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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3561122, member: 75937&quot;]I concur with [USER=44316]@Valentinian[/USER] &#039;s point that the buyer&#039;s commission should be easy to find among the auction house&#039;s terms and conditions, but I don&#039;t understand various posters&#039; concern that this commission is excessive or exists at all. You simply take into account the commission, the PayPal fees, the currency exchange fees and postage when buying the coin. For auctions in Europe, the final price I pay as a US collector is typically 1.5x to 1.6x the hammer price. A coin that hammers for 80 Euro will cost me, when all is said and done, about $120-125. Too expensive? Then don&#039;t bid.</p><p><br /></p><p>After a while, you learn to interpret a given seller&#039;s photos, too. Many auction houses use high-intensity, diffuse light to display the coin&#039;s details, washing out the color of toning or patina. After a while, you get to where you can anticipate what the coin will look like in hand.</p><p><br /></p><p>Savoca&#039;s photo:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]946797[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>My photo in natural sunlight better conveys its actual appearance:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]946798[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Pegasi&#039;s photo:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]946799[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>My photo in natural sunlight:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]946800[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Frank Robinson&#039;s photo:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]946801[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>My photo in sunlight:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]946802[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>My only real complaint with any auction house is that shared by [USER=56859]@TIF[/USER] earlier -- that auction companies that sell a lot of slabbed material (Great Collections, Heritage, etc) should make it easier to see the COIN, not the label on the slab (which I could care less about because the empty slab and its label will go into the trash can about 5 minutes after the coin arrives in the mail).</p><p><br /></p><p>As with any endeavor, there&#039;s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to buying at auction and some lessons are (best?) learned the hard way. Auctions are a good way to buy coins but you have to familiarize yourself with how they work and anticipate what the coins will cost beyond the hammer price and anticipate what the coins will look like in-hand.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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