While the world seem to be mad for gold Silver has been steadily growing in worth .
Although Silver has not grown at the same rate as gold it will probably never reach the dizzy heights of gold.
One investor tried to corner the market in silver but was eventually foiled .

Coin Auctions can be good places to buy or sell coins.
Here are some tips you may not have thought of.

1 * Live Auctions are likely to be the best places to buy.
This is because many such auctions are usually aimed at the US Market and the rest of the coin buying world will be asleep because of geographical location.
Best ones of all are local auctions which do not advertise on the internet. You will have far less competition bidding at these.

2 * Auctions are great places to buy rare coins. Sellers want the best prices they can get and t is usually at auction.

3 * Auctions by mail – possibly good since many people prefer to bid on eBay and get the excitement of a current auction.

Mail Coin Auctions mean you have to sign up for a catalogue and sometimes give the auction credit card details ot ensure that you are a genuine buyer. If you buy from a mail auction you will usually get a free subscription to new auctions or sales (often with illustrated catalogues)

4 * Phone Auctions – these can be auctions by coin companies or (better still) auctions by general antiques auctioneers
These are just like regular auctions where you go along in person and bid. You can usually leave a bid with the auctioneer (the maximimum you will pay for each lot)

5 * Internet Auctions .

Ebay is the best known of these but a number of other companies do hold similar auctions. With any internet auction you must have an internet identity under which you make bids. You can make individual bids or maximum bids for each item and the software at the auction company handles the bidding for you.

6 * With an Internet Auction you will usually be able to contact the vendor with questions and receive an answer the same day.

7 * Internet Auctions last between 1 day (same day) and 30 days depending on the internet auction company.

8 * Fraud is rife on the internet. It is easy for instance for a deceptive vendor to place a listing of a coin or coins that they do not hold or to use a picture of a higher grade coin than the actual one they are selling. Look for the following words in the listing : copy, repro, reproduction, facsimile as all of these mean copy !
Copies are not as valuable as real coins.

9 * To protect yourself as a buyer make sure you ONLY pay by a genuine company such as PAYPAL as you will usually then have an ability to claim against them and the vendor for misleading or false sales.Please avoid paying by company like Western Union as this company and other instant transfer companies are often used by fraudsters at coin auctions

10 * To check a coin out just ask the vendor for a photo of the other side of the coin. If there is no answer then avoid that vendor.The coin may not actually exist.

11* ALWAYS check out a vendors feedback (feedback is the result of previous sales by that vendor) Pay particular attention to NEGATIVE FEEDBACK.
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