I won something!

I managed to pick up something in the recent CNG auction! I’m really happy about how it worked out. This is one of the few times I override my own collecting interests to just buy the thing. It’s a drachm of Alexander the Great, from Lampsakos. I thought it had the best style out of all the others, so I could handle a bit of die shift. I’ll write more about it tonight, as I’ve got to go to school. Photo credit to CNG.

 

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You made it through the clio gauntlet and won a very handsome coin! Congrats!

 

Thanks! I am now penniless with the exception of two $2 bills from @Aethelred. I do have a question about the coin. The CNG page says it was struck under Kalas or Demarchos. Who were those people?

 

Kalas used to be the voice of the Phillies, and did some sweet voice work for NFL Films. Don't know the other guy.

Kalas

Come to think of it, the other guy sounds like a running back.

 

Nice pick up.

 

I got destroyed again yesterday. I think I am about 0-15 lately. Maybe I am just not in a serious enough coin mood. Its a bummer to have to work, place bids, and have like 4 of them get outbid by one bid increment and not be able to do anything about it due to being in meetings. Yes, I know, they could have bid $8k on a $400 coin, but I doubt it.

 

it'll change for ya... everyone goes thru that, i know i have several times and will again..keep on bidding..

 

Great drachm @Milesofwho I really like it. Kalas and Demarchos were probably the satraps or governors of Mysia, wher Lampsacus is located.

 

Thanks! I'll post a photo of it when it arrives.

I hate when that happens! That's why I manage to work out an arrangement with my teachers beforehand. I hope you have better luck next time.

Thank you for the information.

 

Milesofwho. Are you sure the spelling of Kalas and Demarchos is right ???

 

The point is that we need to bid what a coin is actually worth to us and walk away. You don't have to bid $8k on a $400 coin unless you are not being honest with yourself about one or another of those numbers. Auction houses make a lot of money on people who place just one more minimum increment bid over and over again until they find the top of the other guy's bid. If you are losing coins only worth (in your opinion) $400 to people paying more, you should be glad some one else paid too much rather than you. If all auctions were done by secret bids so coins were sold for what the bidders actually thought they were worth without being hyped by 'auction fever', the prices realized and profit to the houses would go down and so would the shock when the buyers of those 'fever' lots try to resell their winnings. We can't ask the houses to stop accepting bids over the value of the coin but we can stop playing the end of sale game.

 

BINGO! And a big SHAZZAM, too. Bid the most you think it's worth to you, shut up, and go away. If no one else bids against you, you won't pay any extra.

 

Yes but...

I think we have all been in auctions where the totality of your bid shocks you. That is where I was at. I backed off on some lots simply because if I would have won everything I had bid on it would have been twice my monthly house payment. If, however, I was able to sit at my computer and adjust my bids on later lots knowing my total bill would not be nearly as catastrophic as I thought, (since by then a few higher ticket items were already out of reach), I am sure I would have increased my later lot prices I would be willing to go. In the hypothetical $400 lot, I would have been willing to go $700, (that is what they were worth to me), but scaled it down due to fear of being "lucky" and having a huge bill be due.

Make sense? Certain auctions simply hit me all at once, and the totality of my "potential" bill scares me and makes me back off all bids.

 

There is great truth in this and is very good advice (unless you are well-heeled and have plenty of disposable cash). And its good to remember that there are plenty who have more resources than yourself. After being Clio'd so many times in the last CNG I essentially gave up. I only won one coin (and after the juice it was retail, so no profit for me). As a dealer I am well acquainted with walking away from any lot or entire auctions if that is necessary. And this is also an example of how an auction house can lose revenue due to a wealthy client. When many people feel they have no chance to win, they dont bid. Before Clio there was 'The Sheik'. He was never anonymous about his activities and many people just didnt go up against him (there was no point).

 

Congratulations Milesofwho on picking up one of the better drachma out of the many in that auction, especially good bust.

 

I’m just quoting CNG.

That is absolutely true. It’s what I did for this lot. I don’t feel the drachm is worth $200, only 150. Thus I paid the price I would pay for it, and only that. Medoraman has a good point too, which is why I don’t make multiple bids, and instead only choose one lot and a backup one if the other one doesn’t work out.

Thank you!

 

'The Sheik' He was the guy that did not pay his last round of excessive bids and stuck some auction houses with egg on their face???

Here is another thing 98% of collectors don't want to hear. There is no requirement that a, say, $1k per month budget means you spend every cent each and every month. It is possible to save back a bit each month and build up a nest egg so when one month's auctions have $10k worth of things you really, really want you can bid on all of them and cover the bill when it comes. This happened to me when CNG auctioned the Roger Bickford-Smith collection of Eastern Severus. It happened again when Spink sold the Michael Kelly collection and, most recently, with the CNG sale of the AK collection. Three splurges in the last twenty years produced bills that I could not handle each and every month. When the once in a lifetime coin of your dreams comes up there are ways of handling the matter other than being adopted by Warren Buffet or crying because you spent too much last month.

Some sellers used to accept bids with the limit that your total expenditure not exceed a set amount. I used this feature in the 90's with NFA and Frank Robinson. I don't know if any current sellers will do this anymore or not. Do they? Looking back, I wish I had not used that option on one particular 1990 NFA mail sale where I hit my limit and left a few coins I wish I had won. I would have survived. I like beans.

 

"'The Sheik' He was the guy that did not pay his last round of excessive bids and stuck some auction houses with egg on their face???"


Yea. Partly because he died.

 

Kunker's auction platform has this feature.

 

Very nice.
I grabbed this one from same auction.



KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Drachm (15.5mm, 4.32 g, 1h). Lampsakos mint. Struck under Kalas or Demarchos, circa 328/5-323 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; in left field, Artemis Phosphoros standing facing, holding two torches; Δ below throne. Price 1354; ADM II Series V. Near EF