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Gold Jewelry at Auction

By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (0)
Wed, 15 Nov 23 4:48 AM | 41 view(s)
Boardmark this board | 6th Edition Pope Board 		Msg. 47446 of 58598
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There are many on-line auctions every day. Few, however, are the type I enjoy: Miscellaneous merchandise and pickup within 50 miles. The nice thing about miscellaneous merchandise auctions is that you never know what you'll find, and there are times when you may have more subject knowledge than your opponents. Specialty auctions, on the other hand, always put me at a disadvantage - or so I imagine. There are coin auctions, stamp auctions, comic book auctions, sports card auctions, collectible doll auctions, Pokemon card auctions, Chinese art auctions, Christmas decor auctions and oh, yes, the ever present JEWELRY auctions. Tons of jewelry auctions. And what do I know about any of those? Not much.

Tonight, though, there were none of the auctions I like. On a lark, I decided to watch a jewelry auction just to see if I was possibly missing out on bargains. After all, that gold necklace I bought a few weeks ago (but not at a jewelry auction) went really well. Maybe I could land another such deal!

For a while it almost looked like I would. Earlier today, I saw an auction lot described as "AUREA 14K Gold Herringbone Necklace 5.5 G" and a top bid of only $85. A little math on 5.5 grams of 14K gold told me that it had a spot value of $170, so it was going for half price! But when I came back as the deadline approached, it was up to $138 and I knew that I'd be beat. In those final minutes, I saw it reach 195, then 200, and 205, and 215, and 225, 235, 245, and finally 255. Is there any rationality in that? It only has $170 of gold in it!

The really fascinating part, though, was that right alongside this necklace, there was a bracelet described as "14K Gold Herringbone Bracelet 1.8 G." It was really just the same as the necklace, but less than a third as long. The bidding, however, was nuts: $36, then $56, then $72, $82, $92, $102, $107, $117 and finally $125. It sold for about half the price of the necklace while having just a third as much gold, $55 worth.

Are these people crazy?

Here I thought that the specialty auctions would have shopkeepers and other professionals who knew EXACTLY how much the merchandise was worth and would bid with discipline. Instead the people bidding on the necklace and [especially] the bracelet were driven wholly by emotion, overpaying by as much as 125%.

I'll just stick with my miscellaneous auctions. There, at least, people who don't know what they're doing tend not to bid at all. There's actually a pretty good chance of getting a screaming deal if you know what you're buying. When it comes to specialty auctions, though, everything gets sold, perhaps for far too much.

As a reminder, the 14K necklace I bought at auction weighed 7 grams and sold for $140.





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Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months


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