Went to a local coin auction today....

[chinook]

It was a small auction, about 250 lots and 38 bidders. As usual the was alot of junk. Lots of whizzed coins described as gem BU, a fake trade dollar and I think a fake 1909-s vdb. It was VF and sold for 500 without the 10% buyers premium and 7.25% sales tax.

 

Prices were all over the place. A P-D-S set of 1921 Morgans in XF sold for $30 each. Most of the whizzed coins were described as gem and sold for at least 63 money. The fake trade sold for 80. Acg graded wheaties in 68 red sold for 20-25. This certainly was not a place for the unintiated.

 

There were bargains to be had though. I bought a 2001 proof set for 7.50. A 2001 state quarters proof set for 7.50 and a 1986 proof set for 10. I also bought a roll of uncirculated 1961 and 1962 Canadian dimes for 12.50.

 

The highlight of the auction was a harshly cleaned 1888 $3 gold that sold for $1200. Also a 1932-s washington quarter described as gem bu, yes it was terribly whizzed sold for 110.

 

In general I would say that prices were much higher, especially when considering the premium and tax, than one would easily pay on Ebay.

[solid]

Small, local auctions are hit and miss. I've had the best luck at estate auctions of serious collectors where there is tons of stuff. Still, there are many pitfalls - buyers willing to overpay by large margins, auctioneers that never let things go too cheaply and sell "to the book".

 

I don't go to many of these, but one of my strategies has been to look over the items that nobody else is paying attention to. If there is a type set, or any near complete series sets, these will be looked at by everyone and there are generally no deals. By checking through the non-attention-grabbers, you can sometimes find hidden jewels, and when it comes time to bid, knowledge is key!

 

A couple of my best deals:

 

One auction had many 2x2 row boxes full of 90% silver quarters, dimes, etc. But there was one box of silver dollars! When they started the bidding on these boxes, it was for "choice". I was high-bidder, and took 1 box! I was also high-bidder the second time and took a number of quarter boxes as I had taken the time to see how many were in the average box.

 

Another auction had a lot of stuff on one long line of tables for viewing prior to the auction. After all this stuff had sold, they started auctioning off beer flats full of wheat penny rolls. Nobody had looked at these at all as they had been behind the tables. I bought one of the flats at random (out of 20 or so available). Turned out that there were numerous BU rolls of 30's cents mixed in with the circulated rolls!

 

A bad deal:

 

Looked over a complete set of Barber halves prior to an auction. It was a decent set with even the keys and semi-keys grading VG+. I was high-bidder and they handed the set to me. Get home to find out someone had stolen the key-date coin from the set after I had seen it, but prior to auction

 

Ken

[TomB]

I have to agree that the quality of smaller, local auctions is all over the map. At one auction there was a very choice EF raw 1914-D Lincoln cent, the only problem was that it was a 1944-D that was altered! I told the person who was running the auction about the error and he said he would take care of it. Well, as the lot practically came up for bidding, I raised my hand and mentioned we had spoken about the coin previously. At that point, he grudgingly withdrew the lot.

 

There have been some scores for me, too. One was a VF25 Draped Bust half that was an R5, but that had not been attributed prior to the auction. It sold to me at bid. Another was a 1944-D Washington quarter that had a doubled die reverse. No one noticed and I bought the coin, had it slabbed as a DDR (it was finest known at that time) and sold it at a very nice price in a Heritage Signature Sale.

 

So, knowledge, patience and luck are definitely keys in this type of setting.

 

PS: Ken, do you remember the date of the Barber half that was missing?

[solid]

Sure, it was a nice original VG/F 92-O! That coin basically represented the profit I was hoping for out the the set based on the price I paid.

 

Lesson learned: double-check lots won as they hand them to you - if I would have checked it, I could have brought up the fact at that point and they probably would have re-auctioned it as a complete set, less one coin!

[Leothelion]

Get home to find out someone had stolen the key-date coin from the set after I had seen it, but prior to auction

 

That bites!

 

I have always found it truely amazing how dorky people can get when bidding stupid money on worthless coins but then again, a group of dorks can survive amongst each other. Someone should start a Dork club where dorks can gather and believe their coins are worth 2000% mark up value. Whoa..wait a minute...that club already exists....anybody want to buy a pigs pop top coin?

 

Leo