I found something I had been searching for for years at the first table at a show. Jumped on it. Continued around the room and found a better example at a better price. Bought it assuming the first dealer would accept a return. Yeah, no. He was desperate for cash that day and not in a charitable mood. Sold it to another dealer at a loss. Lesson learned: Shop around. At the very next show, saw another another long time want at an early table. Patted myself on the back for resisting temptation and continued around the room. Came back to that table. Gone. Lesson learned: Don’t shop around. Upon further reflection I came to the conclusion the real lesson learned was this: Collecting is a messy business, it’s part of what makes it fun.
It's far worse to have a tracked envelope containing a very rare coin vanish at the Vienna airport than to overpay for shipping on a coin you eventually receive.
I treat searching for a "wanted" coin the same way I treat searching for my misplaced wallet. When I find it, I stop looking for it.
The real lesson should be to buy what you can when you can. The famous stamp dealer and philatelic author Herman Herst Jr. basically says this. I'm paraphrasing here because I read this MANY years ago, but he once told a story of a collector who wanted to buy a certain rare stamp but didn't want to pay the going price. This went on for several years while the stamp went up in value and so did the buyer's limit. The buyer still didn't want to pay what the going price was, kept lamenting that he didn't have this stamp that he coveted, but still didn't realize his mistake.
For sure. I've never actually lost anything at the hands of the USPS, but it's getting more and more dodgy. I have far more faith in FedEx, although I will say I just passed on a cheap bronze from Roma since it didn't make sense to pay $30 FedEx shipping on a $60 coin. I've seen way more delays within the US than outside of it. Delays of a week or more at inbound customs in NY are pretty routine, but what's increasingly happening is delays of weeks or months at local distribution hub USPS locations. I recently had to sweat it out while an unlisted coin just stopped in this way for a couple of weeks before continuing on. When things are functioning normally they should be in and out of these hubs same or next day. Apparently what's happening, due to short staffing, is that these distribution hubs get backed up and then rather than continuing to process mail in first-in first-out order (adding a uniform brief delay to all mail) some instead are doing last-in first-out until the backlog clears... This means some mail continues to sail through without delay, and the unfortunate backlogged pieces are now stuck until the backlog is cleared. Reddit's r/usps_complaints is full of horror stories.
If we ever get shows back, you may find that dealers there are people and like auctions, they differ wildly. Behind some tables are some of the finest people I have very met. Others are carrying a grudge because they paid $800 for the table not to mention hotel, parking and some really terrible food but have not sold enough coins to cover. Some are doing it for a hobby. A wealthy retiree can sell coins and doing shows is his hobby. He is there to talk. Some might judge you as more interesting than some of the well funded jerks who they need to watch like a hawk lest coins go missing. The idea is go with the idea of being the kind of person you would enjoy talking with were you on the other side of the table. I don't know California and many of my favorites from East Coast shows have retired or died so I don't expect to be as pleased as I once was. The Internet tried to kill coin shows but Covid has done a better job. I hope that changes. If you are just starting. it might help to have a very non specific area to quote when asked what you collect. Mine was 'Septimius Severus' but 'third century denarii' or something really general like 'Greek bronzes' might work better. Truth was always, 'Coins I want at prices I can afford'. Throwing in that you are to look through anything 'just in case' works, too, especially with sellers that would be most likely to welcome you. It does not take long to learn which ones are not worth your time.
I carefully calculate costs. For example in the last couple of Leu auctions I've won items and one must be mindful of the 18% buyers fee coupled with shipping. Also convert the currency into U.S. dollars so you know your true out of pocket cost. Swiss Francs are more valuable than U.S. dollars. In my case I spent a couple of thousand dollars on the coins and the actual landed cost was higher than that.
I think the lesson is as soon as you make a purchase close your eyes. I've had this happen on ebay, except my case was a better-looking coin for similar money. I also bought the second, better-looking coin too and now they're in adjacent tray slots, a constant reminder that the only thing better than one ancient coin is two ancient coins. I started collecting around 2014 or 15 and never really settled into a focus. If it was in my budget and moved me, I bought it. I took a couple years off after having kids (I've got three kids four and under right now) and a couple months ago came back deciding I'd increase my budget a touch and focus on low-end Greek silver. Oh boy let me tell you what a surprise it was to see how everything has skyrocketed. That video you posted last week did a pretty good job of explaining why. It's a bummer. Cheapish coins that used to be my bread and butter are approaching the prices that I paid for my nicer coins. Now I'm left to decide whether to increase the budget to even more, or continue collecting as I was but at a higher price.
Well, first I would make every attempt to cancel my bid and withdraw from bidding. Secondly, I would do as you did, hold my breath and hope someone outbid me. As a last resort, I would get on my knees and beg my wife not to hit me with that frying pan. If the first two don't work, run like hell man, good luck.
You just learned a hard lesson. Don't bid if you can't pay. You lucked out. Many of us have done some dumb things in regards to our collecting too. One thing I learned early on is not to rush into placing a bid. If you find a coin you've been looking for at an auction most larger auction houses have a way that you can watch or track a coin. That doesn't mean you have to bid on the coin. I usually hold off any bidding until the last few days of the auction and some times I don't even bother to bid because the price has gone to high or I found another coin I wanted more. I'm currently watching 3 auctions with coins I may be interested in. In a recent Heritage auction I was following 40 different coins. Not that I would bid on all of them but, by doing that I get a good feel on how the market is and the quality of coins available. My budget is higher than yours but, that doesn't make a difference when it comes to learning how the auction system works. First rule, know your limit. Second, don't bid on more than one coin at a time unless you can cover the cost of all your bids if by chance you win every coin you bid on. (Winning every lot you bid on can and does happen.) Third, set the maximum you can afford to spend on a coin including any fees and shipping and don't go over that set maximum. If you loose a bid at an auction it's not a big deal because in most cases a similar coin will come along that could be equal or better than the coin you lost. And you may loose many times before winning the coin you want. Example: It took me three years to locate and win a nice example of a 1913-S Type 2 Buffalo nickel in MS 65. In that three year period I think I bid on 4 different coins before I finally won a nice one. During that period I may have looked at dozens of 1913-S T2 nickels in MS 65 but, most were dogs and only a few met the standard I was looking for. I did pay a premium price for the nickel but, I'm happy with the coin I finally got.
I treat coin shows and high end auction catalogs like museums, where you can hold the displays! It was awesome to hold this Phanes coin. I looked at the large Olbia Gorgon / eagle cast coin at a show before buying the small coin and spending my $ on a Byzantine scale weight.
I learned a long time ago to set parameters on how much I was willing to spend on a particular coin + did I really need it! I utilize MA Shops for my German coins, and e-Bay for U.S. coins. Sometimes it takes several lost bids before I usually end up highest bidder on e-Bay. Funny how the same type of coin can sell for a lot less after the first wave of bidding for that particular type of coin. One has to be careful to read the fine print for dealers at MA Shops. Some are ridiculous with their shipping costs. Others are very reasonable. So far, so good. I try to buy certified coins since there are so many counterfeits out there, although certified coins now seem to run the same risk. Counterfeit slabs, some with authentic coins mis-graded, most with bogus coins. I check the NGC and PCGS websites and get a good look at what the coin should look like. So far, so good. I also stay away from the high-end coins, mostly due to budget constraints.
