I participated in the Pecunem Auction today. I won this lot of a Syracuse Dionysus I Hemilitron. I believe it is a Hemilitron not a Litra (like the auction states it is) because of the weight. Here is that one: https://www.pecunem.com/auction-20/lot-23 The next lot I won was a lot of 22 Parion Drachms. I plan on trying to flip these and hopefully make all the money back for the Hemiltron at the end. If it doesnt happen its okay because I know it will be a lot of fun. Here is that lot: https://www.pecunem.com/auction-20/lot-1067 If anyone else participated in the auction post what lot/lots you won!
FYI ... here is a link associated with Parion gang coins ... I hope that your coins are 'golden' ... http://medusacoins.reidgold.com/parion.html => hey dude, I love your guts for trying to make a buck (good luck, my cool friend)
Thanks for the link! That will help a ton! I didnt even know that most are Thracian Imitatives not the real Parion Hemidrachms. Hopefully that doesnt effect the value but either way that just makes them more interesting. To me at least. I might have to keep a few of them..... No no no I have to stay strict. If Im going to try to do flips like this I cant be keeping everything. But one or a few cant hurt too much can it??
Well, here's my straight-up assessment of your business venture, like it or not. Calculating in the BP and shipping I'd say you're paying about $15 per coin, so if you're looking to sell them on eBay, you really can't charge less than $25 apiece, just to make a few bucks profit after eBay's cut, Paypal fees, and your shipping charges. Closer to $30 would be a better starting bid, or BIN. But will collectors buy them at $30? The thing about those Parion Hemidrachms is that people want clear, distinct portraits of Medusa. The ones in the auction pic look pretty worn, and those are just the ones they pictured. Let's hope the obverses that aren't showing are better. Otherwise, what you paid for the coins is exactly what they're worth on the market now, not less. If you search the sold listings on eBay, you'll see what I mean. Coins that look like yours sell for around $14-17. The realized prices go up as the portraits of Medusa get better. All that being said, I sincerely hope you prove me wrong and make yourself a decent profit. (Now the guy who won lot 1068 got a steal. If he's selling those pieces, he should be able to get double his investment.)
I hope I prove you wrong too. I think I'm going to start all of them out at $.99 with a $20 or $25 reserve. Reverses tend to work better for me than starting the bidding high. We'll see what happens. It will be fun no matter what. Buying and selling like this kinda makes me feel like a coin dealer and that cool to me. I know I need to actually make money not lose any if I want to be a good dealer so I really hope I do. Thanks for your input though!
Best of luck to you. I hope you don't take my words as discouragement, but I assume you've been asking for advice so that you can succeed. I would strongly recommend that you do two things before you bid on a lot. 1. Research the coins as thoroughly as you can. That link Steve gave you is the first thing that comes up if you google "Parion drachms." You also get Ed Snible's site, and a page of coins on Wildwinds. You don't have to get arcane about it, but at least do an internet search. 2. Look closely at the sold listings on eBay and compare the coins in the lot you're considering to the grades and realized prices of the sold items. Calculate what you should pay for the coins in order to make the profit you want, and don't go over that bid. If you lose the auction, there will be plenty more later. In short: know your product, know your market. I learned it by the school of hard knocks, but that's OK. Typically you have to fail a bit first in order to succeed later.
I agree with JA that there might not be much profit in this lot but if you enjoy the fun of selling you are going to have a great time! Plus you are going to learn a lot in the process. Definitely going to get $15 of fun per coin out of that lot.
I have no idea about the denominations of the Syracuse bronze. The Magna Gracia site shows the two as overlapping. Sear calls the type trias and uses litra for the large 'starfish' reverse coins that MG call drachm. Favorito (relatively amateurish pamphlet) in 1990 called them tetras; I do not have Calciati (1986 but larger volumes in Italian) but suspect that is where MG may have copied the names??? I do not know the origins of either theory. The heavier ones have a rein on the hippocamp while the light ones do not. Whether the two are different denominations or show a weight reduction of one denomination (whatever it is), I do not know. Sear's books are wonderful but he often bases information on BMC or other really old works and can perpetuate old news since so many people read his books even though they are getting a little dated. Scholarship on Greek coins is more complex than Roman who were so kind as to put so much into their legends making attribution easy. Mine weighs 9.7g. I paid way too much in 1989 for this coin with imperfect surfaces and weakish strike but it, like many Syracusan AE, has nice color. Parion is a coin I do not have and probably will not ever own. The real ones look way too much like he rampant fakes and I'm not willing to put the study into the separation of official, barbarous and modern required to make me feel comfortable. There are a half dozen coins I feel that way about but risk the ones with art styles I admire or feel I might be able to separate into the good, the bad and the ugly. You may well sell these to people who are impressed by their antiquity but $30 is a lot for what I see. I did not get anything in the sale. There were 12 lots I watched close but all went above my price (all but one went for double estimate - Lot 345 hit 5X). I have posted before on how I can not justify buying just one lot from Pecunem because of the high shipping charges. Your buying the two lots brings the average down. Has anyone in the US received a bill from customs for Pecunem purchases? I got a form resulting from the earlier sale that brought me my Pescennius Niger denarius but the amount due was zero. When does this become an added expense? That sale brought me three coins and was the first time I had spent that much in one overseas sale so I wondered it that might be a problem.
=> "yes" (well, Canada) ... I usually/always get stung when I order from GN Pecunem (tax-hits seem to vary, but ranging between 14% and 25% of my original purchases!! => obviously, this has influenced my future sales through these dudes ... yup, the coin has to be pretty sweet for me to accept this expected additional cost) NOTE => I have also been stung by customs a few times when I order from the States (Cal), but these occurences are few and far between ... most of the time, an envelope containing a well protected ancient coin seems to slip-by the ol' border-goalies.
I still think it is a hemilitron because on Magna Gracia site it says that Litras are 6.06-10.19 grams and hemiltrons are 4.13-7.99 grams and my example is 5.9 grams which only falls under the hemilitron's weight. I like your exampe a lot. Its really nice The extra charges are a lot on Pecunem so I calculated before hand how much I was willing to pay and thats what I bought them for. And I realize these Parion coins might be a little harder to sell than I originally thought but I Im going at least try.
Pecunem is the only auction house that I have ever received a customs bill from which I found strange.
Under a certain amount, you're exempt from paying customs fees, and I believe that amount varies from country to country. I've also received a few of those customs slips that had a zero balance due.
That makes sense. I wonder what the cut off is for Canada. For a $75 coin I had $16 customs fees which was a surprise. I usually just stick to American auction houses now just because the Canadian dollar isn't that great.
I had the exact same thing. It said the amount due was $0.00 so I just didnt do anything. It was strange
Pecunem only ship through Fedex (for Canada at least), their insurance requires it. Since it's declared value, and since Fedex are also brokers, no surprise here that I had to pay an "extra" on delivery. What I was glad about is that they only charged the taxes on the winning bids, not on the buyer premium and shipping charge. Plus, the brokerage fee was of only 10$, which is far less than I expected.
