Well I finally made it over to the CNG web site and looked at the auction scheduled to close on January 17th. Some really great sestertii at low prices, and also aurei and solidi at pretty much bargain rates. I'm wondering how much the bids go over the suggested price? Any ideas?
Frequently 2-3 times more than estimate (which are set artificially low to encourage bidding). Anything can happen, so just bid your max or try to snipe if you have the time and patience).
Thanks for the advice Ken. I think I'll keep the powder dry up until the 16th and try to sneak some bids in.
Ken nails it with the ability of sniping the lot at the last minute. Timed auctions can sometimes help in getting good deals if people coveting for the said lot are shy. Traditional live bidding tends to favor the one with the biggest wallet, but that could be a groundless feeling. And it seems most major auction houses slowly tend to move towards that form of bidding setup. Several dealers that used to have timed auction moved to Biddr the two last years and I had more difficulty to obtain good deals since then. CNG still uses timed auctions and I love that. Unfortunately, the shipping policy changed (due to USPS?) and it became a little harder financially.
Everyone has their own strategy. Some are good, others not. As for sniping, it can work but I myself have been outbid with just one or two seconds left. People are pretty good at it!
When it comes to CNG I just put in my best price and hope for the best. Usually I'll bid the day it closes but never at the last second. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Usually if there is little interest in a coin an early bid can scare people off. The only time I try sniping is on ebay.
I personally like LIVE bidding, and much prefer these as oppose to timed auctions, where everyone can place their bid anytime,- hence- disadvantage
I have got my eye on a few from the Jan 17th sale. I typically wait until a few seconds before the close of the item to bid. Sometimes I win...sometimes I do not.
Some of my issues with last sec bidding: mistyped my pwd, inet/router had a blip, woke up after the lot had closed, typed an invalid amount (still better than typing a huge amount like @gsimonel did . So, Now I place my max bid upfront for coins that I really want.
I have won CNG auctions by hitting the bid button again with 1 second left on the timer...just enough time to see the bid amount and be ok with it.
While great coins go for great prices, there are always a few coins that fail to sell or go at the first minimum bid. There are always a few coins that really did not belong in the sale and were not worth the reserve 60% of estimate so you can win them with that opening bid. The question is do you want to??? They have ha some good deals on large lots but they are only good if you want those coins. Can you find the coins that are worth more to you than to the competition? If so, you will be happy with your winnings.
Problem is....there are 4 great auctions all in the same week. Heritage/ Stacks/ CNG and the New York Sale. Right now, I 30 coins targeted =150K/ only have 15K available So, I will have to be happy with winning 3 coins. I also have some more inexpensive coins in CNG electronic sale Jan. 17th to bid on/ if I miss out on main auction. The Stacks/Bowers auction has some fantastic Colombia AV 8 Escudos from Eldorado Coll.
CNG no longer wants my business because I moved to a state that they don't like I have found that the competition can be a bit stronger than other places I have bought from but every win I have had has been processed and shipped quickly. I've had to call them once or twice and an actual person picked up the phone and helped me. Add to that their online catalog that is easy to use and made available for research and they were one of my favorite places to buy from. I will miss browsing thier catalogs and e-sales. I also used to bid last second when I could.
CNG lost a shipment from Triton I/ sadly it was a FDC Trajan Decius Aureus. Back then they made the mistake of declaring the contents fully/ which led to the "registered letter" going MIA. So,after that unfortunate incident they shipped via "neutral" reg. letter. It is only "common sense" that if you write gold coin with value=it will be stolen. Now, I get US auction firms to ship to my American in-laws via FEDEX, they then bring them up/ when visiting All did end well, as I used the $ from the Decius Aureus to land a FDC Elagalabus Aureus in Triton 2/ they are worth triple what my stolen coin would be worth today. My goal in future is to replace the lost coin.
