Fred is holding his "Charter Oak" auction tonight. Southington is too long a drive for me, plus item seem to be overgraded. http://www.charteroakcoinauctions222.wizaweb.com/auction-list-2132014.html There are probably many of these around the country.
I'm not a fan of this venue. Had too many bad experiences. The shocker was a rude nasty, e-mail from him.
Apparently he gets high prices for his "undergraded" material. If the coin is raw it is "gem"; we mustn't allow those pesky grading services to interfere with those who really know how to grade....What turned me off to his auctions was word that he would not offer returns on fakes, he said he did not know who had consigned the coin to the auction....
I used to bid online going by his bad pictures. He rarely showed the reverse of the coin. All copper was very dark in the photos. I was doing a Barber half set at the time and if you know those coins it's hard to find a G-4 or G-6 with a decent reverse rim. He called them Good or G-4 and didn't show the reverse. Well they came to me in the mail with worn reverse rims. He did take them back when I brought them in person to a Norwich show. Another was a gold dollar I bid on with only a photo of the obverse. I got it and it had solder at 12 o'clock on the reverse. I ended up trading it to another dealer so Fred never even knew I had a gripe. There are at least 2 other respected dealers that will not deal with him.
