Does this bother you guys?

[Tradedollarnut]

Auction companies have lost all respect for the pre sale estimate. It used to be a useful guide for the customer to plan their bidding for the sale. Now it's just a tool for them to use as a yardstick to trumpet how well their sale did. By setting estimates artificially low, they can point to how they doubled the estimate and attract new consignments. Look at this extreme example:

 

1864 small motto proof

 

In the body of the text, it states the coin last sold for $31k+. How the heck do they have the gall to put up an estimate in the $5k range? What possible purpose could that serve other than to pad their statistics? Hurummmph!

[jtryka]

It doesn't bother me so much since I usually ignore it. It's also one of the reasons I prefer Heritage to most other auction houses, since they really don't publish presale estimates (they list some bogus numbers on the website for each lot, but they aren't even an estimate really). It does really bother me on the live auctions I've watched on eBay though, where I see a coin I might be interested in, and it might have an estimate of say $500, and I think about bidding, but as soon as the bidding starts, it's 4x or 5x the estimate! Once I saw that consistently, I just realized they were bogus and now ignore them, in fact I ignore some of those company's auctions altogether now!

[EVillageProwler]

For various reasons, including this, I prefer Bowers, Heritage and even Smythe. I think those 3 are the most ethical, even though I do bid in the Superior and Goldberg auctions...

 

EVP

 

[keithdagen]

TDN,

 

I read the description, and may be missing something, but I saw nothing about a $5K estimate. Now, the opening bid starts at $5K at E-Bay, but I don't know how they factor that opening price.

[Tradedollarnut]

Keith: To the right of the top of the slab - it states

 

Estimate: US $4,725.00 - US $6,300.00

[keithdagen]

It is still early here in Texas.

 

OK, I see that now, and it doesn't make sense. Of course, it reminds me of Heritage's Value Index. Try finding a coin for sale on their website that falls inside their VI. Doesn't make sense, and these estimates make no sense either. Very few lots have realistic estimates.