A few years ago a small auction house in my area started having regular coin auctions. They were mostly full of lower end type coins, newer mint products, and TV coin show/telemarketer junk -- basically anything that looks more valuable than it actually is to a newbie/inexperienced collector. Most of the stuff is junk that I don't want for any price or hammers for well over retail value but every once in a while something slips through the cracks that I'm able to snag for a decent price. Lately their coin offerings have been going downhill with most of their type coins being cleaned/damaged and the bulk of the sale being composed of junk -- i.e. gold plated state quarter sets, common stuff in fancy packaging. Now they selling German 'Silver' bars, plated gold bars, and reproduction confederate notes that they don't describe as such when they are selling. Are they doing anything illegal or unethical? Surely the auctioneer or the consignor must know what they are selling. Or should the principle of caveat emptor be followed here -- that the buyer should have taken the time to research what they were interested in before bidding? Should I say something to the auctioneer who seems to be genuinely uninformed when it comes to coins.
I would bring it up to the auctioneer that he is fraudulently not properly identifying items he is selling. Maybe he truly doesn't know, but I wouldn't bet on it. Years ago I was a friend of a local coin dealer. Every week a local auctioneer came in to buy one or two problem small gold pieces, half a roll of low grade or problem morgans, and a couple of rolls of junk silver. He took them to his auction and pretended "there could be some real rarities here, they are from a local estate" and basically about doubled his money every week. I asked the dealer if he knew waht was going on and he said yeah, he did. It was not his fault, though, and as long as he sold the coins properly described and at a fair price he slept at night. He said he cannot control what others did with them. I do agree with him he was not at fault at all, (he was probably the best dealer I have ever known), but the auctioneer is a shyster who knew full well what he was doing, though he feigned ignorance about coins.
It is not purely a coin auction, they sell other antiques and collectibles too that I'm sometimes interested in. I'm not going for the coins -- I just see them sell while I'm waiting for other more interesting items to be sold.
One of my local auctions lately has been getting stupid prices for coins. They've had a few decent things and a lot of mid line and problem type coins. They got about a dozen lots every week I'd been leaving bids and getting nothing was bidding high wholesale on anything worthy. I found out most coins going high retail and beyond. 175 for a raw f -12 20c $425 for a raw ms 62-3 84 cc Morgan the list goes on. I said the heck with it I'll start running my middle to low end stuff that's not worth grading through there if they wanna overpay so be it
I'd let him know. Like Chris said, chances are he's well aware. But, if he knows others know, it could be detrimental to his business as most auction houses are kept in business strictly through word of mouth, and when that word involves fraud, it could spell doom, and he'll know this.
For the "junk" stuff - fancied up state quarters, Littleton coins, etc - beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I've seen plenty of people buy this stuff like it was made of gold. But these are people with money to burn and probably a compulsive hoarding issue (at least they're hoarding money!) As for the "fake" stuff, I would think there are standards for the auctioneer association to which the auctioneer belongs. Of course, if someone describes a gold-plated bar as a "gold bar" - WE know there is a difference...but plenty of people don't. I will usually believe that an auctioneer can tell the difference between real/fake gold bars/bullion (although...to be fair, I've seen my friend fooled temporarily on a couple occasions.) But we ALWAYS do our best to describe things properly. If this particular auction house is doing this on a regular basis, I might either ask them about it or ask their auctioneers association.
