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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Detecto92, post: 1488617, member: 75105&quot;]After standing for over 4 hours in a 105 degree heat index, I&#039;m done buying coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>The biggest problem with coin auctions, is that they all look the same.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cull large cents, low grade coins, junk silver, etc. I have very rarely seen a nice coin at these auctions.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>From the 100+ collections I&#039;ve seen, I cannot fathom what type of &quot;collector&quot; these people were. 90% of these collections were as I mentioned earlier, JUNK! Nothing old in higher grades. </p><p><br /></p><p>So my idea is that family probably keeps all the good coins, and the junk gets sold to pay for expenses.</p><p><br /></p><p>With that out of the way, let&#039;s meet the buyers.</p><p><br /></p><p>The 1st kind of buyer, and most common, is the bullion buyer. </p><p><br /></p><p>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. </p><p><br /></p><p>The 2nd kind is the &quot;red book ron&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>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 <b>assumes</b> these coins are worth redbook.</p><p><br /></p><p>The 3rd kind of buyer is the &quot;collector&quot;. Folks like you and me. We have an accurate idea of a coin&#039;s value. We check eBay, Teletrade, and Heritage auctions to know the accurate value of the coin like the back of our hand.</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;t happen.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, here we have two coins, a 1902 morgan dollar, and a 1864 two cent piece. </p><p><br /></p><p>The bullion buyer bids $21, as that&#039;s the melt value of the coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;red book ron&quot; sees the coin listed for $30 in his red book, so he wins the coin for $28</p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;collector&quot; went up to $26, even though that&#039;s a tad high, he did not want to go home empty handed.</p><p><br /></p><p>But as the final bid was $28, he went home empty handed, and so did the bullion buyer.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now the 1864 2c. Red book Ron sees the coin listed for $25. The &quot;collector&quot; sees similar coins selling for $18 on eBay, so again, he goes empty handed. </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve been going to coin auctions for 12 years, and if you ever decide to go to one, don&#039;t your going to waste your time.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;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.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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