Auction Shock

.........Funny you guys should mention the clueless that are there "bargain" hunting. I watched as the bidding went to $75 on a regular old 1975 proof set at an auction on new years day. I had over heard someone say that they had seen them on ebay going for thousands of dollars. I would be willing to bet that they were seeing the sets with a no mint mark dime in them on the bay. On the flip side of the coin, no pun intended, A 1964 mint set sold for the low price $12. I had stepped out to take some of the wife's winnings to the car only to step back in as the auctioneer said sold on that set.

How do you find out about these local estate sales that include coins? I've never heard of any around here (Warner Robins, Georgia). Doesn't mean they don't exist, I'm just not in the know.

This thread actually prompted me to register and post. I too, attend alot of estate auctions, particularly looking for coins. I noticed in the past year or so that the bidding is getting ridiculously high on everything. Silver goes well above the spot price, pennies are sold for very high prices. Of course, so does a lot of everything else. Here I attribute it to the " ebay craze" and the local flea market vendors. Everybody's trying to make a buck, but willing to do little research into what they're buying.

jck32, another source I use to find auctions is this web site:
http://www.auctionzip.com/
Type in your zip code, choose a radius from your home, and it will list the auctions from the member auctioneers, most complete with pictures.

A warm welcome and a tip of the hat to omahaorange for the link!

jkc32, I took the time to identify the auction houses in my area and contacted them by phone asking that they put me on their mailing/e-mail list. Told them I am interested in coins. They all did and some even call to make sure I heard. Then anytime I find a new Auction House I do the same. Don't even need to read the paper anymore.
Jim

I have found that it all depends on the auction house clients. At some houses I go to coins go relatively cheap, at others however, they go for ridiculously high prices. Some auctioneers talk up a coins value also. The most recent one I attended the auctioneer stated that the 1907 $2.50 gold piece on the block had a melt value of $450.00. Well that got the uninformed to bid the price way above Red Book. Then there are the doomsayers. You know the ones, they think that the world economy will collapse and that you will need a wheelbarrow full of silver to buy a loaf of bread. So a worn out 1922 Peace dollar is going to go for $25 or better.

All of this makes me want to liquidate some junk Morgans...

I stopped going to auctions around here because I noticed abnormally high prices on items (for example common Morgan and Peace dollars in circulated condition fetching $20-$25 each).

I chalked it up to either ignorant people thinking things were worth more than they really are because they're old or possible shill bidding.

A group of us one time called out a guy who bidding abnormally high on silver dollars. When asked, he got very defensive and said that they he was getting a huge premium on these from a local refiner. He then made the mistake of saying that the melt value of these was $2 over spot. I corrected him and told him that the silver dollars were about 0.7735 net troy ounces of silver when freshly minted and that these were less. I then pointed out that no refiner would even pay melt for them, let alone $2 over spot. He became even more beligerent and defensive for some reason, so either he didn't like being proved to be an ignoramus or he was a flat out shill that was caught in the act.

Either way, I stopped going to auctions because this was happening on a regular basis.