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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gsimonel, post: 2936315, member: 82549&quot;]A cautionary tale: Don&#039;t respond to outbid notifications at work.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was pleased to learn that I had won a lot of 92 ancient coins on the most recent VAuction. That is, until I saw the bill: $730 + 15% for the lot pictured below.</p><p><img src="http://d2w5cfiodjdjxn.cloudfront.net/328/109999LG.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Wait a minute. $730? That&#039;s more than I have in my PayPal account. My PayPal account is my budget; I never bid more than my balance. Surely there must be a mistake.</p><p><br /></p><p>Oops. There was: mine.</p><p><br /></p><p>I finally figured out what happened. Originally I bid $110, which was $10 over the estimate. Then, checking my email at work between classes, I read a notice saying I&#039;d been overbid. I&#039;m always pressed for time at work--never know when another screaming hoard of 5th graders will swarm into the room demanding to learn more science--so I was not as careful as I should have been when I attempted to raise my bid to $180. Turns out I actually bid $110,180! So it could have been a lot worse, I guess.</p><p><br /></p><p>But apparently <i>somebody</i> must have bid up the lot to over $700, too, so he or she must have seen something in there that caught their imagination. I can see a Severina and a Constantine SPQR OPTIMO . . . and what looks like an interesting Greek bronze at the lower right, but nothing really outstanding.</p><p><br /></p><p>Any guesses what inspired the second-highest bidder to go 7 times the estimate?</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, can anyone point me to a good sight to learn more about those three Hunnic drachms in the photo? Are those countermarks on the rims of the two upper ones?</p><p><br /></p><p>And if anyone else has a story like this, I&#039;d be interesting in hearing it. Did it turn out okay? Or am I the only one to pull a bone-headed stunt like this?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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