Ancient and Medieval Coins Canada - First Auction

Thanks @Deacon Ray for the kind comments. Thanks also for disclosing that interesting piece of your family history.

 

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Time to slap some on some bacon and go to heaven

Looking forward to the auction, SA!

 

Over the years I have met many different people that loved many different foods. Many of these people were reasonable in other regards but ate some really strange things. Where I live now, I'd swear they put sugar in/on everything. I can't stand it. When my daughter was in first grade, her school had the bathrooms labelled in six different languages of which three used letters I could read. Let me tell you, those PTA pitch-in dinners were 'special'. I have never tried Nutella either.

 

As I have never taken part in live e-auctions I have some questions, maybe you could clarify?
1.) are there any import restrictions for coins? the biddr site says: "Every effort will be made to note possible U.S. import restrictions in auction listings, and provenance documentation will automatically be provided when available. However final responsibility for compliance with import restrictions lies with the buyer." I am in the US and the auction is in Canada, don't know if there are possible U.S. import restrictions,

2.) can the payment be made by a credit card issued by an American bank? The site says that "Transferwise (many methods including cards accepted)" but for me it is not clear if it refers only to credit cards issued by a Canadian bank.

3.) How does the bidding on the biddr platform work ? You place your bid and then have to stay connected the whole time ?

My apologies if my questions sound silly - just trying to understand how this works

 

I'm happy to answer your questions! I'm sure they will be helpful for others too.

1) None of the coins in the auction are subject to any import restrictions to the U.S. Either the types don't fall under the rules (most coins) or if they do (e.g. the ancient Chinese and a few pieces from Italy) they were outside their source country before the restrictions were imposed. In some cases they were already in the U.S.! This will be documented in any packages that are sent to you.

2) I wasn't anticipating accepting credit cards, but biddr has just sorted out a payment system via stripe, so the good news is that yes, I will indeed be able to accept them, including those issued by an American bank. (Transferwise is also a good option, and is easy to sign up for. It's kind of like PayPal but with a much cheaper exchange rate than either PayPal or your credit card. I also accept PayPal.)

3) There are three ways to bid (you have to register first):
-- You can enter a bid now (a "pre-bid") which works just like ebay: the system automatically bids the minimum you need to win the lot (above the start price or another bidder) until your maximum is exceeded. The system executes the bid as soon as it's needed, either during pre-bidding over the next couple of weeks, or during the live bidding.
-- You can wait until the live auction on Dec. 1st (biddr automatically shows the right time for your time zone, one thing I like about the platform.) There's a button to click to enter the live auction at that time, and you'll see each coin come to the block. It'll start from wherever the pre-biding has got to. An increment at a time, everyone in the live auction gets a chance to click the "bid" button until the coin is sold. It's fun.
-- You can enter a "proxy bid" now. This is just like ebay (similar to a pre-bid) except no bid is entered now. Instead, the system does the automatic bidding only during the live auction. You can watch if you like, but you can also turn off your computer and go out and shovel snow instead. (Which is probably what we'll be doing here in Canuckland.)

 

Thank you so much for answering my questions, they are very much appreciated

I did register already, but when I was reading the sign up part, I had all these questions, thanks again for all your clarifications

 

I just revisited the Pickering subset of this auction. I was struck by how well-crafted the historical notes were. Did James do that? Or SA? Or are those from Toone's book on the London mint? At any rate, it's a mark of distinction that the virtual auction "catalogue" reads as well as a published print resource. Kudos.

 

Thank you Gavin. It is the (outstanding) work of SA. When he sent me his proofs to read I responded that I wish I would have written those notes as well as he did!

 

(Thanks, guys!)

 

I have to concur with James. I think Sev did a fantastic job with the many writeups. I think his work on them ranks amongst the best and is certainly the most extensive I’ve seen for an auction of this size.

 

Yes, I agree as well! One coin I consigned was given an excellent historical background by SA. It actually made me re-interested in it and those type of coins again.

 

@Severus Alexander If I ship with untracked for 15$ + the 2.25$ then the shipment is 100% insuranced?

Also, do you have any idea what the import fees could be from Canada to an European country, in this case the Netherlands?

Thank you.

 

Hi Pavlos - Assuming it isn't an overweight package with a lot of coins, and it's insured for $100 or less, then that's right. If it's insured for over $100, there's an extra $2.25 for each additional $100 of insurance coverage.

There should be zero import fees for coins over 100 years old. It is possible you would have to pay a reduced 5% VAT though.

 

For those who have not bid in non-eBay auctions before and are planning on bidding in AMCC's first auction, note that you have to sign up with AMCC through Biddr. It's not a hard process-- just the usual name, address, etc. Don't wait until the last minute though!

I didn't wait until the last minute. Feels good to be #1 at something . If I end up spending more than a small fraction of that bidding limit I'm going to be in BIG trouble. 10-20K seems to be a pretty standard default credit limit when you sign up with most auction houses.

I used Transferwise for the first time recently. Drawing from your bank account requires a test deposit but I locked in the rate on the day I began the process. Overall it was easy and the next time I won't have to go through the test deposit delay. Added bonus: someone gave me a signup link and my first transaction was free! Excellent .

 

Good news guys. The Canada Post strike will end tomorrow (tuesday).
So it won’t have any delay in the delivery for the lucky winners in the next saturday auction !

 

I'm sorry to be so thick. I think I've typically used PayPal, even for auctions. Is that not possible for this one?

 

SA mentioned PayPal is accepted

 

No problem, it's perfectly possible to use PayPal. It's just that Transferwise is cheaper... lower fees and a much better exchange rate. I've saved hundreds by using them for my own purchases.

If you use this link to sign up for Transferwise, you get a free transfer, like TIF. (Full disclosure: if three people use the link and make a transfer, I think AMCC gets a little bonus too!)

 

A note on credit limits: it doesn't apply to your wins, it applies to the total amount you're bidding at any time, where those bids could in principle be successful. So if you enter a lot of proxy or pre-bids, in the expectation that only a few will be successful, you actually need a pretty high limit. My standard is 5000 CAD. I was so excited when TIF signed up as my first bidder I figured I needed to make it 10K.