Not one, not two, not three, but FOUR back-country coin auctions with good material within easy driving distance, and NO INTERNET BIDDING AT ANY OF THEM. One of them has over a page of classical U.S. gold alone, much of which will sell for about melt, maybe some under it, even though a fair bit of it is in NGC slabs with MS grades.
I need to move where you live. I have to drive many miles to attend any auctions, and then it's a crap shoot.
It's always a conundrum for me. I work these on a strict budget to keep from overspending. I take PRECISELY the amount of cash that I can budget for coins, and LEAVE ALL CARDS AT HOME. So do I keep my powder dry waiting for the gold to come up so I can grab some cheap, or do I work on my "normal" want list? Gold is usually AFTER I've reached my limit. I've decided I'm going to two of them, including the one with all the gold. I'll post the results. The sheets even left a place to do just that. If I haven't shot my budget by then, I might go for the 1928 Quarter Eagle in NGC MS63.
This is not a show, but an auction at a fire hall type of thing. The food for sale is cheap and good. I will spend my whole allotment tomorrow, and I doubt I'll need to go above 35% back of Numismedia FMV on any of it. Some I'll get at 50% of FMV.
If what you say is true, you could honestly make a ton of money (if you do not find that unethical). Buy all the classic US gold you can close to melt, then post them here. I would buy everything for a lot more than melt from you.
Let's do the little experiment. I'll post these prices realized on Monday or Tuesday and we'll see what they bring and whether you think it's worth your time and trouble. I'll even go you one better - I'll post ALSO one increment above what they went for. Just to give you an idea how much gold is up IN JUST ONE SALE: 9 gold dollars 8 quarter eagles (5 Indian) 1 $3 10 half eagles (5 Indian) 8 eagles (3 Indian) 10 double eagles (5 St. Gaudens) That ought to wring the buying power out of the room.
Come to think of it, there probably is a strong negative correlation between an event's "showness" and the good value of the food.
True, but not for a bad reason. The fire company's auxiliary volunteers labor at auctions. Most show food is done by for profit vendors.
In your world in which you operate, what SHOULD a 1928 quarter eagle in NGC MS63 bring? It's between a 1914-D QE in NGC AU58 and a raw BU 1909 half eagle in the order of bidding. I've found order matters, sometimes a lot.
are these in the Chicago area? (noticed Chicago coin club listed under you not sure if you're local, I'm in the suburbs) Also never been to an auction before glad to see they list the items ahead of time so beginners like me can do a little research and not be deer in headlights, sounds fun
Honestly, in rural KY, I just use ebay and the internet to buy. And I would only buy if I thought I could sell on ebay and make enough to pay all fees and have a little profit left. $415 is the lowest buy it now right now on ebay for a common date 63. I probably would not pay over $360 currently. I mainly stick with MS62 and under though. So basically, if anything graded goes for close to melt, buy it.
That's too bad. Live back-country auctions are a hoot. Rarely can I do anywhere near as well online. Occasionally, but it's the exception. The final lot in the gold section is a 1928 $20 in PCGS MS65. I don't study Saints much, but that sounds pretty stout. Think about that. This kind of material with no Internet participation, at a place even I need a mapping app to find, and I have to print it out because there will be no signal there. I've been to one of this auctioneer's sales at a different location. My invoice of won bids will be printed on a dot-matrix printer, I kid you not. He probably gets ribbon ink from squeezing octopi.
are you able to inspect the coins up close before the auction starts or do you have to bid based on what you see when they pop up for bidding? I clearly have never been to any type of auction before
Inspection begins at 7:30AM, and the sale promptly at 9:00AM. (Pennsylvania's Bible belt.) IF you can keep out of the auctioneer's line of sight, you can keep inspecting AFTER 9:00. Get in his way, and he'll banish you to the regular seats.
Good to know, thanks. Sounds like a good time and good way to get a nice deal, I'm gonna find some by me. Not tomorrow though because tomorrow is 60 degrees +, sunny with almost no wind. In February. In Chicagoland. So hands are tied, have to play golf
This one should be interesting. There's a fair amount of high dollar pieces well before we hit any gold. There is only so much buying power in the room, and as the day drags on, the obscene deals tend to grow.
Sounds like you've found an exploitable market inefficiency. If the buying power in the room can be sucked up by less than $30K of "near melt" value, this auction is constrained by access. It doesn't by any means imply that "fair market value" for these coins is near melt; instead, it implies that these coins are likely to sell WELL BELOW market value. I like hearing about stuff like this (even if it does make me homesick for Lancaster Co.), but I'm obliged to point out that if word gets out that there are consistent opportunities for deeper-pocketed -- dare I say it? -- "flippers" to spend $30K on a batch that they can quickly sell for $40K, you're likely to see attendance and realized prices at these auctions start to climb. I know they haven't climbed yet; these auctions are still mostly hidden treasures. Is it in your interest to bring them more publicity?
That's the funny part of the whole deal, Jeff. I consider this stuff my "true market", and the rest of the world is screwy. I'd never seen any market NOT like this until I started travelling to ANA shows. Here's another oddity. Right AFTER the gold, the "group lots" are next, and there's treasures galore in there. After the gold runs, the "stupid silly" cheap stuff may just happen. Those lots are not well described typically. I once was bidding on a "box of miscellaneous tokens and medals". There was a Lafayette Dollar in there. One pocket deeper than mine knew it too. I was trying to slow-walk my bidding like a poker player who hit an inside straight flush. Didn't work. He knew.