Sadly, when I look through my coin-photos and word-files, I occasionally run across a coin that I'd already prepared a nice cozy spot in my collection ... only to be outbid at auction-time!! (a very sad tale) ... I have a few of these examples to share (if any of you own these coins, then please contact me ... perhaps we can strike a deal?) If any of you dudes have any "coins that got away" then please feel free to post 'em ...
Oh yes, those definitely would have felt at home in the X6 collection. Here's one that got away. If you see it anywhere, please ask the owner if he will sell. At that time in my coin collecting life, I wasn't spending that much on coins. I've since blown that figure out of the water and regret not going after this one even though Steve had already lifted his leg dropped a bid on it. I know he loves it though. Sigh. At least it went to a good home.
There is another particular type of coin I was intent to buy last year but was outbid. It sold for $x and the buyer immediately posted it for sale for $3x. It remains unsold at that price. I don't want to show the coin right now because two more examples have finally appeared and I don't want to create competition
man, i don't commit to the pics until they are in my collection. i can remember one that got away that ended up here. med, you remember that pretty as a picture big ptolemy coin with red highlights?
I don't have photos of coins I lost but I have a category I consider worse. Before I took coin photos, I made aluminum foil pressings of my coins. I have a cigar box full of pressings of coins from my collection that I sold in 1974 when my daughter was born and I thought we needed the money. Many of the foils have been bent and are no longer attractive but I can't bring myself to throw them out. I really would like to run across some of the coins from this group but I have never seen one. A couple of them would sell for more today than I'd be willing to pay for just any specimen but I wonder if I would pay extra not for "a" Caligula sestertius but for the once upon a time "my" sestertius. This was a toned yellow brass and smooth except for a band across the portrait that shows well in the foil.
Coins that got away? Oh the horror stories I could tell. One happened about a year ago on Ebay. It was a Emessa stone Elagabalus. Pretty coin, clear reverse scene. I thought no one else noticed it and put in a snipe for $250, (over 20 times the price 1 day before the auction). Sadly I was the underbidder. I would say I am the underbidder more often than the winning bidder most of the time. Sometimes I think I need to loosen the purse strings a bit to get what I want nowadays. I know Doug and I were commiserating the prices seemed to jump a few years ago, but they just keep going up.
Have more than a few of those... One of the latest that I still have a pic of, a pretty rare Lydian stater with Sphinx on both sides, overstruck on a Lydian stater with boar / incuse... And I did bid more than I could afford
I've been the underbidder on many more coins than I've won. I was speaking with a US dealer recently who was aggravated during an auction by a "collector" who clearly didn't know what he was doing but would just bid one bid over him every time. The dealer spent many hours researching the coins, determining prices, etc. but this collector came in, sat a few seats down from him, and proceeded to win almost everything. In the end, it's best to set your maximum bid and stick with it, and avoid getting caught up in the moment as you never know who you're bidding against. While auctions do inherently always have an underbidder, that bidder may not be around when you're selling.
This is why I use a proxy bidder. I set what my highest price will be and I do not look back til the auctiuon is over. I DO miss a lot, but I never go over my max budget this way.
Just in case someone noticed, Lydian should read Lycian in my earlier post... Noticed the error when reading the follow-up this morning and, apparently, I can not edit it Something new ?
