Thoughts about this Sabina denarius?

I have to go farther on this. It is wrong to bring up a coin still up for bids. If you attract other interest to it, you are more likely not to win. If one or twenty of the rest of us had noted the coin and had intents or even set a snipe bid on the coin, you put us in a bad position where we look like evil monsters if we bid as planned but if we don't and you don't bid enough to win, the coin may go to someone else who bid less than we planned. That is a lose, lose situation. It is not appropriate to advertise a coin as more interesting if you are the seller (especially if you neglect to mention you are the seller and just want to drive up the price). I would prefer we had a rule forbidding mention of specific coins before the sale closes. I have mixed feelings about saying something like, "There are a lot of nice _______ coins in the new CNG sale." I know I don't like to see, "Lot 123 in sale 456 is worth a lot more than the current bid." It is fine to discuss coins that have closed or generic examples of types that are up for sale somewhere but not the specific example. Just my opinions.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I'd have to disagree. There just isn't anything wrong with it morally or ethically. It is not a great idea if one is bidding on said coin for reasons already outlined, but I see nothing untoward. We may dislike it, but that is from the standpoint of one who is trying to get a coin at the lowest price possible. There are three ways to get coins at auction. Pay as little as possible, pay the average, or pay the highest. Sometimes all three can happen with just one bid, even if many others are looking. The bottom line is that unusual coins will usually be spotted, whether here on CT or otherwise.

 

I think most collectors who frequent this site would feel at least a little pang of guilt if they outbid another collector here, after that collector called attention to a specific coin at an auction. So Doug's point is well taken regarding the community feeling among those who frequent CoinTalk.

In an ideal world, Ken Dorney's perspective -- there isn't anything wrong morally or ethically with competition after bringing attention to an auction coin -- would be accepted by most members, but objectivity in such situations is hard to find if you're the losing bidder.

 

Don't worry about me -- The bidding went out of my league SEVERAL HUNDRED EUROS ago! It certainly has garnered a lot of collector interest, I must say.

 

...

 

Assuming the auction house guarantees that its lots are genuine, I think it is possible to confirm authenticity after the sale. You might run into an issue if it were determined to be an ancient imitative or ancient counterfeit, but if it were a modern fake, you would have refund rights. Other option is to hire a professional dealer-agent to inspect, confirm authenticity and bid.

 

This isn't where I want to leave this. The final prebidding had risen to 525EUR a few days before the sale. On sale day, four bids were placed: one advance over 525,
immediately countered by an incremental bid I am inclined to attribute to the pre-bid high bidder;
then another advance to 575,
and a final immediate counter to 625 at the new incremental advance.

This pattern suggested to me that on the day of the sale another bidder was bidding against a large bid previously left with the house that covered all challenges in late pre-bidding and from the floor.

If I'm right about this it seems entirely likely that the coin was purchased by Clio, with an unmatched high bid given to the house in pre-bidding. Not the same strategy normally used in time limited auctions, but easily within renge for him.

A lot of unprovable suppositions, I agree, but a consistent scenario. If correct, no one on the list was going to succeed in buying this coin. I doubt that the final buyer was influenced by the Cointalk chat.

 

Um....I am not sure what to say. Yep, you are wrong. In all ways. Sorry, sometimes we have to learn.

Clio Didnt win the coin. The owner has already posted here that he got the coin.

 

Ah, thanks Ken.

For those of us who were away, do you have a link?