Canceled my winning bid…

I recently made the error of leaving large reserves on bids on Great Collections for 15 day and 30 day auctions, most reserves were still hundred or two hundred under going price for some in demand coins with me foolishly thinking I would be out bidded plus several I had already found better deals elsewere. Exactly 30 minutes prior to each auction ending someone jacked all my bids exactly up to the highest reserve on each one and everyone one even when they were hours/days apart

Moral of story never bid on something your not fully committed to buying and other would be don't leave a reserve if you are able to bid the last 60 seconds of the auction ending.

I wired them the money and since I bought them under market I will have to dump them on Ebay to recover my losses... my mistake
so I took responsibility and paid the auction house.

 

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Heritage charges a 25% buyers' fee on political items. Add to that my local sales tax, and you are up to a little over 133% of the hammer price.

The really strange part is that some people bid as if there is no buyers' fee at all. When I was in the retail coin business, I would have loved to added 25% to the bottom of every invoice. I don't know what happens to people when they start bidding in on-line auctions.

 

That is pretty much standard with European auction houses now.

And if you were living in the EU, you would have a 15% Vat tax as well.

 

Well I am going to stick with State side things in the future.
I received no response from BAC Auction on my declining the piece. I guess they will just realist it.

 

I bid on a coin at Everything But the House for $18. I didn't do the math and ended up paying $30 in the end. An expensive lesson learned.

 

The only thing I ever got banned from was my neighbor's pool when I was a kid. I guess they'd rather swim in cold water than letting me warm it up.

 

How to bid:

1. First decide the absolute maximum value of the item. This is not your bid.

2. Subtract shipping and handling costs and customs (if it’s a flat amount). This is not your bid.

3. Add together, as fractions, not percentages: customs (if it’s value-based), sales tax and buyer’s premium. Now add 1 to the above sum and divide into the value from step 2. This is your max bid.

For example, maximum value to you of the item is 525 and S&H is 25. This leaves 500. Suppose customs is 1%, sales tax is 7%, and buyer’s premium is 20%. Adding together as fractions, it’s 0.28. Add 1 to get 1.28. Your maximum bid is 500/1.28 = 390.63.

bid: 390.63
customs: 3.91
tax: 27.34
premium:78.12

subtotal: 500.00

S&H: 25.00

total: 525.00

Cal

 

eBay fees are miniscule compared to these auction houses.

 

Yet we accept prescriptions with premiums far exceeding 22%, and don't return the meds.
Soft drinks have a fountain cost of 4-7 cents. We gladly buy the big gulp size for $1.69 and don't return it.
Go figure. Interesting subject.

 

I won't mention what the IRS takes in "premiums", oops, I mean taxes...oops, I just mentioned it anyway. Highway robbery.

 

Not to opine on the right or wrong of the methodology, however, if every bidder used this method to bid, the auction would last longer than a few biblical longevity personages, not to mention the auction houses would either end up filing for Bankruptcy or be indicted for bid rigging for waiting so long to drop the hammer.

 

The method has nothing to do with timing. It’s a way to determine the maximum a potential buyer might bid and avoid overpaying due to costs other than hammer price. It can be done as soon as the catalog is available. Then the max bid (or more likely, start lower) can be entered as soon as the auction house allows, at the last second, or in between. If the potential buyer started with less than their predetermined max bid, they can up their bid as the auction goes along, but at least, they won’t go over budget. Different bidders would have different max bids just as they do now.



Cal

 

That is fine. Everybody start complying, NOW!

I think the point was/is missed, but I understand.

 

Keeping up with what will be added to the hammer price at different auction houses is not as easy as it once was. It takes more study to make good choices.

 

Who's fault, his fault, her fault, my fault. Who cares, you were getting ripped off, you did the right thing by backing out. I personally do not bid out of country, it's safer in my opinion.

 

It would be next to impossible to achieve some collecting goals for world coins without buying outside the US. I’ve bought scores of world and ancient coins from outside the US and haven’t had a significant problem yet. So far, I’ve bought from western Europe, eastern Europe and central Asia.

Ya gotta be careful checking-out the seller and pay close attention to shipping costs. If paying via wire transfer, there can be added-on fees beyond what your bank charges … check it out first. For me, there is a mysterious 10 Euro fee that gets added between my bank and European banks. It does show before I confirm the transfer though.

Minor problems I’ve had:

1. Slow transit times. Occasionally a little longer than advertised. Last coin came from Belarus via registered mail and arrived in less than a week. I’ve had registered mail completely in the US take longer.
2. Rarely, US customs will tack on 1% tax.
3. Once, there was a messed-up address by the seller. I got the coins eventually.

Once big advantage in buying overseas … no state sales tax is charged!

Cal

 

Yet the Japanese auction houses only charge 10% buyer's premium. Depending on the place I can easily use Wise (Transferwise) which is super cheap, a bank transfer then sweat if I got the fees right and hope my bank is giving me a good exchange, or even PayPal for a mere extra 4.1%. I hate that but for a lower cost item PP can work out less than wiring fees and with the 10% bp it still feels more favorable than hoping whatever it is I'm buying will show up for sale in the US. Hint, it probably won't.

As for shipping, well that can vary but it's clear ahead of time. One prefers Fedex so that's about $100 but they will run customs for you (over whatever amount there is extra paperwork and occasionally will have to pay a bit extra). One uses a Japanese company that then partners with UPS for about $70 and will also call about customs over $2000. Trying to explain 'numismatic pottery' (a clay coin) was a fun conversation with a nice UPS lady in Tennessee, she was fascinated. No customs fees per se, just a small charge to UPS for doing it for me. The other company uses EMS which is about $50.

Knowing all that, well, I'm not buying $50 coins from them we will just say.

It's a little more complicated than GC or Heritage or Stacks, but knowing to do the math ahead of time keeps you on track. There will be at least one email with/without the use of google translate. Money will eventually change hands. It will get shipped. EMS I have no idea how long it might take. Fedex about 24 hours, UPS about 48. From Japan. Safely.

Being fearful of bidding overseas is understandable, but it's not an unsurmountable problem. Just need to figure those bps into your calculations ahead of time. And understand the nature of wiring money. They can't always tell you exactly what it will be...there are hidden bank fees sometimes and the currency exchange fluctuates. If you are using dollars to tell them how much to send you get that many dollars taken out. If you say send so many yen, then your dollar amount may not be exactly known until it happens.

 

Man, worst I have been hit with was for $40 from Europe, but that was for 4 figure coins. I imagine some of it was insurance.

 

There was no problem, they just put my account back to Zero