Have you ever messed up an auction bid?

I think a lot of us have made such a mistake. And depending on the venue it might get expensive. If Clio is after a coin entering the wrong decimal might really end up pricey. I won this one below for $750. I have no idea who I was bidding against. It was not a snipe bid but entered the first day of the auction and I had forgotten it until it arrived in the mail after the fact. Live and learn:

 

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I used to toss in lowball bids on coins early in the bidding process just to get the coins in the "items you've bid on" web page. Some I was serious about; some I just wanted to watch. After a close call of having the decimal too far to the right (fortunately another bidder really wanted the coin ), I quit doing that, and use the watch list unless I'm really serious.

Cal

 

I was REALLY impressed by how "together" Stacks-Bowers has become. I got a bidder number live at the Philly ANA show, and then bid on some stuff in the same sale by my iPhone on their app. They actually MATCHED the paddle number, so I couldn't possibly bid against myself. It was not always like this. This is a new level of competence. All my Heritage bids got swamped. Only won one S-B lot, which I would never have bid on had I not examined it in hand. The pictures by themselves would have kept me off it. Yes, it looks MUCH better in the hand. Sometimes life rolls you “snake eyes”, and sometimes “sevens”.

 

Due to my very well developed powers of after-the-fact rationalization, I have never made a mistake and never will. Yeah, I meant to buy all those coins I didn't want. And I'm super happy about it.

 

It's lovely that they've taken this step to prevent people from bidding against themselves. Perhaps they should first take care of the basics though, such as guaranteeing authenticity of the coins they sell.

Yes, you read that right. SB does not guarantee authenticity of the coins they sell. I only recently learned this. Excerpt from their Terms of Service (the blue font is my emphasis):


10. DISCLAIMER AND WARRANTIES. NO WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS MADE OR IMPLIED ON ANY LOT. NO WARRANTY, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, IS MADE WITH RESPECT TO ANY LOT EXCEPT FOR WARRANTY OF TITLE, AND IN THE CASE OF TITLE, AUCTIONEER IS SELLING ONLY THAT RIGHT OR TITLE TO THE LOT THAT THE CONSIGNOR MAY HAVE AS OF THE AUCTION SALE DATE. ALL LOTS ARE SOLD “AS IS” AND WITH ALL FAULTS. PURCHASER HEREBY ASSUMES ALL RISKS CONCERNING AND RELATED TO THE GRADING, QUALITY, DESCRIPTION, CONDITION, AUTHENTICITY, AND PROVENANCE OF A LOT.

1. COINS AND CURRENCY LISTED IN THIS CATALOG GRADED BY PCGS, NGC, ANACS, ICG, PCGS CURRENCY, PMG, PCGS BANKNOTE GRADING, CMC OR ANY OTHER THIRD PARTY GRADING SERVICE OR EXAMINED BY THE BUYER PRIOR TO THE AUCTION SALE MAY NOT BE RETURNED FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER BY ANY BUYER, EXCEPT FOR CLAIMS RELATED TO AUTHENTICITY.
2. For non-certified coins and currency that have not been examined by the Buyer prior to the Auction Sale: if it is determined in a review by Stack’s Bowers that there is a material error in the catalog description of a non-certified coin or currency or the coin or currency is not authentic, such lot may be returned, provided written notice is received by Stack’s Bowers no later than seventy-two (72) hours of delivery of the lots in question, and such lots are returned and received by Stack’s Bowers, in their original, sealed containers, no later than fourteen (14) calendar days after delivery, in the same condition the lot(s) were delivered to the Buyer, time being of the essence.

10.1 seems as odds with the preceding paragraph. What do you folks think about this?

 

With 10.1, if the slab is authentic, SB would get fully compensated by the TPG that authenticated the counterfeit (except for NGC ancients). They risk no loss in that regard.

As for 10.2, 72 hours is a cop-out. I bid on Chinese coins from them, but rarely, and only if I am 100% sure it is authentic. So far, I have only had one win.

