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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Burton Strauss III, post: 2129034, member: 59677&quot;]The first of the coins - the semi-key in PCGS XF-40 - went up for auction on April 7th at Heritage&#039;s Tuesday/Sunday Internet auction.</p><p><br /></p><p>These are interesting sales. Mostly mid-priced items - there were a couple that sold for $2 or $3 (plus $15 minimum bidders premium) - one lot at $17, two at $18, five lots at 2K+, 1 @ 3290 and 1 @ 4700.</p><p><br /></p><p>When you watch the live auction, HA replays the prebids and then pauses seeing if there is phone/internet interest. Some lots sell with no further bids, many attract several bids. Above $100, they allow a cut-bid (half increment) once per bidder per auction.</p><p><br /></p><p>What I&#039;ve observed is that if there is more than minimal interest, the lot usually sells above the final pre-bid and so I decided not to put in a nuclear prebid and watch the sale.</p><p><br /></p><p>The live platform gives you a lot of information, including the bid, next bid, a cut button (if available) count downs, when the lot is closing and sold. There&#039;s no audio or video, so sometimes it feels like a early 90s web page where somebody just found out about font colors and the &lt;BLINK&gt; tag.</p><p><br /></p><p>HA gives you a lot of data on the listing page including good photos, population and several price guides... quoting:</p><p><br /></p><p>Price Guide*</p><p>Grade Coin World (Coin Values) | Numismedia Retail | Numismedia Wholesale | Heritage Value Index | NGC Price Guide | NGC+ | PCGS Price Guide | PCGS+ | CCE SS/SU</p><p>35 --- $153 $128 $95-$125 --- --- $125 --- $100/$35&nbsp; </p><p>40 $200 $192 $160 $130-$165 $180 $202 $200 --- $145/$40&nbsp; </p><p>45 --- $217 $181 $145-$190 --- --- $240 $245 $155/$60</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>*All information listed is intended to be as accurate as possible, but errors are possible. No item may be returned or refused based on this information which is provided as a service to our customers. You should contact each pricing source directly to determine the accuracy of this information.</p><p><br /></p><p>So I guess you could say FMV for me as a retail buyer was 190-200$&nbsp; 130$ would be a steal.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can gauge interest by the # of bidders and views:</p><p>&nbsp; Item Activity:&nbsp; 5 Internet/mail bidders&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp; 96 page views </p><p><br /></p><p>From the giant sided photos it looks like a good solid strike (rare for this coin) with a small scuff on the slab. i.e. pretty desirable.</p><p><br /></p><p>The leading prebid was 180 (IIRC 150, 160, 170 and 180 were the bids shown during the auction).</p><p><br /></p><p>At 180, the increment is $10.</p><p>Somebody cut bid to 185 and was quickly overbid to 190</p><p><br /></p><p>As I was waiting for the clock to count down to 5s, somebody bid 200. Increments are now $20.</p><p><br /></p><p>I quickly cut bid and then time ran out...</p><p><br /></p><p>I never saw the end-of-sale page, it blinked right over to the next lot...</p><p><br /></p><p>I flipped to the listing page which told me nothing. Oh think I - refresh. So I refreshed and there are the magic words: &quot;You won this lot for $210.00 ($246.75 w/Buyer&#039;s Premium), with a secret maximum bid of $210.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>If you&#039;ve stuck with me this long, then you now have more than enough information to figure out what coin&#039;s I&#039;m talking about...</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The second coin, the key in NGC XF went up for sale @ David Lawrence last night (12April). David Lawrence&#039;s auctions are a little more sedate than Heritage. There is a count down clock, a box with the current bid, and a box to place a bid.</p><p><br /></p><p>The opening bid was $230, and I bid 255.01 on 1April. I then sat and watched the daily emails, where I was the leading bidder each night. Friday night somebody bid 240, so my 250 was still leading. And there it sat. With about 5m to go I panicked and put in a higher bid. And watched the clock. At the end of the auction, a page displayed with what looked like a winning bid $1 over my limit.</p><p><br /></p><p>To say I was less than pleased was an understatement.</p><p><br /></p><p>It must have been a glitch, or still showing the bid at least number, because when I checked the auction, the final bid was $250 - and that&#039;s what DLRC put in the email.</p><p>So there&#039;s the quest...</p><p><br /></p><p>1851 - 1862/1 3 Cent Silver in XF.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now there are only about 6-7 DDOs RPDs etc. that NGC/PCGS recognize. And about 20 more in &quot;The Authoritative Reference on Three Cent Silver Coins&quot; by Kevin Flynn and Winston Zack. And the 1863-1872s which were minted in only trivial numbers of business strikes and largely melted in 1873. Which is why officially my set cuts off at 1862.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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