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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;AncientJoe, post: 1991968, member: 44357&quot;]I agree, and IdesofMarch01&#039;s post is completely accurate. As a side note: I&#039;ve heard some dealers talking about the first sestertius you posted (the ex. Dr. Patrick Tan collection coin) and they said it is of sub-par quality but photographs well. Apparently that occurred for many of his coins and he lost a fair amount of money when reselling so soon as he bought very aggressively. I don&#039;t think it&#039;s indicative of a shift in the market. The Titus sestertii are another interesting one: in your previous thread, the coin Doug linked to <i>does </i>have an intriguing portrait style, but is it justifiable of such a higher price? That&#039;s hard to say for me...</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ll post a couple of anecdotal examples from my own purchasing in the last few years. I usually try to avoid writing prices but I&#039;ll include them here (they&#039;re all easily searchable anyway):</p><p><br /></p><p>I bought this stater of Alexander the Great privately for $12,500, not in an NGC holder and without any superlatives like &quot;among the finest known&quot; written.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/AncientJoe/Alexander_zps9dc1d26c.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s a beautiful coin and most of the known examples of this type are in a high grade but Heritage sold one less than 12 hours after I bought mine which was a bit worse but in an NGC Ch MS 5/5 holder... for $41K! I was shocked at that price but even worse, I&#039;ve found it for sale now privately for considerably more! This, along with other data, leads me to believe that some people look just for the high graded NGC slabs and pay significant premiums because of what the slab says.</p><p><br /></p><p>My Eid Mar denarius is an interesting one as it was sold right when two others sold:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/AncientJoe/EidMar_zps68c8605b.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Lanz is generally much less attended than auction houses like NAC and that definitely factored in to the price. People go to NAC and expect to pay strong prices and there are usually many high-end coins in a single sale, which attracts more bidders. There were only a few dealers in attendance at Lanz and the photographs of the coin were quite bad but should it have sold for only $260K when this coin sold for $160K a few days earlier at NAC?</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/AncientJoe/1197830l_zpsc3cde183.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The price of the NAC coin is unfathomable considering the quality (or lack thereof), but it only takes two bidders to establish a price...</p><p><br /></p><p>More specifically to bronze coins now, I purchased my Colosseum sestertius through Heritage but the sale was very poorly attended and their photographs were quite atrocious: (admittedly, it is a hard coin to photograph well but these newer pictures I&#039;ve taken capture it accurately)</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/AncientJoe/Colosseum_zps6b3282c1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I was willing to go a fair amount higher and was very surprised to have won it, for under 2x the estimate ($145K in total). There were very few bidders and I&#039;ve had several dealers say that if it had been sold at a popular NAC sale, it would easily cost 200K CHF.</p><p><br /></p><p>But, Heritage is certainly not always less expensive, further evidenced by this dekadrachm:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/AncientJoe/A_zps380b2ff3.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>It is by far the most expensive unsigned dekadrachm to ever sell (just at this ANA show as well). It was in an NGC AU* holder and is indeed quite fantastic, but it cost $340K, which is a staggering price. I would have paid $150K for it and was seriously considering it as many thought it wouldn&#039;t progress past the opening price, although that was already strong.</p><p><br /></p><p>This sale was well advertised and this coin in particular had articles written about it, had dealers talking about it, and really created a &quot;buzz&quot; when it was sold.</p><p><br /></p><p>Prices vary within the same auction house from sale to sale as well. This coin failed to sell at Roma in 2012 for 5000 GBP but I had to pay 11000 GBP to acquire it earlier this year:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/AncientJoe/Sikyon_zpscb5c6ca4.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, I acquired my other main bronze coin recently at NAC and I happily set a record price for it (not adjusting for inflation or appreciation of earlier examples). Port of Ostia sestertii are fairly available but after seeing it in person, this one was quite worth the price in my eyes:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/AncientJoe/NewOstia_zps306b7e7d.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>So, in the end, it depends on a handful of factors: what auction house a coin is sold in, what other coins are sold at that auction, what the market and dealers are saying about a particular coin, what the auction house says about the coin (finest known, etc.), what the photographs look like, and, finally, what the actual coin looks like.</p><p><br /></p><p>Personally, I don&#039;t think nice bronze coins are in a freefall - quite the opposite. I have also heard that many big bidders (Russian billionaires in particular) have stayed away from bronze coins so far, so it&#039;s very possible that prices could climb substantially if they enter the market.</p><p><br /></p><p>I suspect that the prices realized at the upcoming JDL Collection Part II will be earthshattering. It does make it difficult to determine prices when there are so many variables, but the challenge makes it enjoyable![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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