Tag Archives: Braden Auction Services

Boos & Booyahs: Best & Bad Auctioneer Lot Descriptions

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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 bad auctioneer lot descriptions and praises the best in recent auctions. (Be sure to click pictures to expand and view lot descriptions below.)

bidalot_nobox

Booyah BidAlot Auction! for noting that this U.S. Mint product comes without a box. It is important to state that with Mint products, especially GSA dollars.

cleanednot67rim

Boo! to this auction house for stating that this coin is MS67 when it clearly has been cleaned, is porous (right field) with rim damage (3 o’clock).

leonard_cleaning

Booyah Leonard Auction! for noting cleaning. Leonard Auction ranks among our favorites because of the honesty of the owner, John Leonard, coupled with his numismatic knowledge. He’s one of the best on Proxibid, period.

openingbid

Boo! to this unnamed auction house that really isn’t an auction but an online “Buy It Now” company that ensures with opening bids and 18% buyer’s fee that it will never lose money for any coin it sells on Proxibid. Recommendation: Bidders are better off on eBay.

pluggedplished_braden

Booyah Braden Auction! for noting significant flaws in this lot, including plugging and polishing. Now, if the company only provided photos of obverse and reverse, it might have a shot at our favorite auction rankings.

replica

Boo! to another auction house for calling this a restrike when it is a copy and most probably only gold-plated. A restrike uses the same dies as the original. We guarantee that the US Mint didn’t have “COPY” when it struck the real coin in 1849.

restored_A new day
Booyah A New Day Auctions! for identifying acid restored Buffalo nickels. Watch for a post about this in the future.

rims_silvertown

Booyah SilverTowne Auction! for noting rim damage on its coins. Would that more houses did the same!

scratch

Booyah! Jewelry Exchange for noting a scratch on this coin. Hard to see in the photo but glad to see in the lot description. Truth brings return customers. Hiding the truth brings dispute resolutions.

starcoin_replica
Booyah Star Coin and Currency! for noting that these Confederate dollars as replicas. We’ve seen copies on Proxibid not designated as such. Yet another example of Best Practice!

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. Tomorrow we will showcase the best lot descriptions. Stay tuned!

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.

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New Rankings, New Highs for Posts

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Proxiblog’s Coin and Currency category has three additions to its monthly rankings, welcoming back Mike Peterson Auctioneers, Ritmar Exchange and Braden Auction Services, all continuously working on improvements. The rest of our list remains relatively stable with the top 15 or so houses featuring good consignments, quality photos and excellent customer service. Some of our favorite houses are falling in the rankings because the infrequency of their events, a factor in our tallies.


Weaver Signature Coin and Currency Auction shares the top spot with Capitol Coin Auction, scoring a full 25 points. Dave Weaver continues to describe coins’ conditions accurately, noting flaws.

Also moving up is Fox Valley Coins, which just hosted one of the highest bid auctions of the year, with more than 1200 lots of mostly superior coins. Leonard Auction, a long-time favorite, holds its slot. Back to the Past Collectibles continues to work hard on photo enhancements, and so is enjoying greater bids and more return customers.

As stated earlier, we are happy to welcome back to our rankings Ritmar Exchange, Mike Peterson Auctioneers and Braden Auction Service. These houses continue to work on behalf of consignor AND seller.

As you can see by our numbers, ranging from 23.5-25 point, very little separates one auction house from another. Many of those lower on the scale are not working sufficiently on photography or offering mediocre consignments. A few dropping even further are not scheduling events. After four months, those houses will drop off our lists.

Keep in mind that these houses rank among our most favorite. Your experience may differ from ours.

As for Proxiblog, we have exceeded 50,000 page views. Last week a post enjoyed more than 200 viewers, “Some PVC Coins Can Be Cleaned.”

We’re increasingly global with top views from the USA, Britain, Canada, India, Russia, Germany, Australia and the Philippines.

Continuing as our most popular post is California Gold, real, replica and fake.

Below is a graphic that you can click to expand, seeing where our viewers are most likely to navigate.
Marchweek

We continue to provide best practices and numismatic knowledge to our viewers for free. Please consider making a donation. We post every weekday and do this for educational purposes, informing viewers about numismatics as well as funding scholarships for Iowa State University students.

Fortunately, we have several of our top houses donating funds to our scholarship account. You can also buy our Basic Coin Design book on Kindle. We are extremely grateful. Won’t you consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Iowa State Foundation so that we can continue publishing? Thank you for your consideration!

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

Posted on by

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 bad auctioneer lot descriptions and praises the best in recent auctions. (Click pictures to expand and view lot descriptions below.)

braden_ding

Booyah Braden Auction Service! for noting that this silver half dollar has obverse damage. Any detail that distracts from value should be noted, even if seemingly obvious in the photo.

sewn_repair

Booyah Weaver Auction! for noting that two halves of a torn currency were sewn together in a repair. Dave Weaver’s lot descriptions are among the best on Proxibid!

silvertowne_mark

Another Booyah to top-house SilverTowne Auction for noting damage on coins. This one is particularly helpful because it is difficult to see in the photo.

ryther_scratched

Booyah Gary Ryther Auctioneers! for noting another hard-to-see scratch on an Indian-head semi-key coin.

