State about to auction abandoned safe-deposit-box 'treasures' http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170217/state-about-to-auction-abandoned-safe-deposit-box-treasures Apparently the State of Ohio needs to clear up some vault space. Looks like an interesting auction. There appears to be some decent stuff (old gold, large size currency, type coins) mixed in with a whole bunch of lower end stuff. Below is a link to the auctioneer's website. http://www.appletreeauction.com/
I notice they have options to bid in abstentia and to bid on-line. Does anyone here do either of these?
If it's anything like the state abandoned-property auctions that show up on eBay, stuff will get bid up well above its actual value. There's a LARGE contingent of online bidders who apparently believe that unclaimed property is always treasure, or at least potential treasure, and they get into laughable bidding wars.
And even more suckers, er, "participants" will be drawn in by math like this: 38 x $1800 = $68,400 120 * 1230 = $147,600 And I'm sure all the gold and silver coins will go for at least face value.
Usually the only time real treasure shows up is when it is something really unusual or rare enough that most fools don't even notice it, let alone bid on it.
The only way I might get sucked into an offering like this is if they did it like the storage unit sales. Just open the boxes, let you look at them from a distance (no touching or moving things around) and then make your bid based only on what you can see, plus imagine seeing.
The auction placed opened all the boxes. So you can see each and every item they are selling. Mostly in small lots. Should make the CRH go bezerk though as there are penny rolls.
Many states sell off their drilled SDB'S on e bay. Pa. Md. Tx. Il. As well as the TSA...on items people try and take on planes that is verboten
There is some federal auction that I have bought some Russian gold on where I got it at under melt. A lot of states require that the stuff be held onto for a number of years, then it is auctioned off.
I've been to these before and made bank! But only when there is no online bidding. They are very fun! But bring at least a few K to play with.
On another site there were quite a few members bidding on the items in this sale. The general consensus was that the bulk of the items went for retail+ and that there were few bargains to be had. Apparently some of the higher end stuff went for more reasonable prices than the low end stuff that had a lot of interested bidders.
Like I said, you have to find ones that don't do online bidding, which is growing ever smaller by every year unfortunately. My favorite was the Nevada one in Vegas at the Cashman Center but they went online and screwed everything up. Its great for the state but not so good for the buyers
I just hit the Nevada unclaimed property hard this last week. TNT Auctions really screwed the pooch this time. Most of the pictures were fuzzy, many of the coin collections were left in box and listed as "number of coins" with no mint marks. The pictures were worse than anything even I could produce by trying. Blurred to the point that you couldn't see a thing. Evidently the person in charge didn't know or like what they were doing, and got through it as quickly as possible. I'm guessing it cost the auction house thousands in lost bids. Gonna be a long wait until they ship, but I've got a few pieces that I'll post once they arrive.
Damn. I should have gone! That would have been great for in person bidders! Last time I went was their last non-online auction in 2014. Spent $6k and grossed $15k while keeping a few things. Actually I just sold a vintage old pawn turquoise cuff bracelet for $500 at Long Beach from a lot of 6 I bought at that auction. Paid $300 for the lot and with this sale (last one I had) I made $3k just off that cuff lot!