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Im going to go to my first auction tomorrow looking for under priced coins and junk gold and silver. Im only going to buy if it is 75% of spot or below for jewlery or 85% or below for bullion or coins. Im only going to get gold or silver if they are marked. Are there any tips so I dont make a beginner mistakes. Im planning to play it safe.

Make sure you get there early to inspect the items for sale.

Don't get caught up in the moment when bidding and go too high.

If you're bidding really close to someone and both of you have the same upper limit, don't be shy about just calling out the price you want to pay.

Good luck with your plans. My experience at coin auctions is paying right about spot price (for coins and bullion). Let us know how it went. GL

Remeber to ask about if there's a buyer's premium or not -- and then adjust your bid appropriately

There are some gold coins that have numerous counterfeits. Make sure you have a list of them. A buddy of mine sent old gold coins in to PCGS and PCGS returned them and said they were fake. PCGS said that year was a common coin to be faked. They never said if the coin contained any gold.

To re-iterate the "counterfeit" post from Tourney:

Due to the spike in bullion prices there has been a corresponding spike in counterfeits. And, naturally with more money comes higher talent. So the counterfeits are BETTER also.

You MUST inspect in person before you buy!

The auction went well. I got gold at 50% spot and silver at 88% spot and a nice road bike for $50. I was the only one that showed up looking for PMs. My bidding wars were with a little girl. After I out bid her on the gold and silver she got the plastic jewlery and was happy. If there were coins there Im sure I would have got them for a little over face.

frugalcanuck wrote:The auction went well. I got gold at 50% spot and silver at 88% spot and a nice road bike for $50. I was the only one that showed up looking for PMs. My bidding wars were with a little girl. After I out bid her on the gold and silver she got the plastic jewlery and was happy. If there were coins there Im sure I would have got them for a little over face.

By gold, do you mean 14k or 22k jewelry? Sounds great.

I went to a coin auction yesterday and common Peace dollars were selling between $50.00 and $60.00 and common Morgans were selling between $70.00 and $80.00 it was nuts. A couple of the better quality Morgans sold for over $100.00 when the Red Book values them at $85.00 for an MS-64 grade and these were no where near that.

There were just short of 700 million Morgan dollars minted before 1921. It is estimated that 40% of Morgan dollars have been melted, thus leaving approimately 400MM coins in circulation. When one considers that there are almost 300 million people in the US that leaves approximately 1.33 Morgan dollars per person. We know however, that most coin collectors have hundreds of Morgans with no plans to monetize their silver value. Thus, the Morgan will become in the next twenty years a much more desirable coin than it is today. If I were a buyer today, I would opt for nicer AU/BU Peace Dollars which can still be had for $40-50.

18k jewlery is what I purchased

Odd that the silver went for so much more than the gold...maybe becuz of the recent runup... maybe cash poor bidders...

NDFarmer wrote:Red Book values them at $85.00 for an MS-64 grade and these were no where near that.

funny, Red Book was forever overpriced now recently it is underpriced....

RR GUY wrote:If I were a buyer today, I would opt for nicer AU/BU Peace

I just bought my first 11 AU Morgans just last week. No wonder the doc likes these....they are much better looking when you get the better grades.

The silver went for more than the gold because it was bigger and kid I was competing with didnt have that much money. Im sure the girl had no idea there was a runup in silver. I was the only one there looking for PMs. If only there were more PMs at the auction.

I agree with you RR Guy. Morgans have always been my favorite coin. I sure wished I would have bought a lot more of them a year ago when you could get them for $20.00 to $25.00

frugalcanuck wrote:The auction went well. I got gold at 50% spot and silver at 88% spot and a nice road bike for $50. I was the only one that showed up looking for PMs. My bidding wars were with a little girl. After I out bid her on the gold and silver she got the plastic jewlery and was happy. If there were coins there Im sure I would have got them for a little over face.

Where can I find an auction where you are bidding against children Sounds like shooting fish in a barrel

haha.. Its somewhere in Canada. Ill be going back for the next auction to see if I have the same luck. There was more competition for the 1986 miyata road bike I bought.

NDFarmer wrote:I agree with you RR Guy. Morgans have always been my favorite coin. I sure wished I would have bought a lot more of them a year ago when you could get them for $20.00 to $25.00

I wished I'd bought more when they were $5-7 a piece.

My auction secret is dimes. I usually buy large lots and end up paying 10-12x face, never more than 15x, even at today's melt values. From my experience Morgan/Peace dollars tend to go way too high. Quarters and halves can usually be bought for a bit under melt in small quantities. I've got some smokin' deals on large lots though.

I always factor the buyer's premium in. Here in GA it's always 10% cash, 13% credit, and of course no tax on coins or currency. Good luck out there!

Heartkill wrote:My auction secret is dimes. I usually buy large lots and end up paying 10-12x face, never more than 15x,

No deals like that around here. At the sale I was at there were a couple of dimes that went for $3.00 and a few at $3.50 but most went for $4.00 - $5.00 each. As I said earlier people around here are nuts.

Auctions WERE one of my 2 top secret way to buy bullion and coins.... I am always successful- and walk away under spot.

I just talked to the guy who told me about the auction and he said no one that he knows of in the town is into PMs. He asked for my email address because he is looking to get rid of his gold passed down from his grandpa. Im definately going back for more auctions.