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Went to an auction "again" last night. Someone consigned some misc junk coins. Nothing worth much except the bag of wheat ears. Pick me up off the floor. There was competitive bidding on a bag with 22 1940's Wheaties. Went for 34 times face plus premium and tax.
These were common avg. circulated at best. I am going to ask the auction house if I can consign some.

I see this all the time at auctions in my area. People will pay $12.00 to $18.00 for a sandwich bag that has 40 - 50 common date wheats in it. They also will pay $60.00 to $70.00 for a lower quality Morgan dollar that they could buy the same coin for $25.00 at the local coin shop. There is one auctioneer in my area that will put 50 lots of coins on the household auctions he has. He starts the sale off with these coins. He gets crazy money for the coins. You have a lot people at a household auction that know nothing about coins that think WOW that coin is from the 1800's that must really be worth a lot money. It's a win win for everybody. The coins do not compete with anything the household owner is selling and it draws more people in for sale when they see there are coins on the auction.

when they see there are cons on the auction.

Love the freudian slip...

That's smart to put the coins out first, people get excited about that, and want to bid on stuff. Some people at auctions and estate sales take a chance, I hear about it all the time, even on things they collect specifically. It just depends on price. Like today I bought 6 rgp watches for $5, one was a fake rolex, just that the $5 I spent is enough to get me learning about if they really are worth anything, and they're not, I still walked away ahead, I got a couple of nice knives and work gloves for $1 each, oh and a brass johny walker compass with glow in the dark needles, and some little sterling thing for free. Oh, and the lol, capri brass whistle.

Coins are definitely an interesting mystery to new collectors. I'm a 3rd gen collector and even I still get fooled sometimes!

NDFarmer wrote: People will pay $12.00 to $18.00 for a sandwich bag that has 40 - 50 common date wheats in it. They also will pay $60.00 to $70.00 for a lower quality Morgan dollar that they could buy the same coin for $25.00 at the local coin shop...It's a win win for everybody.

Not for the buyer who just got screwed and will likely never be able to sell anywhere close to what they paid for it.