Estate Auction Finds And Funnies

I went to a local general auction today. One lot had 6 notes: a 1963 $5 legal tender, three 1935 $1 silver certificates, and two 1957 $1 silver certificates. There were no stars and all the silver certificates were in poor condition with rust stains, spotting, and one had tattered edges. Another lot had $7 in clad Kennedy half dollars, mostly from the 70's. They sold for $35 and $15 respectively and that does not include the 15% BP and 6.25% sales tax.

I used to go to Dave's Auction House occasionally for auctions (it's own by Dave Hester, the guy in Storage War). The last time I went, I witness common date Bu Morgan that probably worth about $40-$50/ea at the time and this one guy aggressively bid on all of them, paid about $70-$100/ea (before buyer fee), look like it was a bidding war.

Then things get interesting: One of the guy stand behind the counter bid on some other coins (he won some, lose some) and I thought he's buying for himself (he mentioned he collected coins), a while latter, when all the coins lots had been sold (the people interested in coins left the room, as other stuffs had been up for auction), one guy walk up to the guy behind counter (the employee)..... I was still standing there and the employee told this guy (turned out he's a coin dealer of some sort) that his coins was sold for such and such.... which turned out those coins that the employee "won" are bought-back by/return-to the dealer. True shill bidding..... I told my self to not go there again (at least not buying collectible/high value items, since some of the furniture stuff that made of solid wood went for pretty cheap).

So, always know/set your price limit and don't get stuck in a bidding war.

Google his name and you'll see he's suing the network..... pretty interesting.

I saw a 1943 steel cent sell for $11 at an estate auction. It was kind of disheartening because the auctioneer (who should know better) talked it up as the best thing since sliced bread and then a YN bought it.

A coin store at a mall in puerto rico had a little tray of common date low grade wheat cents also, and they were a dollar each. They had the same thing with IHC`s but they were 2.50 each. and they dated between 1900 and 1908 mostly too.

Estate sales around here I've done fairly good at. I've made a few grand off estate sales 2 yrs ago but last yr didnt go to any was busy. Yeah its true relatives and neighbors look through the stuff before putting in the estate sale. I went to one and they had alot of sterling silver necklaces for 1-3 dollars a piece. I bought them all 11 ounces for 22 dollars. Then resold it next day 396 dollars.

That is why I like going to really big sales. Sometimes they are pulling boxes out of piles that you can tell haven't been gone through in years. You can find some good stuff sometimes.