badphotos

Boo! to this house for awful photography. If you want to sell online, you had better master numismatic picture-taking, combining that with accurate descriptions.

not1882O

Boo! to this house for getting the description wrong. It’s not the scarce 1882-O Morgan but the common 1883-O one. When bidders see this common mistake, use the “report this item” Proxibid link so that the auctioneer can fix the mis-identification.

rim

Booyah Antiques and Estate Auctioneers! not only for acknowledging a rim problem but providing a good photo to document it.

detailed_inventory

Booyah Leonard Auction! for providing detailed description on an item that has various components, noting face value, various silver weights, denominations and more.

nokeydate

Boo! to this house for claiming the 1909 vdb is a “key date.” Key dates in the Lincoln Wheat Cent category are 1909-S vdb, 1909-S, 1914-D, 1922 plain, and 1931-S.

gold_not

Boo! to another auction house for calling the 1880-S, a very common Morgan dollar, a “key date.” Key dates for the Morgan series are 1881-CC, 1885-CC, 1889-CC, 1893-CC, 1893-S, 1895 Proof, and 1895-S.

polished
Booyah Munda Auction! for noting that this lot is polished. Often polished coins appear to be mint state when they are, in fact, rendered silver melt by polishing and alternation.

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. Tomorrow we will showcase the best lot descriptions. Stay tuned!

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.

Meares Auction Group Wins … “Most Improved”

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1A_Most Improved

Meares Auction wins our most improved category for enhancements in photography, descriptions and consignments–quite a leap, considering these are among the most desired characteristics of top online houses.

Meares Auction featured a frenetic series of high-bid bankruptcy auctions in August, with 5% buyer’s fee, among the lowest on Proxibid. We anticipate Meares Auction Group to improve even more as the company is building consignments for 2014 auctions.

Below is an example of Meares’ photography enhancements (click to expand).

Meares_photo

Close second to Meares is another long-time Proxibid auction house. Gary Ryther Auctioneers enhanced photography, consignments and descriptions. See this article in Coin Update News.

Meares’ low BP was the reason his house surpassed Ryther’s.

Rolling M Auction won the “Most Improved” award last year, again because of enhancements in photography. That company is an honorable mention this year, with slight improvement in photography. Rolling M. would be one of our top favorite houses if it upgraded its photography one more notch, primarily to capture luster in raw coins. Its consignments are among the best on the portal, and its publicity and promotion excellent.

If you are an auctioneer and want to earn top dollar for your consignors, you need to work on photography.

We have mentioned in prior posts that competition has increased on the Proxibid coin portal. That is why we have a bevy of honorable mentions this year for houses that have either upgraded photography, descriptions or both. They are:

  • Back to the Past Collectibles
  • Braden Auction Services
  • Engstrom Auction
  • Jewelry Exchange
  • Midwest Coins
  • McKee Coins
  • Star Coin and Currency

Back to the Past Collectibles is in the process of improving photography. Engstrom Auction is dedicated to continuous improvement and routinely solicits feedback on its auctions. Jewelry Exchange, known for accurate descriptions, is working on photography to capture luster. Midwest Coins has improved photography. McKee Coins’ photography is much improved. We’re waiting for top-dollar consignments, though. Star Coin and Currency has honed descriptions and photography, too.

Next category for TOP Awards is Best Descriptions, featuring some of Proxiblog’s favorite sellers. Stay tuned!

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.

Nearly 20,000 Views, New Rankings!

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Proxiblog’s audience keeps growing with close to 20,000 views worldwide in the past year, as bidders register to read about top coin auction houses. Speaking of which, after points were tallied for consignments, photography, lot descriptions, buyers’ fees, customer service, shipping and numismatic knowledge, we were as surprised as you might be in discovering 5 houses tied for highest scores. Listed alphabetically, they are Capitol Coin Auction, Key Date Coins, Silvertowne Auctions, Weaver Signature Coin and Currency Auction, and Western Auction.

Note: Regular postings to begin on Sunday, Aug. 5.

Beginning next week, we will do spotlight features on each of these houses, noting what makes them so special–including what practices they follow–so that bidders and auctioneers can benefit from our reviews.

Making her debut in our top rankings is Debra Johnson of Auctions Unlimited, which has one of the lowest buyer’s fees on Proxibid at 10% and which also dropped transparency notices. Midwest Coins also did likewise, and we’re happy to include this fine Iowa house in our rankings. Braden Auction Service also enters our top houses in the sidebar to the right.

While the competition in the Coins and Currency page on Proxibid continued to grow, Proxiblog’s audience also grew in the same five-month time period. Our audience is closing in on 20,000 views. The United States, by far, provided most of that audience; however, Proxiblog’s popularity is growing in Canada, Philippines, India, the United Kingdom and Australia.

The most accessed articles were “California Gold, real, replica and fake” and “Beware Dipped Coins.”

The most popular pages were “Boos and Booyahs!” and “Honor Roll.”

In the past five months we also had 18 total sponsors, with several sponsoring Proxiblog for several weeks and donating funds to our scholarship account. Sponsors include:

We thank these auction companies and numismatic publications for sponsoring Proxiblog’s scholarship fund to help ease student debt and create the next generation of auction-house bidders! If you would like to sponsor a week’s worth of Proxiblog, email mjbugeja@yahoo.com