Anyone ever bid in a Kunker auction?

I have a positive experience with Kuenker. Looking at their coming auction, I can say that most of the mainstream greek silver coins are starting at 2-3 times less than their normal prices. However most of them have some kind of defect that makes them unattractive. There is a corroded Kimon decadrachm starting at 32k LOL, that's maybe the only exception to the low estimates rule. The quality is lower than usual and this was also the case in the recent Gorny auction. There are also several interesting bronzes which are mainly for the specialists of the field.

 

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There's a lot to like in Kunker's upcoming catalogue.. I have over a dozen watchlisted =)
I concur that the estimates are are looking a little low here, and I've always wondered if there's some strategy at play on the part of the auction houses.
Heritage and Roma on the other hand seem to be bang on with their estimates but even they will have the odd outlier selling for 2x or more.

 

Here is an example of a coin I won in a Kunker auction. I was very happy to get this one. Print Auction 312.

 

Yep, and he is also the president of FENAP. Side note: This year Gitta Künker became Managing Director of the World Money Fair holding. Guess they will stay in business for a while.

Christian

 

Kunker does offer a telephone bidding service for bidding on coins that are estimated for more than 500 Euro. You just have to be prepared for a realllllly early phone call. Auctions can be a bit of a crap shoot. I got one coin in Triton XXI on the opening bid which is 60 % of estimate but have seen many go for double estimate or even stronger prices. All I can say is bid what you want to pay and hope for the best.

 

I'm in for 20,000 euros over a dozen lots on this auction coming up next week and doubt I'll win any of them :- )

When you're really serious about winning an auction lot you bid 5x estimate

 

I've got my eye on about 7 lots, each in the 150-500 euro range for estimate. I'm thinking I'm going to have to go 3x estimate to be competative at all. The estimates seem low on the ones I'm looking at.

 

In regards to absentee bidding, does the highest reserve bid end up being the starting bid at the live auction? For example if I were to bid 500 and the next highest bid pre-auction was 300, would the live bid then start out at 300 or 500 for the live auction? And would Kunker bid up to my 500 in the live auction for me since I would bid absentee?

 

Not only have I BID in their auctions, I have WON in their auctions!

I really enjoy working with them. Quality service, very nice people, no surprises. I always received my coins in quick order, and seem better in-hand than pictured. They seem to have the tough coins that I enjoy, and sometimes are harder to find.

Additionally, estimates, prices listed, etc. in pre-auctions mean nothing to me. Ergo, hammer multiples are meaningless. I usually do my homework and decide on an acceptible hammer price + the load (fees, customs, freight, etc.) I bid to win in their auctions as I usually find my niche coins there.

I highly recommend them.


Etruria Populonia AR 5 Asses 3rd C BCE 2.0g Young Hd L V behind HN 173 Vecchi Rasna III 52 Vecchi Etruscan 91.6 ex NAC 29 No 9 RARE

 

If, you got a prebid of 900 Euros on a lot with starting bid of 300 Euros, then automatically in live auction your 900 would be, high bid to beat in live event.....unless another prebidder has even a higher max. bid. I have won 35 lots in past 10 years from Kunker, most of my prebids were 50% over estimate upto 2X estimate. Six of my wins were after auction, "unsold" lots pickups.
John

 

So what you are telling me is for example:
My max bid in pre auction is 500
The next closest pre auction bid is 250
(So there is a 250 difference between my max bid and the other bidder in pre auction)

Yet the live auction automatically starts out at my max bid of 500?

 

No... he didn't really answer your question.

When the lot hits the block it will open at the highest incremental pre-bid.

If you prebid 500 and someone else bid 250 (and for the sake of this example, let's say the other bidder placed their bid first), the new high prebid is one increment higher than 250, with you as the new high bidder. Kunker's bidding increments are listed here; between 200 and 500 EUR the increment is 20 so the new high bid is 270. When the lot hits the block in the live auction, it will open at 270, to you. During the live auction, the headroom remaining on your prebid will be automatically executed live if needed, up to 500 EUR.

Here are Kunker's increments:

up to € 100, - € 5, -
up to € 200, - € 10, -
up to € 500, - € 20, -
up to € 1.000, - € 50, -
up to € 2,000, - € 100, -
up to € 5,000, - € 200, -
up to € 10,000, - € 500, -
up to € 20,000, - € 1,000, -
up to € 50,000, - € 2,000, -
from € 50,000, - € 5,000, - (or 10%)

 

Awesome! That is what I was hoping for, and makes the most sense. I feel better putting in a high bid that way. These ancients are dangerously addicting, I need to grow my business so I can add more to the collection haha

 

I love picking up unsold lots. They seem to be ignored by many people. Now ssshhh we do not want everyone to know our secret.

