I Just Got Clio'd... and it was Actually a bit of a Relief

Amen to that! I have coins that I never would have dreamt of owning thanks to @John Anthony and his excellent auctions! My City of Antioch, Indo-scythian, and Seleucid sub-collections would never have come about without the weekly JA Auction. My treasured Tribute Penny (Tiberius Denarius) that I keep right next to my computer all the time—thanks to JA's Auction.

 

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I feel free to bid away in JAs excellent auctions because JA and many of his consignors are cointalk friends too. They are not intending to give away their coins for absurdly low prices.

 

Thanks for the kind words everyone! This is the way I like to enjoy the hobby, by being a vest-pocket dealer, and I'm just having fun. Nobody is going to get rich or go broke swapping coins at CT. As long as we're all enjoying ourselves and learning from each other, that's more than good enough for me.

 

Wow that's a fantastic coin! Thank you for sharing!

In my experience bidding competitions do happen on JA's auctions, particularly with very desirable types. The difference between those competitions and the bidding 'wars' you sometimes see on CNG and large auctions where a coin sells for 1000% of its estimate is that in the latter auctions you can have two or more collectors with huge resources that become more focused on 'winning' the coin than owning the coin. CT members are less likely to get that territorial once the coin price passes too far beyond anticipated market value. (This is just my observation... JA might disagree).

For what it's worth I have bid in several of JA's auctions and have been involved in a few bidding competitions as well. I have also bought direct from him. All of the transactions I have been involved with JA on have been fair to both parties and for this reason I will continue to be a customer of his as long as I am a collector (I.E. for life).

Here is a coin I had to bid a few times against some of my CT friends to acquire!


EDIT TO ADD: See above JA rocks!!

 

I have a feeling Im never going to get Clio'd

 

How is his late Roman/Byzantine collection, if any?

 

Probably simply operates on the theory that few people are really going to put up a crazy high bid in the auction to attempt to ensure they win, because what if someone else drives up the price and they actually do win??? Maybe they have blown their budget and overpaid greatly? Or were not able to cover it?

For some, running that risk occasionally while mostly not encountering it may be part of their game plan, and they get the coin for just over what a more prudent person bid. Only sometimes going much higher than they were comfortable with, but still not truly too high.

Must be nice to be in that situation.

One coin I recently won I had put in a comfortable bid (not super low, but not much more than I thought I would be happy paying) and was watching as it wound down, expecting someone to maybe challenge me... so I mentally prepared a bit higher price to go to if necessary. About 5 seconds prior to end time a new bid came in and ousted me. I immediately typed in an amount that was quite comfortably above that but not too crazy insane, betting that the new bidder did not want to find out that perhaps I had put in a bid that was way more than he wanted to pay but less than his securing bid. And hit the bid button. It turned back to me at T minus one, clearing the bidding back to me and leaving literally no reaction time from him, since he did not follow it up with a second higher one immediately after his bid to try to hit is at the literal end.

So I got that, and have also taken others at the last second, but others have gotten away from me.

Makes me wonder though, is a person who does this successfully time after time (enough so that the act is described as "being clio'd"), actually do crazy bids to oust someone, like it could be done, or is he/she just someone who actually has a psychological reading on his/her competition and what their budgets can afford or they are willing to pay, and he/she is truly bidding only incrementally higher than them, thus securing the coin without too much of a downside?

 

I'd love to bid on CNG auctions, but unfortunately a poorly written Minnesota state law that governs bullion sales means CNG won't ship here Lots of people melting down ancient silver and gold for their metal content, ya know

 

Well, most every auction is more than I can do.

 

I've never faced the opposition of "Clio", but thought of this passage from Thomas Frognall Dibdin's treatise on Bibliomania:

Like arrow from the hunter's bow,' he darts into the hottest of the fight, and beats down all opposition . . . in vain his competitor shifts his mode of attack—now with dagger, now with broadsword, now in plated, and now in quilted, armor; nought avails him.

 

I wouldn't bet on that. His purchases range from extremely modest to extremely extreme

...

I've been Clio'd so many times that in any given CNG auction I just expect that will happen on any of my targets. When I actually do win one then I wonder 1) why didn't Clio want it? or 2) OMG, did I outbid Clio?

 

I never will experience #2 but I have been a bit offended when he did not take one I thought was special. I do not respect those who define 'worthwhile' only by grade. Most of Clio's wins strike me as something I could write up as a museum display or book page pointing out why the coin was interesting and better than the others that might illustrate the same point. Most ancient coins are 'factory seconds' in some way. Some are boring. That is worse than other forms of damage. Clio tends to avoid what strike me as boring coins. So does TIF, for that matter.

 

Hi @dougsmit ,
Who is TIF?
Peter

 

Is there a link to John's auctions? I like the idea of a weekly auction. Thanks in advance for your help.

I have only one one coin that I won from an auction, but I was happy to have it given that I never see fractions of Carolingian deniers. After hearing how your auctions went down (and being instantly outbid twice on two lots I wanted recently) I am completely astonished that no one outbid me in the half hour I left my computer. Now if only I could find the denier!
https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=327135

 

We all need to remember this. I know I get wrapped up in auctions, what I want, etc but its random WANTS, not NEEDS. To paraphrase another famous saying, "there is always another coin". Get outbid on one, wait a few weeks and you will find new coins to pursue.

 

@TIF

 

@John Anthony will need to invite you to participate by PM.

 

Oh. Ok. Thank you for the information!