Nice to know it happens to other collectors besides me...,,

Check-out these two...,, the bidders must have been having some sort of Ambien driven psychotic episode.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Latvia-FINEST-KNOWN-POPULATION-OF-ONLY-1-1931-5-Lati-NGC-MS-65-/201045866107

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1953-SOUTHE...NIAL-MS65-NGC-GRADE-SILVER-COIN-/301060348706

By the next day they must have been babbling incoherently to themselves, "I, I, I, --No, NO! N000000000000000000OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

 

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Wow, that 5 Lati is so clean and shiny, that it doesn't even look real. I'll take my ungraded toner any day of the week, over that one.

 

no way would I ever pay $500+ for it.

 

no way would I ever pay $500+ for either of those coins.

 

Those prices are pretty darn ridiculous.

 

Those buyers aren't collecting coins - they're collecting registry points. Those sort of hammer prices aren't unusual or even very high when it comes to top pop registry slabs.

 

Cannot imagine paying over $500 for a coin that appears to have possibly been dipped and perhaps wiped. I have an AU example of the 5 lati that looks better.

 

It always makes me suspicious of sellers when they make the bidders "private."

 

All bidders are private on eBay now.

 

What does FINEST KNOWN POPULATION OF ONLY 1 mean ?
Is this because its the best one ever slabbed. ?
There must be many hundreds if not thousands elsewhere in the world unslabbed and in better condition.
Guide price is $40 in Unc, seems folks have blown cash on spin and plastic.

 

It means NGC hasn't assigned a higher grade to a coin of this type, and there's only one coin that has that grade. And yes, it's definitely blowing cash on spin and plastic. I had a registry set for a while until I realized the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes.

 

The 5 Lati is at least slightly scarce in gem, maybe $125 coin. The Cecil Rhodes coin is a $40 coin in 65, about as common as they get. Maybe $60 in MS66. The registry set thing doesn't really apply on most of these foreign crowns because there isn't any competition for the set. Pretty easy to have the finest known set when it's the only one registered.

At the other extreme, check this one out. About a $1500 coin I would have thought...,,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1927R-VI-NGC-MS-65-TWENTY-20-LIRE-ITALY-HIGH-GRADE-/151209803324

 

Yeah, you're right princeofwaldo. I don't see a Latvian category in the NGC registry. Maybe somebody's putting together a custom set, or just really really wanted that coin. Either way, they've got deeper pockets that me!

 

That is a beautiful coin.

 

You are incorrect.
Private bidder listings look like this:




Obscured bidder listings look like this (and this is true for all auctions unless the seller specified otherwise):



--------------------------------------------------

The difference is a BIG one, because on the obscured bidder auction I can still click on the hyperlink to the bidder and see their potential shill bidding and activity with that particular seller (without actually knowing the bidders eBay handle). When a seller makes their bidder's information private, that is suspicious in my opinion.

 

Ah. I see. I didn't know there was a distinction until you pointed it out. I don't even know how to make my bidders private, but I wouldn't do it anyway. You're right - it reeks of subterfuge.