Recent Coin Auction Results - Sellers Achieving only £1320/ oz for proof gold

[BackyardBullion]

So, I have just published a video about the recent auction results from The Coin Cabinet auction. 

I had not thought about it before, but assuming that a seller has to pay a 10% + VAT commission on the sales a 5 oz gold proof griffin sold for £1320/oz 

That does not even factor in grading fees/postage costs etc. 

£7500 sale price

£750 + £150 = £900 commission

£6600 for the coin

You could have taken it to a scrap dealer and gotten £7500 for it at £1500/oz spot price.

The only person that is winning here is the auction house with £750 worth of fees.

Well, that and the buyer that got a 5 oz gold proof griffin for spot price. 

Am I missing something?

[BackyardBullion]

 

[Shinus73]

No, you're not missing anything - it's currently a buyer's market.

[BackyardBullion]

If anyone out there is thinking of selling a 5 oz gold griffin, I will offer you spot price for it! 🙂

Thats 12% more than you might get at auction...

Thats the headline!

[goldhunter]

Not surprised by the Auction result.

Any modern graded coin less than a 70 will be hammered at Auction(pardon the pun)!!!

[LawrenceChard]

50 minutes ago, BackyardBullion said:

If anyone out there is thinking of selling a 5 oz gold griffin, I will offer you spot price for it! 🙂

Thats 12% more than you might get at auction...

Thats the headline!

... and if have have more than one to sell, send me the rest of them.

I'd even take PF68s...

or PF 67s...

or even "Grade C"

😎

[BackyardBullion]

Did this auction have 6% buyers fees too?

If so, The Coin Cabinet netted £1200 on the sale of this coin....

[BullionMan89]

I am speaking generally on auctions rather than about this company specifically as I am not familiar with all of their fees and practices but having looked at auctions in some detail I am amazed anybody buys or sells in this manner, especially when it comes to gold and the fine margins often involved there. 

The final price of most items is often significantly suppressed by the buyer's premiums to begin with and then the seller gets charged fees as well. It seems quite difficult for a buyer to get a bargain once they've paid the (often) exorbitant fees and things are even worse for sellers as already discussed.

Maybe I'm missing something but I do wonder why anybody bothers most of the time.

[LawrenceChard]

38 minutes ago, BackyardBullion said:

Did this auction have 6% buyers fees too?

If so, The Coin Cabinet netted £1200 on the sale of this coin....

At least the coin was probably genuine, unlike a few other auction lots we have noticed recently!

😎

[Petra]

Have they never heard of a reserve?

[Stu]

2 hours ago, BackyardBullion said:

So, I have just published a video about the recent auction results from The Coin Cabinet auction. 

I had not thought about it before, but assuming that a seller has to pay a 10% + VAT commission on the sales a 5 oz gold proof griffin sold for £1320/oz 

That does not even factor in grading fees/postage costs etc. 

£7500 sale price

£750 + £150 = £900 commission

£6600 for the coin

You could have taken it to a scrap dealer and gotten £7500 for it at £1500/oz spot price.

The only person that is winning here is the auction house with £750 worth of fees.

Well, that and the buyer that got a 5 oz gold proof griffin for spot price. 

Am I missing something?

Are you a bit miffed because you have the one ounce proof? ( me too )

[BackyardBullion]

6 minutes ago, Stu said:

Are you a bit miffed because you have the one ounce proof? ( me too )

I'm not that bothered by the 1 oz gold griffin, it will sit nicely in my collection as it is my favourite of the bunch.

What it also says to me is that selling at an auction house like this is probably not a viable option for me as a seller. 

The auction house would have to work much harder for my business. 

[CollectForFun]

Auctions working under 20-30% spread scheme never made sense for coins which are normally sold for lower premium. Yet, you can find hundreds of such coins in auction catalogues every month. So selling at an auction for less than getting from any dealer across the street is nothing new (whatever reasons may be).

Of course, for this particular coin the situation is even more stretched, as you would probably expect a proof coin to sell for much more than spot, probably even justifying the auction %. Well, tough luck for the seller this time...

Edited May 13, 2022 by CollectForFun

[jultorsk]

4 hours ago, BackyardBullion said:

Did this auction have 6% buyers fees too?

If so, The Coin Cabinet netted £1200 on the sale of this coin....

Yes. 

 

[flyingveepixie]

12 hours ago, BullionMan89 said:

I am speaking generally on auctions rather than about this company specifically as I am not familiar with all of their fees and practices but having looked at auctions in some detail I am amazed anybody buys or sells in this manner, especially when it comes to gold and the fine margins often involved there. 

