REGISTER ONLINE NOW at auctions.downies.com to place your pre-sale bids. Live Auction Dates: Tuesday, 18th August 2020 Commencing 9:30am Wednesday, 19th August 2020 Commencing 10:30am Thursday, 20th August 2020 Commencing 9:30am All times are in AEST Auction 337 will be Online Only. We will miss the presence of our collectors, but our ever-reliable Live Auction Platform will comfortably accommodate internet bidders. If you require assistance contact us: https://www.downies.com/auction/contact-daca Click here to download the Catalogue.
^^ thanks for the heads up Oz, got absolutely belted at Nobles last month, will check it out hopefully I can do better here
True that is. The main difference I notice between the two sites is photo quality and description Noble definitely has the edge. Downies photos are so low grade I wouldn’t post on gumtree, oppps did I just say that out loud? the common denominator I’ve noticed between auction houses over the last 12mths is attached. Not to say it wasn’t going on before, I probably just didn’t notice. Note estimated price v’s bid price
LOL I doubt it, my guess there are a small number of Chinese expat collectors with deep pockets competing against one another. Any alternative explanation more than welcome.
As I said previously on a another thread, proceed with extreme caution if purchasing anything from Downies Auctions. I have been purchasing numismatics from them for over 30 years. They used to be great when they were located in the Block Arcade Melbourne CBD with Chris M as their manager. Ever since they moved out to Mitcham and Chris left because he did not want to work out in the sticks, the reputation and trustworthiness of the place has taken a hit. They sold me fake 1 oz gold kangaroo coin a couple of years ago, which weigh about 19 grams, so even a trained monkey would have known that it was a fake. I did not examine the coin prior to purchase so had no idea that it was not genuine, it would not have happened under Chris's watch. And yes, I did get my money back when I went all the way over to Mitcham and confronted them, but I lost half a day and expenses doing that. And you would not believe the excuse they gave me as to why they were selling fake gold coins, apparently it was from one of their " trusted regular vendors " so they did not bother to check to see if it was genuine! That still beggars belief because even if they did not check it, they still would have had to handle the coin to put it inside their plastic flip, so how they managed to do that without realizing that that the coin was nearly half the weight it should have been is lost on me. Also their overall coin grading has gone from conservative under Chris to average now. If you look at the slabbed coins they are selling they only give the slabbing companies grades for the item not their own, bit lazy and different to Nobles who give slabbed coins their own grade which is mostly lower. And as kilo has said their photography is amateurish, and most of the shield sovereigns in this auction lack quality and prices are higher than what I purchased far better shields at the recent Noble auction in Sydney. I hope I have not put too much of a dampener on those wishing to buy at this auction, knock yourselves out with the online bidding if you want to, just be sure to carefully examine your purchases afterwards.
