A few weeks ago I decided to put a bunch of rolls of U.S. and Canadian pennies (pre-1950) into a local auction to see what they would go for. Since I had little invested in the pennies (these were from the hoards I purchased a couple of years ago), whatever they sold for would be more than I paid for them. Some rolls were solid dates eg. 1932 Canada cents or U.S. 1919 cents and some rolls were mixed dates eg. 1940s U.S.. They were sold without any hype other than the auctioneer doing his usual prompting. The results were fantastic! On the average they sold for 10X to 20X face value! Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be submitting more rolls and will continue to do so until there's no more interest. I have about 200 rolls of pre-1950 cents, both Canadian and U.S. to unload. I'm also going to put up a few pound bags of foreign coins to see how they do.
Nope. All circulated. The bidders were told they were circulated and various mid to low grades. There was no indication that they were anything other than common coins.
Well, this would be in line with what everybody claims around here. It sounds like we should all sell coins at a local auction and retire early.
I'd love for this to continue at these prices! With Canada discontinuing the penny two things could happen...... 1)people will pay stupid money for old dates or 2)the market will get flooded with everybody selling off rolls. Hopefully, I'm early enough to reap decent profits until the common man catches on.
No. It's just a general auction. Some household, some antiques, some collectibles...... whatever people bring in to sell. The auctions are once a week and can contain anything. Several auction houses have weekly sales on different days of the week.
The sad thing is that the buyers are probably making the purchase based on an assumed possibility of finding something special. But, I'm sure that there actually is no possibility of that happening. But hey, people that buy based on assumptions have to expect to be disappointed.
That's a possibility or they may have other agendas for buying the rolls. I didn't do anything differently than I would have if I posted the rolls here for sale or on any other venue. As I stated, they weren't "hyped" at all. I could have written a nice little story about how they were found in Grandpa's attic and were unsearched or they were from an estate of a very savvy and weathly coin collector. Buyers can preview the auction a day ahead and if they researched them they would have found the coins were common dates. Does my concience bother me? Not in the least. If you have concerns about not enough information being given, that's not true. The auctioneer stated they were mid to lower grades. I'm not going to attend the auction and tell potential buyers that they shouldn't keep upping their bids due to their ignorance. That is their decision.
Folks pay crazy prices at small auctions. You could probably stand up and tell everyone that the coins are all junk and they would still bid crazy amounts.
As I mentioned in another thread, the prices of coins at local auctions have gone crazy over the past two years. It seems to me that retirees are thinking that these coins are worth twice as much as you can get on ebay or even at a coin show. I use to buy coins at good prices at these auctions. Now, I buy nothing and decided to skip most of them. I will sometimes go to get a rare coin but they are also going for crazy prices.
Hi, I was at a auction at Wall SD. last week and common wheat cents brought $1 each. VG Morgans sold for $40 to $80 each with one 1883 CC with a X scratched across the face bringing $160. I talk to some of the people buying these coins and told them about our coin show the next weekend but most said they only buy at auctions as they get better buys at the auctions. I was just dumbfounded at their comments. Who was it that said " there's one born every minute" He was right on. Jim
Most general auctions I've been to seem to have buyers like this. They don't like to appear dumb and try to give the impression that they know something you don't. I watched three older people bid up a replica bust of Beethoven (made of resin) to over $250 (retail value about $39). When one of the antique dealers told the winners that it was made of resin, the buyers laughed and said "you're just upset because you missed out on it. It's actually worth thousands!" The dealer shrugged his shoulders and walked away. You can be as helpful as you want but some people just won't listen.
I agree with both of you, and its a group of customers the auctioneers covet. Back in the day the local auctioneer used to have weekly purchases at my favorite dealer. His standing order were a few rolls of worthless wheats, a mixture of common buffalos, IHC, vnickels, etc., some beat up morgans, (had to have 18XX dates though for the wow factor), and one cheap gold $5. I went to one of these auctions and every single coin sold for double at a minimum what the dealer just paid for them. I asked the dealer why he sold to the auctioneer, and he said "he will buy from someone, and I am not responsible for what those people pay for the coins". To quote the great Ron White, "you can't fix stupid".
