Proxiblog's Top Online Coin Auctions

Proxiblog this week was sponsored by

Proxiblog — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:54:18 +0000

Leonard Auction

Welcome to Leonard Auction!

Leonard Auction, located in Addison, Illinois, is a premiere Chicago auction house and estate liquidation firm that has won multiple awards on Proxiblog in such categories as photography, lot descriptions, consignments and overall best house. Leonard Auction also has detailed consignment policies that secure some of the best coin lots on the Proxibid portal. The company not only knows numismatics but also protects buyers, as this post illustrates, noting the Leonard policy on coin authenticity and emphasizing why Leonard Auction ranks among the most trusted on Proxibid.

Leonard Auction has a reputation for experience, integrity, and superior technology–core values of founder and appraiser John Leonard–that propelled his house to the top echelon of auctioneering. The company’s first auction house in Naperville, Ill., opened in 2006. Business boomed, prompting the company a year later to relocate to its current site in Addison, Ill., featuring more than 8,000 square feet for ample display.

Leonard Auction’s onsite prowess combines with digital savvy to bring the excitement of an auction to coin buyers on Proxibid. The company conducts a series of auctions each month, generally on the third weekend. Its Friday night Coin & Currency auction features 300-400 lots of high-end collectible coins, currency, gold, silver, platinum and stamps.

We thank Leonard Auction for sponsoring Proxiblog’s scholarship fund to help ease student debt and create the next generation of auction-house bidders!

Proxiblog Grows: more views, new sponsors, updated rankings

Proxiblog — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:35:28 +0000

Proxiblog’s success is due in part to companies and bidders who visit our site (11,200 views in 3 months!), debate policy, compete in the auctioneering tradition and show their generosity by sponsoring scholarships to ease student debt.

We are honored to serve you! And you have served us, as well, sharing your knowledge and interacting with others on our site.

Our Honor Rolls now boast 80 auction houses, up from 11 in 10 months. Best of all, photography has improved significantly across the portal!

Our most popular page remains “Boos and Booyahs!” with our “Articles” page (a veritable book about online auctioneering) a close second. Most of our viewers are from the United States with Canada and Great Britain, second and third. We have posted 147 articles and more than 300 photographs, and nearly 100 of our viewers have sent comments.

Viewers who self-identify are mostly auctioneers and their employees along with bidders, hobbyists and Proxibid blog subscribers.

Rankings have changed dramatically since last month, with Weaver Auction and Western Auction in a dead heat for first place. Meares, Engstrom, Rolling M., and Krause have broken into the top 10 with newcomer Bennett, featuring the lowest buyer’s fees.

Finally, in the past month, we have purchased our own domain, proxiblog.org, with the org representing a non-profit. We bring you content, buy from and consign to your auctions, to help with student scholarships. And you have answered the call with sponsorships!

We especially appreciate the scholarship support from Weaver Coin and Currency Auction, GreatCollections, Key Date Coins, Western Auction and Leonard Auction.

John Leonard company’s is this week’s sponsor (with a post about that on Friday).

We thank our viewers for helping make Proxiblog a success!

More on Consignor- and Max-Bid Viewing

Proxiblog — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:22:16 +0000

Proxiblog has received more emails about dropping from our lists all those auction houses that allow consignor- and maximum-bid viewing, in light of transparency notices (warnings) posted by the portal. We encourage all auctioneers that allow seller bidding and who view maximum bids to cease these practices, as nothing is more important than your integrity.

One of our top auctioneers sent this email:

I had an auctioneer tell me his sales dropped from 65% to 10% when he disclosed that he could see the pre-bids for his auctions. I am a staunch proponent of NOT seeing these bids and Proxibid has responded with new disclosures. Our company will not choose to see the pre-bids nor bid on behalf of the seller at our auctions. We have lost business because we don’t allow this activity, but overall we have survived.

Proxiblog also has been corresponding with top houses that allow one or both practices. We sent this email to one of the most progressive companies:

Recently Proxibid began putting up notices about allowing consignors to bid on coins. I noticed that you had such a notice. Nonetheless, I bid as soon as I saw your auction go up. Something made me suspicious that a consignor was running up my bids. Normally, I do not bid on currency. But in this case I bid on (three) lots. Within 30 minutes, those three lots–and no other currency–were bid up. I stopped bidding at that point.

