prices artificially high, so when the haggling commences, they come down to a more normal (read- retail) level, knowing the buyer thinks he got a good deal because the vendor knocked $10 off his asking price, while still overpaying for the item.