Tag Archives: Manor Auction

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.

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Key Date Coins Wins … “Best Photography”

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2Best Photography

Key Date Coin Auctions, operated by Eddie Caven of Oklahoma City–a top-ranked house through much of 2012 on Proxiblog–has won the category of “Best Photography,” based on capturing the coin’s true condition and using as many shots as possible to make that happen.

Once again, this was a vigorously contested category with Capitol Coin Auction, Leonard Auction, Manor Auction, Matthew Bullock Auctioneering, McKee Coins, Weaver Coin and Currency, and Western Auction all vying for top honors. The deciding factor was Caven’s use of photography to augment his descriptions, showing VAMS, DMPLs and flaws with sharp, expandable pictures.

Last year Weaver Signature Coin Auction and Matthew Bullock Auctioneering tied for the best photo category honors.

As we mentioned last year, we are flummoxed that so many auctioneers on Proxibid, as competitive as you might anticipate NAA members to be, take shortcuts on photos, sometimes only displaying only obverse, sometimes depicting only a box or an album, sometimes neglecting to note key date coins, sometimes forgetting about lighting, and sometimes just blurring the whole shebang.

Check out this article for tips about digital photography.

To give you an example of why auction houses with the best photography almost always boast the best consignments and top ratings, check out these examples from winner Eddie Caven of Key Date Coins and our Honorable Mentions:

Key Date Coins

Key dateKeydate1Keydate2

Capitol Coin Auction

capitol

Leonard Auction

leonard

Manor Auction

Manor

Matthew Bullock Auctioneering

bullock

McKee Coins

mckee

Weaver Coin and Currency

weaver

Western Auction

western

Please do not take shortcuts on photography if you are paying Proxibid fees whose technology is programmed to share the onsite excitement of an auction with your Internet clientele. Proxibid has enhanced photo-expansion capabilities with a mere mouse-over in the bidding window. Nothing sells a coin with high bids as sharp, expandable photography.

Overall, we have seen better photos across the portal. Perhaps auctioneering competition is at the root of that. In any case, our hat’s off to Key Date Coins for its visual expertise as well as to our Honorable Mention houses.

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.

These Houses Can Grade!

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This is the second installment about the need for coin auctioneers to understand grading. The first listed the Do’s and Don’ts of grading. This cites houses that described raw coins so accurately that PCGS, the most rigorous holdering company in the business, agreed with their grades when Proxiblog sent the coins in for authentication.

Silvertowne: 1880-CC. Lot desccribed coin as MS62-63; coin returned by PCGS, MS62.

Matthew Bullock Auctioneers: 1883-O MS64DMPL; coin returned by PCGS, MS64DMPL.

Leonard Auction: 1903 PCGS Old Green Holder, MS64, possible upgrade; coin returned by PCGS, MS65.

Capitol Coin Auction: 1885-O, rainbow color, MS63; coin returned by PCGS MS63.

Fox Valley Coins: 1991-CC, MS64; coin returned by PCGS, MS64.

We have had similar luck with certain auctions sending to NGC, among them, Manor Auctions, Kreuger and Kreuger, Key Date Coins and Engstrom Auction. We have come close on occasion at NGC or PCGS (within a point) with Western, Weaver, Arneson, Meares, Scott and Kaufman auctions.

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.