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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,428 |
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Valued Member
United States
456 Posts |
I have recently discovered Heritage Auctions and have been greatly impressed with the quality of their auction coins. I have the same impression of David Lawrence, with whom I have two retail transactions involving CAC approved coins that were exceptionally nice. Previously, I had an "I'd rather not deal with it" attitude toward auctions after concluding that many auction offerings on ebay appeared to be coins that would not otherwise sell. So in dealing with David Lawrence, I had been excluding auction items, I never minded paying the requested retail price, I didn't have to bid and counter, and I always got the coin. Heritage has the same kind of arrangement, making coins available for purchase from a retail inventory. I recently bid on a Heritage auction for a PCGS AU-55 1857 Liberty Head $5 gold. After examining the two like cons in inventory and pictures of 4 other like coins from earlier Heritage auctions, I liked the currently offered coin a good deal more than the others and made a bid that was about 20% above retail. I still lost. So, the question occurred to me whether the auction houses typically save their very best coins for auction hoping to achieve above retail prices. I'm sure there is no hard and fast rule. But I would appreciate any opinions on this. They will help me decide how to bid in the next auction. |
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Valued Member
United States
275 Posts |
I would guess yes. I haven't followed coins as long, but for comics it is certainly true. Bear mind there are tiers of auctions as well, not all contain the same quality of material.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5238 Posts |
I think that the answer is "the best auctions have the best coins". I have bid on a few auctions in Canada. Of course they are much smaller scale, and they sell a mix of really good stuff and not so good stuff, but almost everything sells because they have sensible starting prices, typically about 1/2 of they expect selling price.
When you have hard to find material, previously published "retail prices" are not very meaningful, which is why they may sell for way above "retail"
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3540 Posts |
No. Quite a few coins trade private party.
One of the sidelines of the PCGS registry, owners may be contacted by unsolicited offers, if they wish. This is one method. The primary method - want lists of dealers for customers.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3479 Posts |
Not necessarily. Though if your purchasing scarce issues the likely answer is yes. With scarce series you will find that a lot of middlemen and dealers are purchasing them at auction and flipping them to other collectors. These guys troll all the auction sites for high quality coins and flip them to less vigilant collectors for a premium.
So the answer is if you are pursuing a coin date or a series to start putting all auction sites on your radar and check them weekly for premium quality coins. If you don't have the time or the motivation to do that then buy from the middlemen for a premium.
Edited by MikeF
12/16/2018 10:23 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
No being at an auction doesn't mean it is a better coin than a straight sale and some of the very BEST have been sold privately including what is almost certainly the best Seated dollar set. There certainly are premium coins and premium for the grade coins at auctions, but that is not exclusive to auctions. Quote:
If you don't have the time or the motivation to do that then buy from the middlemen for a premium. There's a bit of false logic there. One extra bid from the winning bid doesn't assure you would have actually won it at that price. Most of the time actually you wouldn't have. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3479 Posts |
Quote:
There's a bit of false logic there. One extra bid from the winning bid doesn't assure you would have actually won it at that price. Most of the time actually you wouldn't have.
True but I'm trying to give him a basic overview of how things work in regards to premium coins. I'm not trying to write a book here, Baseball.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
True but I'm trying to give him a basic overview of how things work in regards to premium coins. I'm not trying to write a book here, Baseball. I don't want to write a book either lol. That said many premium coins quickly sell from auctions for a variety of reasons. The whole point was that price at auction vs dealer price doesn't mean that the best could have been bought at the next bid increment. Edited by basebal21
12/16/2018 11:57 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3479 Posts |
Quote:
I don't want to write a book either lol. So we agree on something for once!    |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I never bid on coins at auctions. I just have to really see them in person.
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,428 |
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Posted 12/16/2018 7:00 pm
