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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ToughCOINS, post: 2742309, member: 20480&quot;]I am amused by the characterization that buyers have necessarily overpaid if they outbid someone who loses an item after placing what they figured to be a fair bid.&nbsp; Many times those bidders may have lost to a specialist in die varieties, to a fellow collector who may know more about the availability of that item in a specific grade, or to a dealer having earmarked that coin for a good customer.</p><p><br /></p><p>The term &quot;overpaid&quot; is often abused, as it is a relative term, and not an absolute, much the same as is the term &quot;underpaid&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can&#039;t count the number of times I have been told that someone underpaid when they bought a roll of common wheaties for $1.00, a common silver certificate for $3.00 or a common proof set for 10% back of bid.&nbsp; Such items are ubiquitous, and have established values only because there are a very large number of transactions on which to base a price.&nbsp; The prices in guides are built on a history of what people have been willing to pay in the past, and have been reported.</p><p><br /></p><p>Less common items, for which transaction history can be sparse, and between which a variation in quality can be far more meaningful to the buyers, may fetch multiples of the &quot;going rate&quot; for a particularly nice coin, and even for an ugly coin that only comes available every several years.</p><p><br /></p><p>We would all do well not to jump to the conclusion that, simply because someone bid well beyond the published price for a given item, that they have necessarily overpaid.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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