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Message:: [QUOTE="IdesOfMarch01, post: 1883640, member: 39084"]Actually, you need to bid 16 2/3% less.  E.g., if your budget is $100, you can bid up to $83.33 since 20% of $83.33 = $16.67 so your total is $100. It's absolutely true that auctions can be quirky and volatile.  There can be bargains out there -- a Roman AR quadrigatus that sold at a 2013 Goldberg auction for less than $4,000 was just recently sold at retail by CNG for $9,500.  But it's also easy to get caught up in a bidding war and overbid for a coin that isn't all that unique. In general, though, auctions remain the only avenue by which one can acquire very scarce or rare coins, such as a Julius Caesar aureus or a Colosseum sestertius.  No dealer is going to buy one of these for his/her private catalog and hold onto it until the right buyer comes along.  If a dealer isn't buying one of these coins specifically as an agent for a collector, then the dealer likely has a specific client in mind that he knows for certain will purchase the coin from him. Personally, I have no issues with buyer's premiums per se, although I do think some of them are getting usuriously high (e.g., 21.5%).  At some point a high buyer's premium will have a negative impact on the hammer price for a coin, and sellers will suffer.  In theory, this is a self-correcting process.[/QUOTE]