I'm doing an in-depth analysis of past sales and trends involving the 1908 Saint NM, OGH, and CAC status (or lack thereof). I'll post the results when I have some interesting stuff to write about.
Generally HA and GC are not competitive on common gold coins (and silver) that sell for melt or a small premium. It is a better idea to take those to a dealer, show, or send off to a national dealer that pays closer to melt. What I believe happens is one of the following: 1) The common gold (like the Saints) you see at HA (and maybe GC) were bought by HA as inventory and they are auctioning it so the "fees" are paid to themselves (they do buy coins outright at shows as I have sold to them at an ANA show). 2) Someone is selling off their entire collection and doesn't want to bother splitting out a coin or two to take elsewhere (even if it makes more sense to sell it outside of auction) 3) Some people have no local options to sell or dealers that pay well below melt. So netting 80%-90% of melt is better than they can do elsewhere 4) Some don't do the math and thus don't realize that an auction is not the correct setting