If consignors bid on their wares, and they win the bids, they should end up paying the auction house and Proxibid. For instance, if I consign a coin to you and bid up a $75 Morgan to $100, you should charge me on both ends–10% online buyer’s fee and 5% consignor fee. Thus, a $75 Morgan bought back should cost me $115. Plus I lose the shipping money. And Proxibid still takes its cut.

We were gratified that the auction company took our advice and removed from its most current auction the practice of allowing consignors to bid up their wares.

Other auctioneers have complained about so-called “onsite” sales that are not sales at all but a method to take an item off the block without paying Proxibid fees. You’ll see those items re-listed in future auctions by the company.

We have been bidding on auctions that allow both dubious practices. But we bid less. We never bid more than Grey Sheet. And we’re patronizing other auctions that maintain the tradition of competition.

Finally, we see that other portals, such as iCollector, do not have transparency notices–at least ones we could find (correct us if we are wrong about this). So in the short term auctions that allow consignor- and maximum-bid viewing might feel more comfortable there. In the long term, though, we see Proxibid’s APN clearance, transparency notices and other company rules elevating the Omaha-based company to the highest echelons of online bidding.

And we’ll be there as well to help maintain standards, as we have on this issue from the get-go. See this previous articles on the topic:

Proxibid’s Maximum Bid Issue (Sept. 24, 2011)
Proxibid Should Conceal Maximum Bids (Oct. 26, 2011)
Proxibid Changes Improve Portal (Jan. 28, 2012)
New Rules for Timed Auctions (Feb. 1, 2012)
Consignor and Maximum Bid Policies (Feb. 15, 2012).

Because we have advocated for fair play as well as for auctioneer integrity, we have grown as a site for bidders as well as companies, with more than 11,000 views in the past three months.

For the time being we will not change our policy of listing in rankings those houses that allow these questionable practices. We think Proxibid’s transparency notices, and our posts, will persuade houses that the best practice is the honest practice.

Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.

Know your coins!

Proxiblog — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:31:17 +0000

When you state in your service terms–”We Are Not Coin Experts!”–you open yourself up as a target for self-slabbers. If you don’t take time to know varieties, you’ll sell pricey lots for pennies on the dollar. Here are just a few examples. …

We just visited a new Proxibid auctioneer selling coins for the first time, and sure enough, he was hit with junk slabbed coins touting MS66 when those lots are graded much lower or not grade-worthy at all.

To the right is an example of a Morgan that has obvious wear, designated at a superb gem. The coin is not worth hundreds of dollars but slightly above $25 silver melt in our estimation. Click picture to expand.

You can trust PCGS, NGC, ANACS, ICG and, on occasion, PCI, Numistrust, and SEGS and a few others. Otherwise treat the coins as raw. Better still, learn how to grade by visiting PCGS Photograde (Tm) resource. (However, never misuse this service as this post warns.)

It also pains us to see auctioneers who know numismatics not inspecting their consignments to the extent that they should, as this example shows. Pictured below is a 1890-CC Tailbar. It’s described as a plain 1890-CC. The tailbar variety is worth so much more. Click picture to expand.

If you’re going to sell coins regularly, as this auctioneer does, and you are not going to take the time to know varieties, you’re just cheating yourself and your consignor. The auctioneer tradition requires keen knowledge of a wide range of antiques and collectibles. Start learning now by taking out a subscription to a numismatic publication such as Coin World or, if you do not want to pay a subscription fee, Coin Update News or any of the several free blogs that will enlighten you … and increase your bottom line.

Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.

Boos & Booyahs: Best & Bad Auctioneer Lot Descriptions

Proxiblog — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:47:45 +0000

It’s important to be in sync with the Proxibid technology to showcase your photos, hone your lot descriptions, and highlight your consignments for top bids on the leading portal! In the latest installment, Proxiblog laments and compliments best and bad auctioneer lot descriptions during the past week. We will name the best, but you will have to search Proxibid for the bad. (Click pictures to expand and view lot descriptions below.)

