Baldwin's St.James - shambolic, unprofessional bunch

No NO No. You do not understand I was entitled to that coin. All good things must come to me or the world is just not fair (OK sarcasm now off).

 

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I don't see anything about the auction fee in my copy. Perhaps it's because my copy was a post sale printing.

 

Oh I agree completely! When I had to stop bidding I just said to myself, given the rapidity in which paddle 2725 immediately outbid me with each click, there was no way a $2,500 bid wouldn’t be outdone. Had I done that though, my next bid would have been $3,000 and maybe that would have gotten it for me

Sadly for me when I prepared for the auction I saw the $500 estimate and thought alright, I’ll save up $2k+ fees and that should be sufficient! I likely put far too much stock in the baseline estimate, but I had just started collecting at this point and hadn’t realized just how off estimates are! Hopefully it will reappear for sale at some point in my lifetime.

 

Coin dealers can be personal friends whom you also do business with. I'm friends (not just friendly) with a bunch of them. But a coin is a high value item so one can't really expect special "friend's price" deals: reducing a coin's price by a big chunk is not remotely equivalent to buying someone a drink. What does happen is I sometimes get to see coins early when a friendly dealer asks my opinion (and then I buy, at the market rate), or a dealer may be willing to flip a just bought coin (from an auction!) at a more modest premium rather than wait months at a higher price, or accept an offer for old stock that would anyways be reduced eventually.

Point is, dealers are part of our community and establishing steady relationships with dealers you trust and buy from can reap rewards in terms of access to coins or to special offers. They are not like plumbers or guttering installers where you've no long term relationship. They are not the Opposition.

When I started this crazy thread I'd no idea where it would go, but after reading its flow, I would encourage more collectors, indeed everyone here, to build lasting relationships with dealers who can access the sorts of coins you want. And please allow them their markups, which pay for their food and rent, because without the selling side of the business, there's no collecting at all.

 

I missed out on this thread but I couldn’t have contributed anything meaningful anyway. When I participate in online auctions (which is very infrequent these days) I pick out any coins I really like, and would like to have, then I bid the maximum amount I will pay for each one. Then I forget about the Auction and wait to see what I have won. That is the way I have always bid and it has worked out well for me.

 

That is what i do as well...set it and forget it.

 

In truth, if we all treated our plumbers and other people you might look down on because you have twenty degrees just as we do our friends, we might find our plumbing emergencies are handled a bit better. The last half dozen times I have had a plumber work in my house, it has been the same man. When I go to certain stores, I prefer to deal with my favorite worker in that store. Friends? Maybe not but, considering 95% of my coin friends are people I never will see in person, it seems good to cultivate friendships even with people who sell us marked up old coins. It was easier in the distant past when we did coin shows and saw these people face to face.

I am not a plumber. I am not that highly valuable to society.

 

Doug, not all of us who have multiple degrees are dismissive of the trades. In fact I have great respect for trades people. After all they do the things I am horrible at. I have in fact told thousands of students that university is not for everyone and that we need our trades people. Some of them need permission to go into a trade because they receive tremendous pressure from friends and family to get a university degree. I am good at a few things but there are many areas where others are far better than I.