Harmer Schau Live Auction

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Harmer Schau Auction

Just recently an eBay live auction ended. The Harmer Schau auction. Just wanted to know if anyone here has purchased some of the notes that were listed or if you have purchased from them in the past

The scans provided for the lots were of terrible quality as the brightness was cranked way too high. The back scans were also omitted from the listings. When going trough the register of notes I noticed that most notes which were on the register were over graded by about a full grade. None the less prices realized for most notes were quite high. 1927 RBC “Neil” $20 listed in VF ($900 US + 20% fees), 1916 Molson Bank $5 listed in Fine ($1500US + 20% fees), 1930 BNS Jamaican note 1 pound VG ($1550 + 20%fees).

These are great prices for this time of year.

Please feel free to share your opinions

The Canadian prices were not as good as the prices realized for the US National lots. 

Lot 89 serial #1 note estimate $5000-5500 realized $57,500
Lot 94 estimate $10000-12000 realized $38000 
Lot 99 finest of 13 known  estimate $2500-3000 realized $42,000 

The Canadian chartereds have some catching up to do.

Correction on the hammer of the 1916 Molson. Hammer was $1,100 US. I bought it.
Who knows how much these scans are overblown? If they are misrepresentative of the notes, they will go back.
Agreed, the scans may have made the notes look better than the stated grades in some cases.
On the other hand, this auction house is primarily a stamp vendor and many of the notes may have been undergraded.
Again, if a discrepancy warrants, the notes will be returned. That's the good side of an internet auction with a reputable auction house...

Perhaps the initial reference was to the Molson $5 of 1922, which did go way over book value. It's a fairly common note that can be found relatively easily in UNC for about the hammer price in the H/S auction....

The scans were terrible but I'd have to disagree with the initial poster as to the notes being over-graded. Quite a few notes seem to pop up in the US that aren't in the register. Besides, if you weren't there how can you know the grade? If the notes were undergraded then price becomes moot and some looked undergraded. As rp noted, they had low estimates for the most part-DoC 1912 $5, estimate was under a grand, looked to be a stronger grade than was assigned and brought 3400 or so. I always look at the bids, if there's a lot of floor action, note is probably undergraded. Or people may have went and viewed and bid on-line if a note had lots of action and brought strong money. Person never knows unless they're there.
As for Molsons notes, not all that easy to find in better grades and I'm a buyer of those easy to find 1922 Unc's if anyone has spares.

Good points rp. Not sure about repatriation but buyer fatigue, yes.
I'd also throw into the toxic mix some sellers on eBay, a couple purporting to be 'experts' in Canadian currency, particularly charters who did very well selling hype for a year or so-asking and getting ridiculous money for notes from fish.
Over the past year these people have been identified as nothing more than wannabe used car salesman who keep recycling the same product or their listed prices are so ridiculously high collectors for the most part simply avoid eBay altogether. Consequently, when a realistically priced & graded note is offerred (particularly a charter) on eBay it seems to do poorly or nothing at all. Canadian paper is still a relatively small field & even the dumbest laziest collector eventually learns. Hence why PMG is all the rage right now but even that is slowing down, particularly in the circulated grades 
They aren't that good at grading in my opinion. Eventually, with the permission of the admins here I will be posting examples of cross graded notes by CCGS & PMG. Have done about 10 to date, my pet research project & the differences in grading on 6 out of 10 are quite impressive.

Thank you all very much for your comments.

I did have huge doubts after doing some research that the notes would be over graded but most of them were sold to floor bidders. As they had full opportunity to view the notes perhaps the scans were better representations of the notes than I first assumed.

Alvin 5454, I would love to see some scans of your note when you get it if at all possible.

Regards

I was also very surprised of the prices in the auction. I spoke with the auction a few weeks ago, as I was also concerned with the pictures and the grading of the notes. According to them, they have a third party come in and grade the notes, and the auction tends to have them usually under-grade the notes in the auctions by half a grade or so.

If you have purchased a note from the Auction, and have it graded by a third party source, and the grade comes back less then they have advertised, according to my conversation, they will refund you your money upon retune of the note.

Agio-
If the cross ref'd notes are not allowed on this forum site, I would be happy to post them up on my site, or I am sure another member would be happy to do so as well.  The point of course it get them seen.

H

HOLY BAT CRAP!
If I had purchased a note from Harmer it would be my pleasure to take them up on their tpg  offer.
Of course said note would be heading to Calgary.

Now if a particular canadian auctioneer would adopt such a policy we'd either have Armageddon or world peace

If I had purchased a note from Harmer it would be my pleasure to take them up on their tpg  offer.
Of course said note would be heading to Calgary.

To which they would respond "We only recognize US tpg services"

Agio: About ease of the higher-grade 1922 notes, I refer you to page 270 in the newest Charlton chartered catalogue: There is information there about a hoard of these notes... Have some patience and you will probably find one of these notes in higher grade..

Thats true the Molson 1922 $5 has shown up in AU/UNC a few times in the past couple years. This remains the only $10 denomination I have seen in a long time. Perhaps the hoard was sold as is to one single collector who will keep it in a safe for many years to come?

This remains the case for many chartered notes. We know they exist but they never show up on the market. These dont even have to be considered rare they are just hoarded in some unknown basement safe

Thats true the Molson 1922 $5 has shown up in AU/UNC a few times in the past couple years. This remains the only $10 denomination I have seen in a long time. Perhaps the hoard was sold as is to one single collector who will keep it in a safe for many years to come?

According to Charlton, the $5 & $10 Molson UNC hoards were "rescued" in the 1960's (40 or so years ago) so it's pretty safe to assume that the hoards have been largely dispersed by now although a few short consecutive runs probably still exist. I very much doubt whether a run of 50 or 100 notes is still lingering in a basement somewhere. I remember when these notes were selling around the $200 level and at that time supply exceeded demand. How times change!

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The 1922 $10's aren't quite as plentiful as the $5's.  I will give you a bit more detail than is usually published.  The hoard in question was saved for collectors by a Montreal dealer named Phil Spiers, if I recall the name correctly, about 1960, when such notes were often redeemed and destroyed.  "Rescued" is the correct word.  The notes have become very well distributed since.  There was a $10 in the June 2003 Torex Sale, and another (not a hoard note, and the most heavily circulated example known! - "rare in this grade") was offered on-line in 2005.
I agree with Ottawa that it is highly unlikely that any one person has a bunch of them.