Their Roman Provincials are outstanding. Bing will be happy with the RR, some real beauties I will try to sell some of my bugs to free up a bit of cash, right now I am tapped out of my coin piggy bank, but then the guys hunting for treasure at Oak Island would have fun at my place.
I have been saving up money all year and I will be attending both this auction as well as the NYIC Show. I hope that I will be able to meet some of my fellow Coin Talkers there PS this is the coin that wiped out my Triton XX budget. After getting this I was basically a spectator. Metapontion Stater Johnston C 2.2 330-290 B.C. I like to call this coin "Calendar Girl"
So many cool coins there, but why is there such a difference in prices between the "Printed Auction" coins and the "eAuction" coins? I saw a lot of higher grade coins in the Printed Auction listings, for sure, but some that weren't all that different from the eAuction coins. Of course, that's seeing them with newbie eyes, too. Here's a direct link to the auctions: https://www.cngcoins.com/Default.aspx
You will learn that "higher grade" often means "much higher price." This fact is very significant for the very most desirable top coins. For many of us the price difference between the coins we buy and slightly better coins is not very much. But, for the best coins of any given type, the difference between excellent and even better than that can be multiples. Those of us on a limited budget (and that may be all of us) need to decide whether to buy one super coin or three very nice coins. Many of us go for the three. Some go for the one best. To each his own.
That makes sense - thanks for the explanation. Sometimes it's a good thing to be on a very limited budget, because I'm constantly seeing coins that make my head spin.
While I do not disagree with Valentinian's explanation, we have to remember that there is nothing more futile than trying to make sense out of auction results. A better coin of the same type that sold for big money in sale #1 may bring half that in sale #2. When two people with money want a coin, it goes high. When one of them skips the sale for some reason, the coin might go for opening price. When there are three known examples of a coin but only two people present who care (the two who own the other two examples), a great rarity can go unsold. It even makes a difference in what order coins are offered in the same sale. If there is a very special coin that several bidders want coming later in the sale, some bidders may be conservative saving money so they can bid wildly. That might lessen the demand for earlier lots. On the other hand, all those who lost an earlier lot for which they hoped to spend the big money might decide to bid up something later just so they don't go home empty handed. These are people. No one said they must make sense.
This is very true. I've wanted to write a melodramatic essay on "The Lamentations of Lot Sequencing". There have been times when I have a budget-consuming bid in the Roman section and have to skip the Greek section entirely, only to watch coins sell for far less than I would have paid. Obviously I don't know what the winner was willing to pay and I may have still been outbid but it stings. An idealized system would involve all collectors giving their bid levels and maximum overall bids upfront as well as a personalized measure of priority. It would then be a matter of applying a linear optimization function... but this is the engineer in me being optimistic and unrealistic about the real world.
It's what you have in mail bid sales : you can priorize your bids in whichever order you like, give a maximum bid for each offer, and a maximum amount you don't want to go over Q
I both scratch my head in bafflement and tip my hat in respect to people like you. Save money? All year? Alas, the concept is utterly alien to me. I suppose some of us are Aesopian ants and some are grasshoppers who fiddle away their funds on today's fancies rather than save for tomorrow's (or next year's) big purchase. There is little doubt about the grasshopper DNA in my genes. I get itchy if four to six weeks pass without a purchase, usually.
I agree! With many European Auctions like Rauch/ Kunker/ Sincona you can give the auction firm your maximum spending allowance. Thus, for example you have 12K max. expenditure with firm. You can then bid on more lots. As soon as you have reached your spending limit, the auctionhouse then will cancel any other bids. I asked CNG for this perk, but they would not allow me to place multiple bids with a spending max. Then with firms like Stacks/Bowers you can overspend/ then pay over 4 months.....this is also a great idea. In the past, it was easier to budget, since there was no sixbid site. I used to only get a CNG catalogue for Triton I etc in Dec., so I saved up all year to go after a FDC aureus/ solidi.
I have not bought a coin since the first week in May. Before that I bought 8 coins in one auction but that same seller has a sale currently open but none of my bids were close enough to the lead to make me even consider raising them. I have a coin show to attend in September which will determine whether my 2019 total will even be 1/3 of my average for the preceding 5 years. It all averages out. Maybe I am over the hobby. Maybe everyone is spending more this summer and will let me back in later. Time will tell.
I have had a good year so far, adding 37 AV coins since January. I guess hard work does pay off in end Off to cut some grass..... John
