Tag Archives: Five Star Auction

New Rankings, 2000 Views per Month

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Proxiblog’s Coin and Currency category did not add any new auctions to our favorite sellers list; however, a half dozen or so improved so that a full 16 houses earned a 24.5 out of 25, showing continuing improvement.


Weaver Signature Coin and Currency Auction takes the top spot again this month with SilverTowne a close second, thanks to a dazzling array of quality rarities. Both Weaver Auction and SilverTowne provide good descriptions, quick shipping, and regular auctions.

Weaver has slightly better photos, earning that house the sole 25-point best ranking.

Leonard, Capitol, Meares and Fox Valley all boast great photos, consignments, service and descriptions. In most cases, houses failed to score a full 25 points because of problems with photos or higher than average buyer’s premiums.

Rounding out the top 10 are Back to the Past, Star Coin and Currency, Certified Rare Coin Auctions and Five Star Auction.

It should be noted that some of our favorite houses are not offering as many auctions on Proxibid. Those are dropping in the rankings because of that. But we’re always on the lookout for their return.

Also keep in mind that our favorite houses are just that–ours. Your experience may differ from ours.

As for Proxiblog, we have exceeded 50,000 page views. In the past month, we surpassed 1820 views worldwide. We’re increasingly global with top views from the USA, Britain, Canada, India, Russia, Germany, Australia and the Philippines. Once again, the most accessed post was California Gold, real, replica and fake. That post averages between 50-100 views per month.

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.


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SilverTowne, Capitol Auction Win … “Best Shipping”

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4Best Shipping_SilverTowne

SilverTowne Auction and Capitol Coin Auction win the shipping category because they send winnings to buyers without charging handling fees or higher fees for each additional lot (a practice that baffles us because the more lots a customer wins, the better for the house and Proxibid).

We wish more Proxibid auctions can learn from SilverTowne and Capitol Coin Auction. SilverTowne keeps it simple: “Auction lots will be shipped via US Mail within two business days upon receipt of payment. Packages $10.00 – $1,000.00 will be shipped Insured US Mail. Packages $1,001.00 and over will be shipped UPS.”

Capitol Coin Auction, which won the category last year, has one of the best policies on the portal:

    Shipping Instructions: All items will be shipped via the U.S. Postal Service. The Buyer is responsible for the actual cost of shipping and insurance. Unlike most other auction companies, we DO NOT charge our buyers a fee for handling or packing their purchases. All items are shipped within 2-3 business days following the auction.

Some auction houses on Proxibid refuse to ship in-house, using third parties that require your credit card data (unsafe practice) or charge ungodly fees for coins, even though supplies are free at the US Post Office. Take a look at this post about one such company.

Compare that with the shipping terms of service from our other Honorable Mention houses:

Engstrom Auctions


Coins and jewelry will be shipped via United States Postal Service to locations in the United States at a flat rate of $10 (shipping, and handling) for most orders, which will be added to your invoice. … All packaging is done by Engstrom Auction employees. We double check your items against our packaging slip to ensure you get the correct items.

Five Star Auction

Shipping Instructions: Buyers will pay actual shipping cost with no handling fee. Shipping will be within 2 business days of receipt of payment for item (items) purchased. Your credit card will be charged for shipping at this time. We will ship coins anywhere in the world and shipping will cost accordingly. Multiple items will be combined to save shipping costs when applicable.

Star Coin and Currency

Shipping Instructions: We provide fast low cost shipping to our bidders. We ship most items for $4 or less for all items won. Sometimes additional postal services or insurance may be added to the invoice if need, based upon value, weight, size and destination.

Meares Auction Group

Shipping Instructions: Minimum shipping charge for is $2.00 and the prices will be adjusted with the number of items that you purchase. The prices do not double or triple, but reflect the weight shipped and the distance that they are shipped. For more information you may log onto http://www.usps.com for shipping rates and zone information. We insure packages up to the purchase price.

Jewelry Exchange

Shipping Instructions: Packages valued under $100 are sent uninsured via USPS First Class Mail or Priority Mail; packages valued at $100 to $499 are sent via USPS Insured at the buyer’s risk; packages valued at $500 or more are sent via USPS Registered Mail. Shipping is charged at the USPS published rates.

We congratulate SilverTowne and Capitol Coin Auction and our Honorable Mention houses for their emphasis on shipping inexpensively, quickly and securely.

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.

Capitol Coin Wins “Best Auction”

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7Best Coin Auction

Capitol Coin Auction has won our award for “Best Coin Auction” on the Proxibid portal, garnering “Best Shipping” and “Best Descriptions” honors and honorable mentions in “Best Photography,” “Best Consignments,” and “Best Value Added” categories.

Because competition was so tough this year, with more auctions in the running for awards than last, the spread between “Best” and runners-up was narrow.

