Help me to review Numismatic Auction Houses

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I'm starting a little blog trying to review most of the major auction houses, so it'd be a massive help if people could share their personal experiences.

My reviews cover the following points and rank each out of 5 stars

Overall (Including trust), Website and Technology, Customer Services, Payment & Buyers premium, Shipping/Postage costs.

So basically, discuss away - you don't need to write an entire review, but any discussion on any aspect is helpful! Please make sure you say the name of the auction house you're talking about too.
For both cgb.fr, and Maison Palombo,

-They're of well-repute in Europe, and people I know, and myself have purchased from both with the utmost confidence;

-Their website layouts and resources are excellent; I've often sourced many photos of Essai coins from French-speaking African nations from the former, and French colonies from the latter

-Customer Service were fine I guess; the retail store of the former in Paris is wonderful, with lovely helpful employees

Can't really find any remarkable things about the other two aspects.
I'm not sure how I feel about cgb.fr's photography and grading. I'd probably rate the former 'very good' instead of excellent, and the latter simply 'good.' Not had experience of their CS though, and I've never used Maison Palombo
Quote: "CassTaylor"​For both cgb.fr, and Maison Palombo,


​I have completed my first purchase at Miason Palombo last month with 3 succesfull bids out of 6.

So far I am happy with their service, I bid using Sixbid or another platform, I cannot remember now.

CGB Comes to the Tokyo coin show and I was in Paris this summer and visit their shop, but I am not so happy with my experience as most of the coin shops in Paris are glass walls with almost zero interaction with the sellers... you have to use a computer in their lobby select your choice and once finished they will bring it for your evaluation and purchase... I rather browse through albums / boxes , etc than just images in a computer...

I will say CGB is better for internet purchases than visiting them in case someone is traveling to Paris and planning to visit them...
JustforFun...
Heritage Auctions, its one of my favorite ones... but the 20% fees are a killer on all these auction houses!

Does anyone knows any other that has lower % fee or its 20 the standard across the world?
JustforFun...
Quote: "JustforFun"​Heritage Auctions, its one of my favorite ones... but the 20% fees are a killer on all these auction houses!

​Does anyone knows any other that has lower % fee or its 20 the standard across the world?

20% is actually pretty reasonable. Many larger auction houses like Heritage are in the 25% bracket.

It's even more reasonable when you consider that they absorb Credit card and paypal fees within that premium, whereas most auction houses add it on.

I'm actually writing a full review on Heritage already - Just waiting for my next shipment from them to arrive first.
Quote: "oggy"
​​
​20% is actually pretty reasonable. Many larger auction houses like Heritage are in the 25% bracket.
​I won last month several auctions at HA and the premium was 20%
JustforFun...
Quote: "JustforFun"
Quote: "oggy"
​​​
​​20% is actually pretty reasonable. Many larger auction houses like Heritage are in the 25% bracket.
​​
​​I won last month several auctions at HA and the premium was 20%

Yes, it's 20%. But many in its 'bracket' are 25% :) Sorry for not making that clear.
As referee for French Indochina, I find these resources quite useful, especially since they're added to the list of permitted sources
https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=sale&sid=363&cid=10198&v=1#l662
Quote: "CassTaylor"​As referee for French Indochina, I find these resources quite useful, especially since they're added to the list of permitted sources
https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=sale&sid=363&cid=10198&v=1#l662

Wrong thread? :P
I have only had one issue with auction houses ( Numisbids)
99% have been great service.
Only problem has been with Auktionen Fruhwald. a ten shilling commonwealth note purchased for 70 euros in March this year has not been delivered. They claim it was sent. Have asked for a refund a couple times now with no reply. Is their a governing numismatic body i can complaint to ?
I’ve only ever bought from auction once, and that was Spink. It had a 20% buyers premium, but I found the website very easy to use and the employees were helpful. However, I was very surprised that there wasn’t a direct page where I could simply make a credit card payment, rather I had to provide all my credit card details over email to the employee assigned to me. It made me feel very uncomfortable, but I said ok because I was due to get a new credit card in a couple months as that one was expiring. I’m not sure if this was standard practice, but the other option of bank transfer would have worked out unnecessarily expensive. needless to say I had to keep an eye on my credit card statement