Booyah Silver Trades Auction! for a linked video to a charming scene of a young numismatist selling her collection. This shows real technological savvy, and the little girl sold her collection, to boot! Wonderful use of the Proxibid portal.

Booyah Bid-A-Lot Auction! for noting polished coins, which turn up frequently on Proxibid and which always need to be described because this is a form of coin altering. Moreover, some unethical consignors target auction houses for all their polished coins, especially when the auctioneer states “I AM NOT A COIN EXPERT.”

Booyah! Kaufman Auction for describing this coin as cleaned, even though the cleaning isn’t readily apparent from the photos. Shows auctioneer knows coins and respects bidders!

Boo! to this unnamed but knowledgeable auctioneer who doesn’t take the time to note that these are replicas recently banned from eBay. Perhaps he thinks anyone purchasing them should know that as these if real would cost a fortune. With stakes so low, just mention these are copies, OK?

Boo! to this otherwise fine auction house that claims in the description that an outlaw owned this coin. In this case, do not show us the money; show us the certificate of authenticity that an outlaw really owned the piece. Otherwise, keep mum.

Booyah! to Key Date Coins whose auctioneer Eddie Caven knows his VAMS and numismatic errors. Eddie calls ‘em as he sees ‘em–literally. Moreover, he keeps on improving with each auction. His pictures are great, and he ships inexpensively and quickly.

Boo! to this unnamed auction house that claims it doesn’t know coins and then only shows one side of the coin as if bidders are to make a determination on this basis alone. For all we know, this could be a Carson City dollar, but we would have to see the reverse to make that call.

Booyah Silvertowne Auction! for describing the damage to this coin in addition to advising bidders what top dollar would be if they still desired the lot. This is yet another reason why so many bidders trust Larry Fuller’s descriptions. Good work!

Booyah Rick’s Relics! for using a stock photo of coins and being sure to emphasize that in the lot description, a practice accepted in numismatics as long as the mention of “stock” photo and description of condition are accurate, and we believe these to be.

Booyah Weaver Coin Auction! for noting that the coin is altered (whizzed) and then providing a large format photograph so that bidders can see for themselves. As this is a key date coin, bidders were sure to place high offers for this coin. This mitigates disappointment later and is yet another indication of why this house as been in our top three best companies most of last year and overall winner for best house in our awards.

Viewers can point us to other candidates for our “Boos & Booyahs!” series. Just leave a comment but follow our rules–all in good fun as a way to inspire accurate lot descriptions on Proxibid.

Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.

Quick Post: Would you buy from this Proxibid auction?

Proxiblog — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:32:57 +0000

The house has APN clearance, allowing credit card use, and this term of service below. …

“WE ARE NOT IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS!! WE USE OUR LOCAL UPS STORE FOR PACKING AND SHIPPING! THEY SET THE SHIPPING RATES!!!”

Our reply?

“YOU SHOULD BE IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS!! YOU SHOULD DO YOUR OWN PACKING AND SHIPPING! YOU SHOULD SET RATES INEXPENSIVELY!!!”

Why pay for APN clearance and require bidders to give their credit card data to a third party? Why not get with the Internet age if you hope to sell on a portal?

We’re hoping Proxibid flags these houses so that bidders know they can securely purchase online without risking credit card data with a third-party out of the portal’s control.

Become an Official Sponsor of Proxiblog!

Proxiblog — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:15:59 +0000

Proxiblog continues to grow, reaching more auctioneers, bidders, hobbyists and dealers. Our purpose in buying, selling and writing about coins is to help fund student scholarships, as we have noted in several posts and as appears on top of our rankings. Now we have a method for you to promote your company and fund scholarships at your discretion. Click picture above to expand for details.

In the past several months Proxiblog has been approached by major houses and dealers about accepting advertising. We do not. Rather, we have taken a National Public Radio approach with companies sponsoring a week of Proxiblog posts about the online auction business with a post dedicated solely to that company on Friday, running through most of the weekend. On Sunday evening, the post will transfer to our “On the Block” page, remaining in our Proxiblog queue. This way your promotion will remain on Google and other search engines as long as our site remains online.

