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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 2215632, member: 39084&quot;]I&#039;m looking at the results from Heritage&#039;s Roman Republican and Roman Imperial coins and the results look pretty strong -- almost all sold for well over their (lowball) estimate/starting price.&nbsp; Only three lots unsold, and maybe these were estimated too high.</p><p><br /></p><p>Auctions can be high-variance events.&nbsp; If two or more buyers get caught up in a bidding frenzy, the final price might bear no resemblance to the future value of a coin, at least not for many years.&nbsp; Mediocre coins with high estimates usually don&#039;t fool the kinds of bidders who frequent these auctions.&nbsp; On the other hand, very high quality coins usually shine at such auctions, especially if the auction house aggressively markets those coins to its known customers.</p><p><br /></p><p>I also wonder about the lowballing of starting prices and/or estimates.&nbsp; Take this example at the upcoming Kunker auction:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]433417[/ATTACH] This has a ridiculously low starting price of 40,000 Euros despite the fact that it sold at the January 2009 Lanz auction for $105,000 plus 15% buyer&#039;s fee!&nbsp; This is clearly a $150,000+ coin, but the starting price is low to encourage a lot of bidding and excitement.&nbsp; I&#039;ll be surprised if it fetches less than $200K, but we&#039;ll see.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s always best to set a budget whenever you venture into any auction for any level of coin, and be prepared to be a little flexible but not excitable.&nbsp; I&#039;ve won a number of bargains with this approach, but lost more than a few that ended up 3x - 5x time my maximum bid, and 8x - 10x times the estimate.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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