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Message:: [QUOTE="Heliodromus, post: 8322986, member: 120820"]Well, in defining a market price, relative to which a sales price might be judged bizarre, you have to take into account the nature of the ancient coin market. While there are exceptions, I think that fairly often a comparable coin may only come up for sale every few months at best (or even less often) - at least this is the case for many of the coins that I collect. So, to me, if a similar coin had sold for very much less within that sort of time frame, then that's notable. If the type in question actually comes up in similar grade more frequently, then that's even more notable, as for example has been the case for some of these recent slabbed owls. Yes, indeed! If with a few months patience you could buy a coin for $200, and you pay $1000 at auction, then it rather does either put the buyer's judgement into question, or indicate they they are simply not sensitive to price at all. I remember a dealer's anecdote about a high roller who'd attend in-person auctions and would "bid" by just holding his paddle up until the item hammered. Of course it takes two or more to bid an item up, which makes the this all the more strange when it happens... Perhaps a new class of (2 or more) non-traditional bidders who are either not price sensitive/aware, and/or highly competitive among themselves?[/QUOTE]