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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;robinjojo, post: 7894260, member: 110226&quot;]Over the years that I have dealt with Harlan Berk, I can say that most of the purchases were at the estimate price.&nbsp; I did have some Roman bronzes that were won through the bidding process, back in the 80s, but they are long gone, so I don&#039;t have any specific information.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was one instance were a Roman Republic anonymous Aes Grave was sold.&nbsp; I called Aaron Berk about this coin, and he told me that they others of the same type.&nbsp; So I purchased one at the same estimate price for that buy/bid sale, at $600 as I recall.&nbsp; That was back in the mid-90s.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know if they still offer replacements for sold lots.&nbsp; My very first classical owl was purchased from HJB the same way, back in antediluvian times.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1362601[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve been generally pleased with my transactions.&nbsp; HBJ does, for the most part, list their coins at pretty healthy estimates, and the firm has been around for decades, selling high-end coins at the same level as CNG.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have noticed that the estimates for the Byzantine bronze coins in the current&nbsp; are really very high, even for fairly common types.&nbsp; I know that Harlan Berk is an expert in this field, so perhaps the estimates reflect actual scarcity and desirability of a given coin.&nbsp; Also, I guess these estimates reflect the growing demand for these coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, I have seen some coins listed at grades that seem a bit of a stretch.&nbsp; I know that grading is subjective, and can vary from person to person and firm to firm, but there is one coin in the current sale, a Bactrian imitation owl, that is listed as EF, but was previously listed and sold as a VF, with cleaning marks, through CNG.&nbsp; I am inclined to agree with the CNG grade, perhaps going a tad higher, as a good VF.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for their photos, the images with both sides seem washed out.&nbsp; The enlargements of the individual sides are better.&nbsp; As far as the videos are concerned, it&#039;s a mixed bag.&nbsp; The lighting that they use when producing the video can be at variance to the light for the images.&nbsp; One sestertius in the sale, touted as having a blue-green patina, comes across as a much darker green, with some blue, in the video.&nbsp; However, I think the video is a nice feature, but both images and the video need to be taken into account when evaluating a coin for purchase or bidding.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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