 

I agree, over the past ten years, I have snapped up over 100 of these "unsold" lots
My most recent was this MS-64 AV 2 Doppie from Milan/ under Spanish Rulers/ Philip IV/ 1630.

 

Since we are "talking" about Künker, here is another story I just came across: This gold coin is now back at a museum in Weimar, TH thanks to him or them.

It is one of more than 200 coins that were stolen during the short US occupation of the area in May 1945; some of them were later auctioned (New York, 1950) while others are still missing. This piece, a so-called alchemist taler dated 1687, had been in Canada for a long time, was at a Künker auction last year and brought €28,000.

One side of the coin shows Duke Friedrich I of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, the other side features a phoenix. Seems that the duke had the idea of making gold using alchemy, hence the name, but this is an actual gold coin. When Künker learned about the origin of the coin, he made an agreement with the seller and the buyer, paid the amount himself and returned the coin to the Classical Weimar Foundation.

(Article in German here.)

Christian

 

I used the telephone bidding process in the last Kuenker auction with some success. Once I had established that I was serious about bidding I got them to phone me so I could bid on some other lesser value coins. Out of the six coins I bid on I got three. However prices were very strong at least for what I wanted.

 

I certainly agree that Kunker realises very strong prices. Didn't want to discourage the OP though.

I hope he got what he was watching.

 

This was the first time I participated in the auction of Künker. Indeed there are very strong prices, however, I saw some coins that did not go for that much above the estimate. To my surprise I have won 3 coins at the auction (only 1 out of 3 was an aggressive bid), with one coin I won that brought up 33% more in a previous Naumann auction. I think it depends if someone else really wants the coin or not.

I saw at the auction an Alexander Dekadrachm sold for 100,000 euro

I hope you get the coins you want!

 

I had some success in this Künker auction. The results are still shown as preliminary and based on that I'm certain I won one and lost one. A third bid in play is a probable win but it hammered for 2 EUR less than my max and until I ascertain that no one else submitted the same max at an earlier date, and that Künker accepts off-increment bids, I'm not counting it as mine. Fingers are crossed though .

The lost coin is now twice lost. I failed to acquire it in a Pecunem auction in 2013 and once again my bid was too weak . Isn't this the most wonderfully bizarre representation of Herakles ever?! I've seen a few even more stylistically degraded version but those versions were too far gone to be fun. This one though.... Alien Ant? Mantis Man? A snow-skiing alien ant-mantis man? Dionysos looks quite inbred as well. I've kept an eye out for one like it since losing the coin in 2013 and was excited to see it appear in this auction. Too bad I lost .


THASOS-IMITATION. The imitations. AR tetradrachm, 1st century BC Chr .; 16.63 g. Dionysus head with ivy wreath r., Clearly stylized // Herakles standing in front with one club in each hand, two "feelers" on the head; The legend is resolved into a three-row point chain and no longer angular but circular. Auction Fritz Rudolf Künker 236, Osnabrück 2013, No. 3 (stamp equivalent); Dembsky -; Göbl, Eastern Celts -; Kostial -; Lukanc -; Coll. Flesche -.
Of great rarity. Tint, almost excellent
Copy of the auction Gitbud & Naumann 8, Munich 2013, No. 14.
The Herakles on the present piece looks like an alien with a head antenna.

The second coin was a win... but not for me even though I bid on it. A friend who isn't really a collector expresses interest from time to time. Several years ago he asked if any ancient coins depict African people (African as in the negroid phenotype). There are a few types and I got one for him, a teensy billion fractional from Lesbos. The one he really wanted was the Etrurian bronze with head of African man obverse and elephant reverse. I showed him all examples in archives and there was one which was markedly better than the rest and he really wanted that coin. Well, that coin appeared in this auction. I mentioned it the night before the auction and we reviewed its prior sales prices and comps. Knowing Künker often sees very aggressive bidding and that this coin is rare, I advised him to bid a very high number. The hammer was high but considerably lower than his max. He will reimburse me for the coin.


ETRURIA. UNKNOWN COIN. Æs, 3rd century BC Chr .; 5.34 g. Head of a black African r .//Elephant stands for r. Rutter, Historia Numorum 69; Vecchi, Etruscan Coinage -; Vecchi, The Coinage of the Rasna -.
RR Black patina, slightly corroded, good very fine. Auctioneer of
the auction Triton XVII, New York 2014, No. 1; the collection Dr. Hagen Tronnier, Auction Fritz
Rudolf Künker 94, Osnabrück 2004, No. 3; the auction Triton V, New York 2002, no. 2; The auction Leu Numismatics 74, Zurich 1998, No. 16 and the auction Sternberg XIV, Zurich 1984, No. 25.
Roberto Russo considered an allocation to the Mint Arretium possible (see Ludwig 22).

The third coin I won't show until I have it in hand-- if I actually won it!