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Posted 01/11/2010 1:01 pm
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.
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.
