What Do You Look For In A Auction

I don't think any ordering of the many parts of an auction is desirable. The entire auction should be analyzed with no particular weight necessarily placed on any one factor; any one aspect might disqualify a seller and auction in my mind. If all else about a coin auction is equal with no suspicious inadequacies found, but the shipping cost is outrageous (say, $10 for a $20 coin), then I just skipped over that auction. Similarly, an image may be particularly good but the description may be only a one-liner or apparently deliberately vague (or vice versa: good description, poor image), then a red flag goes up in my mind. For coins, I see little excuse for a "no return" policy and this alone will cause me to skip an auction.

There's a lot of other parts of a coin auction I look at and analyze in depth: feedback of course, particular negative (for me) buzzwords and phrases in a description or other narrative (return policy, shipping details, guarantee) such as "estate", "I'm not a coin expert", "grading is subjective", "judge from the image", "found in my late grandfather's attic" all make me suspicious; item location ("anywhere, USA" bothers me; Shanghai, Singapore, China don't exactly bring out my trust in a seller); and previously sold or other items listed may also give a better glimpse into a seller's character.

The whole is comprised of the sum of its parts; if one part is missing or inadequate, the rest becomes meaningless.

Fred