Tag Archives: Mike Peterson Auctioneers

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.)

bad

Boo! to this auctioneer who hides certification numbers with a sticker and describes the almost uncirculated coin as MS64.

cleaned kaufman

Booyah Kaufman Auction! for noting this silver three-cent coin is cleaned (they usually are) and in the process of cleaning, damaged because of the thin planchet.

dipped

Boo! to this auction house that insists on taking slanted photos of coins, which unnaturally highlights luster. But not in this case. The dipping is readily apparent.

gemblurry

Another Boo! to this unnamed auction house that calls a coin “gem” while providing a blurry photo so that condition cannot be discerned online.

peeved

Boo! to this auction house for hyping the value of a common coin. When is Proxibid going to crack down on exaggerated lot descriptions?

poorphoto_nophotoreverse

Boo again! to another auction house for only providing one blurry photo (no reverse) yet still calling the lot “gem.” Please master photography, folks, if you hope to sell coins online.

replica

Booyah Mike Peterson Auctioneers! for identifying a coin as a replica. Would more auctioneers do the same, especially on fake California gold.

stained

Booyah Weaver Auction! for noting the stain on this large-sized popular note. Often photos don’t capture flaws on notes, so this description is appreciated.

wrong photo

Boo! to this auction house for posting the wrong photo with the lot description. Double check before you post on Proxibid.

wronglist
Boo! to another house for describing the lot wrong. In this and the above case, use the “Report This Item” link to alert the auctioneer.

crease

Booyah! Star Coin and Currency for noting that the crease is in the holder and not the note. Way to go Auctioneer Jim Haver!

cleanedsilvertowne

Booyah SilverTowne Auction! for noting cleaning on a red Indian head cent. It’s difficult to detect when a coin has residual luster. Dave Nauert discloses the flaw.

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.