And as all posts, the promotion will also appear in our publication queue, progressing down our main page to the “older posts” archive.

We ask that you do not promote a specific auction but the hallmarks of your company, especially in the coin trade. If you have a low buyer’s fee, state that. Fine photography? Always a big draw. Inexpensive shipping? Bidders look for that especially.

If your company has been in business for generations, tell us about that. If you’re new to the online auction trade, state that, too.

We’d also like as sponsors coin publications and organizations. Dealers welcome, too!

Here is what we will need from you:

A link to your company’s site.
A jpeg digital photo of your company logo.
A 100-word description of special qualities about your company.

We do not charge for such promotion and have the right to decline and/or edit submissions. However, after your promotional sponsorship runs, we ask that you visit our scholarship fund account and make a voluntary tax-deductible donation to ease student debt.

Beginning this Friday we will showcase our first sponsor, Great Collections, one of the top online timed auctions in competition with Telerade and Heritage.

One last request: Send you promotional submissions to proxiblogger@gmail.com

Thank you for your patronage of Proxibid (the company we cover in this independent blog) and, of course, Proxiblog and its mission to help fund student scholarships at Iowa State University of Science and Technology, the first land-grant institution in the country and home of the world’s first electronic digital computer–an appropriate icon for online commerce.

Beware of the Underbidder!

Proxiblog — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:13:58 +0000

This week one of our Honor Roll auctioneers wrote: “Next let’s start looking at under bidders, you know, the guys that bid 50 cent on every item.” What’s up with them, and do they ever win any lots?

Proxiblog patronizes many online auctions and conducts our own onsite auctions locally on occasion. So we do understand many of the issues involved in auctioneering, from both the bidder’s and seller’s perspective. But one thing that seldom happens in an onsite auction is the presence of the “Underbidder,” yelling “50 cents!” every time a lot comes on the block.

The Underbidder is omnipresent on Proxibid, however.

One variant of this Proxibum bids $11 on Morgans because he can hit the 1 on the keyboard twice, surpass most opening bids and file the bid quicker than striking a 1 and a 0 for $10, which he would do, did it not waste so much keyboard time. Filing bids is what this guy does best, hundreds of them (if not thousands) across the portal each day.

He figures if he wins a cull or damaged silver dollar at $11, the silver alone might be worth close to $30, so he’s potentially tripling his profit at everyone’s expense–the auctioneer, the portal and other bidders. But some Underbidders even go as low as 50 cents on every item. Do they ever win any lots?

Recently one of our favorite top auction houses made the decision to list every lot at $5, rather than using high opening bids. Of course he was hit by Underbidders. As his house went overnight from high to low opening bids, Proxiblog was worried that the company would be low-balled back to steep opening bids if something wasn’t done on his behalf.

So we bid every one of his 250 lots at Grey Sheet wholesale, what a coin dealer would pay. The entire auction. We found the Underbidder at $5 in each lot, for Carson City Morgans to rare coins and precious metals worth hundreds of dollars.

As it turned out, the company’s consignment was so strong that the auctioneer’s low-opening bid action generated sales above wholesale and even retail for most of his lots. And within two other auctions, he had established a return-bidder contingent so reliable that now Proxiblog has trouble winning any lot at wholesale. That’s what competition does, and that’s why we advocate it as we did in the last post about maximum bid viewing.

But this is the extent of our knowledge about the Underbidder roaming Proxibid. We’re wondering whether any auctioneer reading this has ever sold a Morgan worth $30 in silver weight for $11. We wonder whether Underbidders ever correspond with auctioneers about their deceptive game. Perhaps an auctioneer reading about this special brand of Proxibum has an anecdote to share.

Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.

Consignor and maximum-bid policies

Proxiblog — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:23:02 +0000

We support new transparency rules by Proxibid, posting notices on auctions that allow consignors and auctioneers to bid on lots and/or permit auctioneers to see maximum bids. These notices helped explain a few past purchases. We also have received emails from bidders asking us to remove those companies from our Honor Rolls. We have decided not to do that because Proxibid transparency notices will succeed over time.

