What Causes Huge Variation In Variety Coin Auction Results?

The visual appearance will affect the value also. For example, in looking for a high grade 1932 D quarter. Some in grade MS64 look terrible and still for a lower price than one that is blast white is.
I'm looking for a blast white one and am ignoring the toned ones. I'll pay the extra price when I find the 'one'.

I have found that the best way to derive best price research from auction results is to
get as many sold prices on similar coins that you are interested in, and make a considered judgement on the maximum price you consider reasonable, on the target coin you are considering to buy.

After considering the above
my normal practice at auction is to submit a single written price proxy bid, and not even bother to attend the auction,
but
it is essential to attend the pre auction view day and closely examine in hand the coin you are to bid on.

With expensive coins, I usually submit a low bid and do not expect to be successful.
Puts a smile on your face when you are successful !

Bonus: With all of the above effort, one can gain a lot of numismatic knowledge along the way, over a lifetime.
Nevertheless, my learning curve is still steep, because I am a generalist, not a specialist, - that is why pre auction research is so essential for me.

DCAM/CAM or toning really aren't varieties. They are effects of a strike or storage.

For some Proof or Proof like coins the DCAM and CAM or usually hard to get (some dates of Franklin 50 cents as an example), coupled with the extra registry points they get may make people pay more than a fair value for them, but like many conditional varieties when more become available (especially on more recent coins ) the coin price tanks. Look at the 1986 ASE when PCGS graded the first 70, the prices were $20,000+, you can now get an NGC or PCGS in 70 for $600, so you think the guy that paid 20k will ever recoup his money? Highly doubtful. There are still thousands of monster boxes not graded the number of 70 will go up and the value will go down.

The early adopters tend to pay the highest, many of the secondary will wait it out or get lower grade. When another comes up for auction (in your example) you may no longer have 3 bidder you might only have 1, who puts in a low bid and wins.


You also have to take the sócio economic factor, there are few people with the means to buy a $1000, $5000, $10000 or $25000+ coin, when it comes to auction that bidder maybe bidding on several auction and then when he gets his coin, there is no longer any competition.


If you really want to collect but don't want to pay crazy prices don't get auction drunk, back out when the coin is over your max and don't worry about it for many coins there are thousands available.

People get hyped up in auctions. They tend to spend more than they should so that they don't lose the item.

I think this explains a lot of it. Get two bidders with money and ego going at it and the result can be wildly off from other identical coins. Having to "win" overcomes common sense.