As we indicated in our last ranking of favorite auctions listed in the right sidebar, Capitol Coin Auction has been the only house to achieve maximums in all categories, and this played out as anticipated in our “Top of Proxiblog” Awards.

A close second was Leonard Coin Auction, which performs on par or slightly better than Capitol in all categories, including “Value Added.” When judging ended and scores were tallied, the two houses virtually tied; however, the margin of difference was Capitol’s lowering a previously higher BP to 15%, the recommended percentage for online buyers.

Leonard Auction won the “Best Value-Added” category in addition to being an honorable mention in “Best Descriptions,” “Best Photography,” and “Best Consignments.”

We also praise and recommend our other honorable mentions in the “Best Coin Auction” category, including:

  • Key Date Coins, which won “Best Photography” and was an honorable mention in “Best Descriptions” and “Best Shipping.”
  • SilverTowne Auctions, which won “Best Timed Auction” and placed in “Best Descriptions,” “Best Consignments” and “Value-Added” categories.
  • Weaver Signature Coin and Currency Auction, which placed in “Best Descriptions,” “Best Consignments,” “Best Photography,” and “Best Value-Added” categories.
  • Western Auction, which won “Best Consignments” and placed in “Best Photography” and “Value-Added” categories.

We also wish to congratulate all those auction houses who won or placed in our awards, including:

  • Back to the Past Collectibles
  • Braxton’s Auctioneering
  • Engstrom Auctions
  • Five Star Auction
  • Fox Valley Coins
  • Jewelry Exchange
  • Kaufman Realty and Auction
  • Liberty Shops
  • Matthew Bullock Auctioneering
  • Manor Auction
  • Meares Auction Group
  • Midwest Coins
  • Rolling M Auction
  • Star Coin and Currency

We encourage all of the houses named above to continue improving in the spirit of service, competition and community that all auctioneers and numismatists share, serving our clients and memberships. Continue to embrace the ethics of both the National Auctioneers Association and the American Numismatic Association.

We also thank Proxibid for its Internet options, quality control and customer service and all houses specializing in coins. We encourage them to visit these award-winning houses above. We know there are some houses that we missed in our rankings; as always, our experience may differ from yours and you should consider these award-winners our favorites. In sum, we did the best job we could with the available data and hope that you will continue visiting our site and interacting with our clientele, now exceeding 26000 views since inception.

Finally, consider making a donation to our Scholarship Account. (See details on top of the “Rankings” sidebar to the right.) We will continue publishing Proxiblog free of charge and covering Proxibid and the online coin auction industry. Won’t you consider making a voluntary donation to offset tuition expenses for our college students?

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

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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 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.)

One Big Booyah to SilverTowne Auction for grading a coin in a lower-tier slab more accurately for bidding. There’s a near $3000 difference between MS65 and MS62 for a 1926 $10 eagle. Watch for a post later this week about hyping coins in lower-tier slabs. SilverTowne doesn’t engage in such practices.

Booyah! to Black and Gold auction for identifying tape residue, one of the issues with this coin and difficult to remove, essentially rendering a common coin to silver melt status. But this is a rare 1895-O, and as such, the lot has value. Black and Gold Auction makes sure the buyer knows what he is getting.

One Big Booyah to Liberty Shops Auction! for going one step further and recommending that bidders view this damaged lot as silver melt. We never saw that before on Proxibid. We’re glad we did here.

Boo! to this unnamed auction house that routinely does this, inexplicably, photographing the box but not the coin. The auction house is trustworthy and the auctioneer knows numismatics, but geez, we even messaged the house to shoot the photos … to no avail.

Boo! to the same house for not showing the reverse of a 1903-S, as this coin has a rarer variety, a small “s” that can fetch hundreds of dollars in this grade. Oh, well. This suggests that someone who doesn’t know numismatics as well as the auctioneer is taking photographic shortcuts. Boo, boo, boo!

Booyah Leonard Auction! for noting that this Indian Head cent has been tampered with, probably using heat to effect a pastel rainbow. For more on this type of artificial toning, read this article.

Booyah Leonard Auction and Five Star Auction! for noting that these junk pieces are replicas, not California fractional gold. Auctioneers who do hype these brass copies as real risk violating the Hobby Protection Act. See this article to tell how to distinguish real from fake California gold.

Booyah Munda Auction! for correcting a bottom-tier holder for hyping the grade of a lot. Watch for a post from us concerning just the opposite. We’re glad Munda has the skill and integrity to call this for what it is. Kudos!

Boo! to this unnamed auction house for taking the tiniest photos we have ever seen on Proxibid and then advising bidders to view the photo for details. Bulletin: There is an online coin buying community. Learn to photograph correctly. Better still, learn numismatics.

Booyah! Weaver Coin Auction for noting that the slab is mismarked and advising bidders accordingly, yet another reason why this house consistently is at the top of our rankings.

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.