Just as we advocated for 15% or lower online buyers’ fees, we will continue promoting competition in the auctioneer tradition. This post explains our position on consignor bidding and maximum bid viewing.

Overall, it is better for the portal to allow consignor bidding than high reserves because presumably those buyback bids indicate a sale, meaning the auctioneer has to pay Proxibid fees. We applaud Proxibid for setting rules for timed auctions, so that high reserves cost the auction company fees; but the problem never has been timed auctions. The problem has to do with so-called live auctions that in reality are only Internet-based with high reserves week after week in the hope that some newbie bidder will pay over retail. We hope that Proxibid’s control officer will investigate that issue with select houses and put them on notice, the same way the company puts bidders on notice for too many retractions.

That said, allowing consignors and auctioneers to bid up lots is very close to shill bidding, illegal in some states. It also occurs to us that bid retractions also can be related to consignor shill bids, a common occurrence on eBay and other portals.

We caution bidders reading Proxiblog to exercise care with auction houses seeing maximum bids. Some auctions that see those bids do not raise them to maximum on each lot; they sell at Grey Sheet (or wholesale). Some auctions just want to know the maximums so that they also can handle floor bidding. However, a few “bad”-lot auctioneers spoil it for the rest. They routinely jump to the maximum. In as much as Proxibid is supposed to mirror the onsite competition and excitement of an auction, this detracts from the experience. Imagine if auctioneers in a live sale had the superhuman capability to view maximum bids glowing on the foreheads of buyers in the room?

In sum, here is what we advise:

Bidders: Bid cautiously in auctions that allow sellers to bid on lots. Auctioneers: Sell coins to consignors at your normal buyers’ fee percentage and deduct an additional fee on the hammer price in paying funds to sellers who win back their own coins. That should stop shill bidding and also maintain portal fees.
Bidders: Bid conservatively and keep records of your maximum bids to see how many of those you end up paying when you win lots. If you’re paying maximum bids on all lots, consider patronizing other houses. There are plenty of companies whose auctioneers believe in competition. Auctioneers: Keep track of your sales since the new transparency rules have gone up and see if your auction profits are lower. We think you might see a difference in the bottom line in the months ahead as more bidders become aware of questionable practices.
Bidders: Think twice before patronizing auctions that allow both consignor bidding and maximum-bids viewing. Houses with more than 15% buyer’s fee–in addition to high opening bids–that also allow seller-bidding and see maximum lots may be doing themselves a disservice. Auctioneers: Nothing is more important in attracting return bidders as the integrity of the house. Do not short-sell your reputation.

Proxiblog will still keep companies on our Honor Rolls that engage in both questionable practices. We’ll monitor the situation in the months ahead and, of course, listen to our bidders’ and auctioneer views.

Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.

Auctioneer Advisory: Beware of Misuse of PCGS Brand

Proxiblog — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:37:45 +0000

In the past, the Price Guide of top coin-holdering company Professional Coin Grading Service has been misused by Proxibid auctioneers, citing those values for raw or self-slabbed coins. Now we have seen another problem in Proxibid auctions.

The latest infraction involves use of the PCGS Photograde (TM) Online and corporate trademark on labels of coins by entities not associated in any way with the company. Worse, some of those labels cite recommended values seemingly based on the PCGS Price Guide–a double infraction.

If you are selling those lots, take heed.

Anyone creating labels that misuse the PCGS brand risks legal action. PCGS rightfully protects its trademark and services not only because they rank among the best in the business but also because the company takes pride in its guides, services and good corporate name. If PCGS learns about such lots, the company immediately contacts its lawyers.

The PCGS Photograde (TM) Online guide is a great resource for auctioneers evaluating the potential worth and grade of coins. But that evaluation is yours, not PCGS’s. If you use the guide, do not cite it, as this gives the false impression that the company supports your designation and value. Furthermore, do not use the Photograde (TM) Online guide as an excuse to cite the PCGS Price Guide value, whether you mention the company or not. Those values only apply to properly evaluated and holdered PCGS coins.