however, they were very flexible when I requested them to check if mailing charges within Europe was cheaper and then change the destination address

i would consider buying from them again if I spot something interesting.
Outings administrator
Quote: "ashlobo"​I’ve only ever bought from auction once, and that was Spink. It had a 20% buyers premium, but I found the website very easy to use and the employees were helpful. However, I was very surprised that there wasn’t a direct page where I could simply make a credit card payment, rather I had to provide all my credit card details over email to the employee assigned to me. It made me feel very uncomfortable, but I said ok because I was due to get a new credit card in a couple months as that one was expiring. I’m not sure if this was standard practice, but the other option of bank transfer would have worked out unnecessarily expensive. needless to say I had to keep an eye on my credit card statement

​however, they were very flexible when I requested them to check if mailing charges within Europe was cheaper and then change the destination address

​i would consider buying from them again if I spot something interesting.
​That is quite common practice on a first purchase from an Auction house.
Some others might request a copy of you passport.
If you like coins, medals and tokens with ship motives follow my new instagram account with regular updates @numisnautiker
From time to time I sell some coins on Ebay make sure to follow me @apuking on Ebay.
Quote: "armidaleconcrete"​I have only had one issue with auction houses ( Numisbids)
​99% have been great service.
​Only problem has been with Auktionen Fruhwald. a ten shilling commonwealth note purchased for 70 euros in March this year has not been delivered. They claim it was sent. Have asked for a refund a couple times now with no reply. Is their a governing numismatic body i can complaint to ?
​Didn't they have a tracking number?
Lost packages should be refunded. I have purchased from them several times and did not have any issues.
If you like coins, medals and tokens with ship motives follow my new instagram account with regular updates @numisnautiker
From time to time I sell some coins on Ebay make sure to follow me @apuking on Ebay.
Hello,

I use sixbid for auction plattform. I won lots on several houses such as H.D. Rauch, INasta, Nomisma and Dr. Reinhard Fischer. Most of them have the same fees around 18-20%, postage is ok also. Payment is easy made via SEPA no additional fees for that. Inasta also charges additionall 10€ for packing others dont, so thats only small negative thing.
Hi,
Long time visitor of numista, should have done it much earlier, long overdue
Auction portals like: numisbids, sixbid, the-saleroom, invaluable, icollector and many others. Well, some others come and disappear every few years.

Here shortly about numisbids and sixbid that are numismatics base portals.
Both accept bids if the auction house has made such agreement with the portal. They are commission based. Numisbids specifically mentioned that does not take responsibility about auctions, I didn’t find it with sixbid and experienced it otherwise.
Note that auction houses have access to their lots description/photo on the portals and may change it if needed. Therefore, an early search, as soon as the auction is up on the portal, should be followed up with an almost last day search before auction ends.

1-Sixbid has changed its design recently, it was more user friendly before, especially with photo of a lot. It has a better search algorithm (e.g. search for “meda”, silbermedaille appears in results as well) than numisbids. It is not related to this post but worth to mention that Sixbid has added archive search which is great.

2-Numisbids seems more popular as more auction houses post sales on it, the difference with sixbid is one or two auctions in a month or two. It is simple to use, especially having two search boxes, one on top left can be used for fine tuning previous search term. Auctions appear earlier on numisbids than sixbid, maybe for a few days. However you may find such auctions are not searchable till a few days later. So, in such cases, you may visit the auction page on numisbids and scroll down to “see” the lots one by one, or come back later and run a search on main page. The search engine is weaker than sixbid (e.g. search for “meda” doesn’t return words like silbermedaille, only words started with “meda” show up). The nice thing numisbids added to main page is possibility of enlarging photo without opening the lot’s page. Although, I found that is not true for all auctions, most likely enabling such feature costs the auction house.

There is “A LOT MORE” about individual numismatic auction houses that normally post their sales on either of the above or other portals as well, hoping to write about them as well, soon.

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