The final price of most items is often significantly suppressed by the buyer's premiums to begin with and then the seller gets charged fees as well. It seems quite difficult for a buyer to get a bargain once they've paid the (often) exorbitant fees and things are even worse for sellers as already discussed.

Maybe I'm missing something but I do wonder why anybody bothers most of the time.

I really don't like auctions much myself but do occasionally use them regardless. 

A while back I outlined on this forum how an auction house had got it so completely wrong with the intended sale of one of my guitars which I eventually sold privately for almost double what the auction house had suggested as a reasonable expectation - and that was before their frankly ludicrous fees for both buyer and seller.

Just last week I purchased a couple of bottles of whisky at auction : here is the link showing all the bottles with the final prices : https://www.scotchwhiskyauctions.com/auctions/175-the-131st-auction/

No sellers fee or commission with this auction house which is very magnanimous of them, but still 10% buyers commission to pay on all purchases and you have to pay postage and add insurance on top to be safe unless you collect your bottles in person, so it still works out pretty expensive to buy in this way, although if you're canny enough you can get a deal - sometimes.

I've never bought a coin at auction and probably wont having read a number of posts on here which have put me off completely.

Edited May 14, 2022 by flyingveepixie

[Petra]

I have bought numerous coins at several auction houses across the country. All my experiences have been positive. One auction house regularly has a coin auction with no buyer fees. Coins there appear to fetch decent prices. For the others, unfortunately, including on line fees etc. you are looking at an additional 30%. You obviously factor that in when bidding. It is unfortunate for the seller, however, you can still put a reserve on. Why wouldn’t you? Especially as there can be some time before sending a coin for auction and the actual sale, hence a possible problem with spot prices by the time you sell.

[Shinus73]

The market for modern RM proofs has returned to its natural state, following a few years of unusually high secondary market prices, driven largely by Japanese buyers taking advantage of currency valuations. 

It’s not just Coin Cabinet auctions - I recently sold on eBay, a Bowie 1 oz silver and 2 oz silver, plus an Elton 1 oz silver, all graded PF69, for a total of £160, less than 50% of RRP. My worst eBay auction results since the metal price capitulation of 2011. Now is a dangerous time to sell anything modern using the no reserve auction format.

[flyingveepixie]

1 hour ago, Shinus73 said:

The market for modern RM proofs has returned to its natural state, following a few years of unusually high secondary market prices, driven largely by Japanese buyers taking advantage of currency valuations. 

It’s not just Coin Cabinet auctions - I recently sold on eBay, a Bowie 1 oz silver and 2 oz silver, plus an Elton 1 oz silver, all graded PF69, for a total of £160, less than 50% of RRP. My worst eBay auction results since the metal price capitulation of 2011. Now is a dangerous time to sell anything modern using the no reserve auction format.

Too many sharks on ebay, and most buyers on there (although there are exceptions) are only willing to pay peanuts for your stuff.

[stataman]

Pretty bad result 

Edited May 14, 2022 by stataman

[dicker]

My view has been that recent proofs have been heavily “pumped”, and we are simply seeing prices revert to their norm.

Pumpers will have made their money and will move onto the next area.  

Some of the prices made no sense to me when compared to historic coin prices.

Best

Dicker

 

[GoldDiggerDave]

All depends on the day, I buy at live auctions over the phone I’m old fashioned but can hear what’s going on,  sometimes I’m the only person bidding on a lot…..good for me, sometimes I’m up against someone else and the prices can get silly fast  It can just depend on the day, that’s auctions for you.

Large gold proof coins are hard to hold and sometimes people need liquidate normally at the wrong time.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by GoldDiggerDave

[Dakaras]

I buy at auction a few times a month , most fees are around 25 to 30% plus postage which is a lottery , had a stack of coins sent last week for £12 all in including SD and got stiffed week before with a £27 postage bill for one coin. When bidding I try to factor all that in , so neat week I've a small 9ct gold coin coming, I've paid about £2 over spot when fees and post added, so what's the seller left with? Better off selling as scrap perhaps? 

[papi1980]

Never tried auctions (only buy from here and the RM),  but are not sellers able to have a reserve price? Surely if I’m selling a proof my reserve will be at least the price for a bullion 

Regarding seller pressure to liquidate, my gut feeling is we will probably see a lot more of that in the winter due to inflation and salaries stagnating / not following 

If I’m a buyer, which auction place you believe is the best for me (fees, coin variety) and also If I’m the seller (apologies if that has been discussed before)