Opinion on Bidding Amount

You should take the price your willing to pay off the bourse and subtract the auction house fee at the very least.

Let’s say I am a buyer at 10 pct back of CDN bid on a coin that bids for 1000. The auction house fee is 20 pct. My high bid is .80 x .90 x CDN bid. Or 72 pct of bid. I input my $720 bid as close to auction close as possible. If bid up beyond what I want to pay go to another item on watchlist. Beyond that I am not a bidder there. No desire get in bid war with some collector. As far as shipping I either allocate that to inventory cost or book as sch c office expense.

I use auction sniper for eBay. For auctions like GC I may input a bid in the last 60 seconds.

Your right on - just take what your willing to pay less the juice and bid that. As far as the sellers I believe they would get more shopping the coin around the bourse at a show or by opening an eBay store.

As far as the rabid buyer bidding it up let them be the end user. That’s not for me and I doubt its where you want to be. Usually I have a watch list of items of interest with notes as to MV and (or) Bid prepared before hand. Once it gets within an hour of closing I go back over the watch list culling out items already bid up too high or low end trash. Then I wait until the countdown close enough jump in make a bid with a good chance winning it at my price. Then once received the item is put in my online store at retail (it could be CPG or simply cost plus). Sometimes these will sell in a week or 2 bringing a good margin much to my delight. Other material bought considerably below bid I may flip to other dealers from my table at minimal profit at a show.

I may adjust my bid higher on something I really want say bid plus 5pct. I know I have an advantage over low ballers or those who don’t take the sheet.

 

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If a person really wants that coin they will pay whatever is necessary to get it.

 

It all depends on what ones goal / angle is. If something have to have a nuclear bid should work.

 

The way I look at it, I don't consider the shipping charges when I figure my bids. If I buy an item at a show, I have to pay to get there. Unless it's a local show, those costs are not cheap. They include the cost to get there (car travel or airfare, meals and a hotel. So rather than worry about the shipping costs, I ignore them in my dicision.

The buyers' fee is another matter. That is part of the cost of obtaining the item, and it is including in the prices realized numbers that are published after the sale. They are also of the value of the item as the the underlying bid. Therefore, I break back my bids to reflect the buyers' fee. For example, if I think that the item is worth $5,000, my bid is $4,200. ($5,000/120% = $4,166.67. I usually runnd up if I really want the item.)

The sales tax is another matter. In the past, you didn't have to pay it, but now it is an increasing reality. The choice is really yours. I try to arrange my purchases so that I can legally avoid it. In Florida, there is no sales taxes on U.S. coins. For foreign coins and bullion, there is sales taxes on bullion purchases that are under $500 and individual foreign coins that cost less $500. For tokens and medals there is no exemption. In these cases you have to make so personal choices.

 

Someone had posted on some thread (I can't find it) that they weren't winning any stuff online (Heritage ?) and they wondered if they had to raise their bids.

FWIW....I see the Price Range given by HA to be pretty accurate. The bidding tends to be UNDER the bottom of that range for ungraded lower-quality stuff that is common (i.e., Silver Certificates). The bidding tends to be ABOVE the top of that range for very high-quality stuff (condition rarity) and/or rare stuff in any condition (pre-1900 coins and/or bills and/or foreign/ancient currency).

 

An outstanding coin almost always sells above the price guide.

 

Thats the way to roll these days. Might be a good system cuz were all a#fected with the tax. You just joined the club

 

Heritage is the only auction house I've used over the past year that added Wisconsin sales tax. Part of me wonders if they actually sent the tax money to the state department of revenue.

 

I'm sure they did. While working at my post office we had a business customer come in once a year to mail the business taxes. 50 returns, one for each state, sales tax forms and one federal tax form. It took the better part of an hour to weigh and print the postage for them.

 

Yup, ditto bills. Just like in the old days of baseball free agency where you only needed One Dumb Owner, you just need One Dumb or Desperate Buyer.

And if you have two......

 

Well I fit the dumb and desperate part.