I just won a coin I've been seeking for a long time at a great price. The 1935 Brazilian 500 reis has a mintage of only 14,000. The last time I bid on one, it sold for $200 (well beyond my price range), and this one cost me $30. It shows how weird eBay is. Anyway, this was the last one I needed to close out my collection from this particular era of coinage (1918-1942). Now I just have to hope it doesn't get lost in the mail. These are the seller's pics.
Last month I`ve had this with a set of 10 coins (Russia). It should have went for $440-$460, got it for $40 shipped. The seller had no idea what he got, and made a small listing mistake, but still. Just proves that supply and demand are 2 very important things.
Four things in my favor about this: The auction ended at 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning, the seller didn't ship to a lot of places, he didn't accept Paypal and his starting price was higher so it probably attracted less notice. The one that sold for $200 started out at less than $10 I believe, so more people probably thought they could win it. And then there's just the randomness factor. Once in awhile you are the only bidder for a big silver coin for 99 cents. I don't know how it happens, but I love when it does. I almost gave up searching for this though because I never found any for sale. I was lucky I decided to check last night because it was ending in 14 hours when I found it.
Actually, I think it proves that there are plenty of bidiots, but there are still enough sensible people to keep the market in check. Just because one coin sells for an outrageous price doesn't mean that all (of the same) will. It just happened that there were two bidiots fighting each other, but once the dust cleared and another of the same coin was listed, it sold for a much lower price because the bidiots were gone. In 10 years of active buying (at auction) on FleaBay, I had this happen dozens of times. Nice snag, dragon! Chris
This one or this one ? Just kidding. Seen one of those graded MS66 went for $60, another one for sale seller asking $500 obo. Prices are all over the place. Nice pick-up.
I see it a lot too. I just got a coin like my avatar on Ebay for $61, (usually they go for around $200), but I have also seen similar items go for over $300. Its just all over the board. Best advice I have for anyone is knowledge, know the coin, know the market prices, and not be afraid to let some pieces go if they go too high.
I'm good at being patient when it's a coin that comes up for sale fairly often. I still need some New Zealand florins and half crowns for my collection, and they aren't that hard to find so I am not afraid to be outbid. When a coin only comes up for sale a few times a year, then I get a little more desperate. I was prepared to pay $90 for this, which would be the most I've ever spent. But they only made 14,000 so that's what makes me willing to go higher.
Yeah, I hear you, but I still say be patient. There are lots of coins I track that might only appear once or twice a year on Ebay, some only once every other year. Still, there are so many I never feel I "have" to have any of them. I took me 6 years to finally get a certain coin I wanted, and I bet there are only a few hundred in existence. If I wanted to be zen about it, I would say, "there always is another coin". Honestly, half the pleasure is the chase. What are you going to do when you are "done" with your Brazilian coins? When you are complete? I bet you will be like most collectors, put them away, and concentrate on the next set you wish to complete. Why the rush?
Yeah, you're completely right. After I finish something I stop thinking about it. I can remember how when I was working on other series I had all the key dates and values memorized and now I've forgotten a lot of that. It's the most satisfying when you get that long-sought coin and it goes downhill after that. Still, I like that feeling so I'm not going to overanalyze it.
Nice Ripley. I still need several coins from the 1906-1912 years and a few from the 1870s and 1880s. None of them come up for sale very often. There are also a few coins from 1935 with a mintage of 100 that I'm not even going to try for unless I get super lucky.