I wonder if anybody has any experience with Auctions by I and L Goldberg? Ebay shows a very large number of large cents coming up, auctioned by them on Feb. 10th. There are some very interesting coins there! and 1 or 2 which really interest me. Many, if not most of their large cents are not encapsulated. There is a 20% buyers premium.... (One problem for me would be how to ship them over, due to additional customs duty over here....) I would appreciate it if anybody has any input here. Thanks, Eduard
they are on GD's recommended list so they are good. i have been to one of their auctions in person they are really good people but wouldn't take cc from on the auction floor so i came back minus m coins
If you bid on and win any lots directly through the Goldberg's auction house and don't go through Ebay, the buyer's premium will be 15% instead of 20%. One other thing to keep in mind is that generally, returns of auction purchases aren't allowed, whereas if you order a coin from a seller in a non-auction situation, there might be a return privilege.
I'm not interested in paying a 20% buyers premium on ebay, I don't care how great they are, no thanks.
As I mentioned previously, the auction house has a 15% buyer's premium (as most major ones do these days), but it's 20% to go through Ebay. However, all you need to do is decide what what amount you are willing to bid for a coin and back out the buyer's premium. For example, let's say you're willing to pay up to $120 for a coin, but there is a 20% buyer's premium. Bid up to $100 hammer, instead of $120, so that after the 20% buyer's premium is added, you pay no more than your $120 maximum bid. When there is a 15% buyer's premium, figure out your maximum total bid and multiply it by .8696 to determine the amount to bid before the buyer's premium is added to the hammer price. When there is a 20% buyer's premium, multiply your maximum bid by .8334, instead. And if you don't mind being off by a few cents or dollars, it's OK to use .87 and .83 for 15% and 20% buyer's premiums, respectively.
Thank you for your replies. Mark, excellent tip you have given me to bid directly through their auction house instead of through Ebay. I'd for sure rather pay 15 % than 20%! I will call them this coming week to clear the other issues (shipping, etc). I hope they take cc's. Regards, Eduard
I am bidding on several of the large cents in the upcoming sale. There are some other great coins as well.
Another (and, I think, simpler) way to use the following formula: Max Bid = Total Cost / ( 1 + Buyer's Premium ) Divide your total cost by the buyer's premium percentage (expressed as a decimal) plus 1. (For 15% buyer's premium 15% = 0.15 so you would divide by 1.15.) For example - Your maximum total cost is $120 for a particular coin. If the buyer's premium is 20% your maximum bid will be: Max Bid = $120 / 1.20 = $100 If your maximum total cost is $200 and the buyer's premium is 15% your maximum bid would be: Max Bid = $200 / 1.15 = $173.91 The buyer's premium on Teletrade is 12% so for their auctions you would divide your maxumum total cost by 1.12. (Or you could multiply by 0.8929 but that is another long number for you to remember.) I think remembering a simple formula is much easier than trying to remember several long numbers. But that is just me. Whatever works for you is perfectly fine.
Auction is Over - Incredible prices paid!!! Well, the I & L Goldberg auction is now over. As i mentioned before, there was an incredible offering of large cents. Very strong in the early dates 1793-1806 which i am particularly interested in. There were very few super high condition specimens, primarily G to F15 "collector grade" samples. Just what i wanted, and thought i could afford. Needless to say, i spent a considerable amount of time preparing my bids, and putting in bids which i considered realistic with a good chance of success. Well, that was not to be......Almost across the board most of the coins i bid on realized 2 - 3 times the high estimate! I think i only got one successful bid, and even that has not been confirmed yet - an 1811 half Cent in VG 7. I am amazed at this. Prices realized seem to have very little in common wiith the current prices guides. Another somewhat frustrating issue is that as an internet bidder you really have no chance against floor bidders, unless you drastically overbid. I got outbid on many coins sometimes by amounts just 1/2 of the announced increased bidding steps. I have been out of the US auction scene for over 15 years now. Things have really changed! Regards, Eduard
Eduard - you need to realize that "estimates" given by an auction house are almost always low. They do it intentionally to try and get people to bid. If they provide an accurate estimate many people will think the coin is out of their range or overpriced and thus will not bid at all. But if they estimate low, people will make that intial bid. And once they do that they are more inclined to keep bidding. In reality - it's standard marketing technique. Yup, that's why you will see me say here on the forum, probably 5 to 10 times a week, that price guides are worthless. The only thing you should even look at are realized auction prices. That is a fact. It's largely because internet bidders have no hope of keeping up with live action. In live auctions many lots will be completed in less than a minute, two at the most. So the folks actually there always have an advantage, they can increase their bid by the minimum in seconds whereas it takes you minutes. All you can do is bid your max and hope for the best. Don't ever chase items.
Thanks GD, you confirm exactly what i thought. I will be better prepared next time. You know, one thing that upsets me however, is that in 3 cases i missed the coin by a margin LESS than the normal bid step: in one case the next higher bid should have been $ 50 higher than mine, but the next guy got it for just $ 15 more. That penalizes internet bidders even more. One consolation though: i did get the 1/2 cent 1811 in VG7. I am happy, even if had to pay more for it than for my 1802/0 half cent in nice VG10 20 years ago! Regards, Eduard
Another reason they put low estimates in the catalogs is so they can use it for an advertising comment implying that you can do better with their company "You get better results with our auctions, why in our XYZ sale the final hammer price was nearly twice the pre-sale estimates."
