I was looking at an auction site for coins and wondered if the way it was run was normal and what it would mean to bid online. The auction says online bidding is now open, and apparently they start the bidding on all coins at a dollar. Some coins already of bids on them, and the live auction starts in a few hours. To bid online they charge a 17% premium, which I wonder how that works. Plus it looks as if it's up to you to pay shipping and insurance. They do say the try not to sell counterfeits but will refund the cost if what you buy happens to be one. What do you think? I have no idea if these are normal terms or not. I do prefer the excitement of live auctions, but am willing to try it at least once.
That's all pretty standard. Buyers premium just basically means whatever you bid add that percentage, a lot of companies will show you the total somewhere with that included on the bidding screen. Paying for shipping is pretty standard basically everywhere but eBay.
There's usually a minimum auction buyers premium of $15 or 20 bucks. Look for that too if you buy cheap items. If you bid $100 you'll pay $117 plus shipping
I think it's a special auctioneer (excluding the big ones) that allows you to make returns. Most ones I've seen sell items AS IS, WHERE IS (meaning once you bid and pay for it, it's yours no matter what it is.) Our biggest problem is getting the online buyers to actually PAY for their items once it's over, so there is usually a preference for a live bidder. Our auctions are sometimes online only, but the combo (live and online) auctions get set up a week or two in advance (hopefully, depending on the work ethic of my boss) so we can have the items available for online bidders to find them in time. They can place as many bids as they want early, and then once the lot comes up during the live auction they have to compete with the live bidders. Sometimes they leave a high max bid, sometimes they follow along. Lots of times people even register for the auction with two lots left (I shrug my shoulders on that one, but whatever.)
All sounds normal to me. A buyers premium is also normal but if you buy the item you will be charged 17% more for it. It does add up.
The only think I don't like in their terms is the pledge to "try not to sell" counterfeits. That doesn't give me a lot of confidence.
They do sell AS IS, WHERE IS, but they state they NEVER intend to sell counterfeit coins, but at least they acknowledge one can slip through. And they will refund the money as long as the coin has not been removed from the packaging or holder.
What auction site is this? Do they just let people list their coins like eBay, or have items like Heritage or Great Collections? I have purchased from HA and GC without worrying about possibly buying a counterfeit coin.
I don't know right now where or how they get their coins. But the site is weavercoinauction.com. Online bidding is acceptable, and you can read the terms and conditions.
I just went and looked. No thanks. Poor pictures and no idea if they have shill bidders to drive up prices since it is a coin shop doing the selling.
Their stated business is auctioning consignments of coins. There is no indication that they are a coin shop. And as for shill bidders, if they have them, they are doing a pretty bad job of it. Too many coins priced at a dollar, the starting bid. Anyway, I'm not so far away that I can't go look at the coins. And shills wouldn't get me going higher than I want.
Go for it. It didn't look like there was anything rare or of high collectibility. That doesn't mean there aren't good deals, just nothing that you won't find in the next auction.
