Anyone Bidding in the Frank Robinson auction?

Closing date is Feb. 6 and there are a lot of nice coins. I bid on 4 coins, all of which I had to revise my bid upwards this morning. Good luck to everyone!

 

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Not I

 

I have one bid in; contemplating a few others...

 

First timer and I have one bid surviving...

 

I had 3 bids but only 1 surviving at this time, but I think I'll be adding to it before its done.

 

I'm thinking of bidding on something ... maybe. Last time I placed a bid, he never let me know that I was outbid, so I lost the item. I was expecting to win it. So I'm assuming something like that will happen this time.

 

I had the same thing happen in the last auction. However, he emailed me this morning and told me which coins I so far have been outbid on, so I revised my bids upward. You can call or email him also as we get closer to hammer time.

I just don't want to get outbid by snipers at the last second. That's not very fun!

 

Frank is not CNG. He does not have a cast of thousands and heavy duty computers tracking your bids. If you want to win a coin, you have the option of bidding more (a lot more) than one advance so the people who call at the last minute and offer one advance will not win. Sniping at 5 seconds works well with venues like eBay but not with a guy with one phone line. I have never had Frank call me to say I was outbid and I do not know if he will do that if asked. When you ask he does tell what you have to bid to win a lot but that does not mean there won't be another bid five seconds later. It is up us to learn the rules for each sale venue and how we must bid to participate. In Frank's case, I suggest bidding the maximum you actually are willing to pay and not checking again because, if you were honest with that first number, the lot will go for more than you are willing to pay. Bidding just one more bid over and over until you win a lot in any sale is a way to guarantee you pay more than you wanted to.

 

Here is the information he gave me when I bid in one of his auctions for the first time about three years ago. I just found this by searching old email messages:

Me: "Also, I’m wondering if it is your policy to let bidders know, prior to the close of a sale, if they’ve been outbid."

Frank: "I don’t have an automated system to do that. But if you e-mail me any time & ask, I will tell you."

So I lost a coin in one of his auctions a few months ago, I should have emailed him to ask.

 

Dougsmit is completely right as far as Frank goes.
This is my first time playing one if his auctions but have sat on the side lines and observed, so to speak.
I also recieved an email this morning updating where I stand. I bid on only 3 items but saw many I'd like to add.
Of the 3 I bid on I bid the max I'd pay on those 3, so as it stands I am 1 for 3. In the next few days I will contemplate on some of the other coins I wanted and bid what I'd pay. If I'm out bid it only means some one is willing to pay more for that specific coin, oh well.
Frank also has a bid by budget, that I'm still trying to fugure out how it works. He mentioned it in an email so I may just have to ask him to elaberate some.

 

I was a bit surprised to receive Frank's notice by email this morning but pleasantly so because I was not expecting it. I raised my bids and will do so again to the max I am willing to pay. The chips will fall where they may.

 

Maybe he decided to be proactive in notifying people. Seems like it would lead to higher sales prices.

 

Thanks for the heads up

 

Frank does things the good old fashioned way (I used to run sales like this in the 90's). Bidding on a budget simply means you can bid more than you can afford with no consequences. Say I want to spend $300 total. But I am interested in perhaps $500 or more in coins. You can tell him which coins you are interested in and he will sell you (or bid on your behalf) up to your budget. Maybe a couple coins you are interested in at their current bids will be more than your budget. But say the other 5 or six are less or equal to your budget. He will enter your bids on those so that you will win at least something (or all, if the case).

 

I wonder how many venues still allow this. I still have my carbon copy (young people will have to ask what that is) of my bid sheet for the Numismatic Fine Arts Fall 1990 Mail Bid Sale. On it I bid on eight primary lots with bids that totaled $1000. Below that I drew a line and offered 22 more bids asking I be allowed to bid on those only up to a total of $1000 including the winners from the eight. In the end, I won one of the eight and four from the second list. $1000 was a lot of money in 1990 (still is to me). They probably laughed their heads off at that bid sheet but I ended up with seven nice (by my standards) coins (one lot was three coins) and that was the whole idea. That inch thick catalog from a major dealer of the day i still a valued item in my collection. I only wish I had the cash then that I could have bought twice as much.
To make this post more coin related, I'll add a photo of the one primary bid that I wanted. The Julia Domna as was $125 + 10% in 1990. Can you show me another sold since? These are common in denarii, available in sestertii and no one else wanted the as.

 

I bid in a similar way to that at the latest Dr. Busso Peus Nachf auction, @dougsmit, so at least some auction houses still run that way. I'm sure they got a laugh out of my €150 limit, but it netted me two very cool coins (although I lost out on a cool Judaea Capta Vespasian):

 

The method, when you think about it makes total sense.
My method while simular by that I mean, I bid my budget between my target coins usually 1 to 3 or so, if my bids don't hold up I move on to the other desired coins. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
I can understand how as Doug and Ken pointed out, the budget bidding would work better for a smaller operation such as Franks and he wouldn't keep being bothered with bidders constantly nickle-diming their bids.
I am currently 3 for 5 with 1 of those being a target coin, if they survive I'm happy. Next time hopefully my budget will be better and I can try this method.

 

Just a reminder that the auction is closing at 11:00 PM Eastern time this evening. Don't forget to bid or revise your bids accordingly - happy hunting everyone!

 

Well, I think my target was bid on accordingly and I have 1 other surviving bid that the more I look at it the more I think it should've been a target, both are in my collecting wheel house.
I put a higher bid than I normally would have when I first bid on it.
With that, I guess I'll know when I get up early in the morning if my bids were good enough.

 

I am in the lead on 4 bids, hope it stays that way.