Question about Bertolami Auction

I must have failed miserably too, because I looked at dozens of real samples online from trustworthy sources prior to bidding (something I always do out of habit) and the coin looked genuine when I compared it to known genuine coins. I guess I must be worse at telling forgeries than I thought, because the patina and the style totally fooled me.

So what's the problem with it? Because I honestly can't tell there's anything wrong with it.

 

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Maybe I missed something, but I didn't see any comments condemning your specific coin, just comments about the auction house. Only thing I saw said about your coin was SA saying to explore under microscope to rule out any tooling, which is evidently common with the auction house.

I personally think it's nice and don't see anything wrong with it from the photo (but I'm no expert).

 

Yeah, I think I read too much into it. You are right.

 

I was not commenting on the coin at all, just the house.

 

Still haven't been invoiced 72 hours after the auction ended. First and last time I bid with them.

 

The three day auction ended only two days ago. I expect to get the invoice within a week. Of course I prefer speedier processing but my experience has been that it can take at least several days to get invoices out. Shipping will be painfully slow but I'll likely have the coin within three or four weeks of the closing, and that is par for the course for many European auction houses. You'll get yours a bit sooner since you're in the US mainland.

 

Apologies: I was incorrect in my above statement. It was in the thread regarding irritating auction house practices that I provided the subtle feedback on Bertolami, not in the favorite auction house thread.

 

Thanks for the clarification

 

Well, well, they finally sent me the invoice a week after the auction. Just paid it. Not happy about only having won one coin as it made shipping more expensive, but since the coin went cheap in the first place, even with the added shipping I still think I got it at a rather fair price ($78.10 USD). I've seen the same type with worse centering and worse patina routinely sell on Vcoins for $100.

Case on point, this one is selling on Vcoins for $78.00 + shipping:



and this one is selling for $108 + shipping:



And here's one that sold at a recent auction for roughly $80 USD when including fees and shipping...




so I think I did alright at $78.10 with fees and shipping. Could I have done better? Sure, if I had one another of my bids the overall shipping costs would have been better, but I could have done far worse too.


My coin

 

Yes, that's always a problem when bidding in auctions, especially those in Europe when shipping can be 15 GPB or 18 euros to the US on a small invoice. You don't want to win just one $40 coin when shipping is going to be $20 for it. If an auction has stuff I really want and am likely to get, then I may throw in some bids on other lower-value coins figuring shipping will already be charged as soon as I win one coin.

 

I was successful bidder in a European sale 10 days ago. I have not yet received an invoice, and I'm neither worried nor irritated. Many of the European auction houses operate this way.

For perspective, consider the "old days" when invoices were delivered by "snail mail" and payments were made by check (and auction houses wouldn't ship until the check cleared). 8-12 weeks from auction close to receipt of lots was pretty typical back then.

 

Sometimes when I win lower value coins in European auctions I ask them to hold them and combine shipping with the lot(s) I win in the next auction. Most of them don't seem to mind as long as the payment for the lot itself is on time.

 

I just got my invoice too, and paid it. This comes the day after they announced that their next sale is online, so I would guess that getting that sale finally ready was the holdup in this case. No biggy as long as the lots I won don't migrate in the meantime.

That's exactly what I do and did in this case. I really wanted the first of the lots I won, but bought three more items I can also use mainly to leverage the costs. Still the ticket came to about $500 against $355 hammer price on the coins, over 2/3 of which was the first coin alone. Allowing for the house surcharge of 20% that still leaves $250 for all their added administrative costs, shipping, use of credit card, and currency conversion.

Edit: Ken is right. My numbers got turned around. After deducting for house surcharge the remainder was about $50 not $250.

 

This is true, I suppose we are all spoiled compared to the past. But then this is now and things are different (even if we wished it were not so).

I've also found this to be the case. Unfortunately there may not be anything else of interest in months of subsequent auctions, so one must be careful in their bids.

I dont understand the math here, but regardless one must be entirely certain of the fees to avoid unwelcome surprises when considering bidding. I am looking to buy a motorcycle right now. MSRP ends up being many end prices depending on where one is purchasing. As an example, the model I am looking at ends up with a 30% add on for taxes, fees, etc.

 

The saga continues. I just got an email today that I hadn't paid my invoice. I sent them my PayPal confirmation back showing I paid 2 months ago. I replied to the same email they sent me the invoice with, but is there another email or avenue I should be utilizing?

 

Just emailed their other email on their website. Not happy to be hit twice with this. I have the PayPal confirmation number for the transaction which I sent them along with the date and everything.

 

If they have a phone number, I would call them. Skype is pretty cheap for international calls.

 

I tried calling and twice no one picked up. Let's see if they answer my emails. I don't care if they ban me, I won't send payment twice.

Here's so you guys see I'm not wasting your time. I redacted private personal information.

 

Two months? Holy cats! It may be too late to get a refund through Paypal (I dont know what their time frame is), though you may try to do so. This is completely inexcusable. I am sure you can get your money back at some point, and in the long run you can easily find a replacement for that coin, probably much cheaper.

 

And a small correction, as you can see above it was $82, not $78 as I originally stated. I tried to do conversion math in my head and failed. Should have used PayPal numbers.