 

As for the rest of the country, I cannot say. But under Pennsylvania auction law, all that is assumed and is boilerplate. The 72 hours is downright generous. In MY particular case, I am/was a Pennsylvania citizen bidding in a Pennsylvania based auction, and I DID examine each lot I bid on IN PERSON.

OTOH, in Pennsylvania, any and all "shill bidding" (including bidding for "house" inventory) is strictly ILLEGAL, and has draconian criminal penalties.

The Professional Licensure Committee staff is just across the hall.

 

With regards to Stacks-Bowers, I imagine their terms are a result of the problems they likely have handling more modern and slabbed material. I cant imagine how or under what circumstances, but I imagine people have many ways of scamming an auction house with this type of material. Its a crazy segment of the market, with coins getting constantly re-slabbed in the hopes of achieving one small number higher and for big profit.

I'm surprised they are only recent to the problem of bidding against oneself. In the early days of electronic bidding this was a fairly common problem, but it seems to have been corrected by most many years ago.

 

The last time I realized I had two bidder numbers in the same S-B sale was in 2016, while on my way from L.A. to NOLA on Amtrak.

 

The eBay app requires you to add a decimal. If you want to bid $10 you can just type 10. If you want to bid $10.01 you have to type the decimal. If you are driving 80mph in the passing lane with your knees as you enter your bid DO NOT forget or miss the decimal or you'll bid $1001. Fact! Won that auction!

 

And that will be one more thing for your estate to deal with, along with the lawsuits from the family of whatever other driver is unlucky enough to get in your way.

 

Let's stick to coins since hyperbole goes straight over your head.

 

I was once trying to bid on a denarius of M. Lucius Rufus but ended up getting distracted by something else, my son must have gotten a hold of my phone in the meantime and probably browsed a few coins ahead because when I came back and entered my bid I ended up accidentally doing it on this Balbus denarius instead...and won it.



Not the coin I intended to get, but that's okay. All things considering, I can think of worse mistakes to make.

 

We really did not need the rest of the posts after Z pointed out that modern technology has invented a new device for causing problems in so very many ways. It is called the phone. Somewhere along the way we each decide whether or not placing accurate bids is important enough to sit at a full service computer, examine all that is shown about the lot and enter a bid with the care appropriate to using real money. We have been hearing that distracted driving (texting, eating, fiddling with the radio) can be as dangerous as drunken driving. Now I see we have a new infraction: bidding while impaired.

 

I made an error on a bit on a coin of Probus on ebay a few years back and didn't notice my error until I looked on the bid history and found myself the underbidder at 10 times my intended bid. The winner became a nemesis of mine. He uses two snipe software tools and bids really high on coins he wants on each tool. I lost the coin but learned more about his bidding practices.

 

I almost did the same thing this morning. Meant to put a max bid of $16.58 and typed 1658 without thinking. Good thing I double check before I hit the bid button.

 

Wouldnt this mean he would be bidding against himself? Unless of course his settings for each snipe program are set for the same dollar amount and same number of seconds. I'm not sure this would help him.

 

Mmm has happened to me a couple of times (fat fingers indeed). Luckily so far no one else’s has made the same mistake on the same coin!

I don't bid while driving (I have bid on coins while out for a run once though!), but the same eBay app 'feature' has been responsible for all of my bidding errors (I have never made a mistake on any other platforms). The only unintended purchase as a result so far was luckily relatively minor in the scheme of things - a maximum bid of 3 figures (I can't recall what exactly) when I had been intending to bid under $10. What made it worse was that it wasn't a snipe bid but it was still made too close to the auction end for the bid to be withdrawn so I had to sweat it out! It ended up selling for just under $40. I'm at a loss as to who would have bid that much for it intentionally as much higher quality coins in the same auction went for $5-$10 and you can easily get similar coins for less than $40 at fixed price! Maybe they knew something I don't, or maybe they have fat fingers too.

 

lol - awesome.

Bid $1258.00 on an auction that ended at $18... I can laugh now and pretend I was completely confident the whole time....