http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...663106&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_594wt_1139 I bid $276.00 in the last seconds of the auction thinking it would be a nice addition to my type set, then it shot up to $1,050.00???? So what's so special about this $2.5 liberty? :kewl:
I'm not a gold collector, so I can't really say. The photos look strange. From the brighter pair, the surface of the obverse looks odd, but from the darker pair, the entire surface looks uniform which may make it worthy of a higher grade. I also noted that the winning bidder had "0" feedback up to this point, but the losing bidder whose max was $1K has more than 4,000 feedback. Something doesn't sit right with that picture. Shill perhaps? Chris
Could be. I clicked on the zero bidder's "history" and he appears to be bidding on many different gold items in the last few hours. I wonder if the 4000 feedback guy is thanking his lucky stars he didn't get stuck with a $300 coin for $1,000?
I'm thinking the losing bidder might be the shill. Prior to his bid, the highest bid was a little over $400. Why would someone with 4,000+ feedback bid 2-3 higher than the coin is worth? Chris
If the high bidder thinks it will grade MS64 then he bid accordingly. Even if it comes back a MS63 he may break even. Any grade lower than those would be wasteful spending. The 1878 is one of the highest mintage years at 286,240 pieces made. Myself, I would never go half that much on a raw coin.
:bigeyes:Heres my only explanation, I used bid something astronomical like that with the mindset that it would never even come close to that price. Just a way to ensure I won the item. What happend to this guy is what I always feared. Two people that used the same technique.
I've used this technique with one modification. My over the top bid is always an amount that makes me not care whether I win or lose if the coin is a grade worse than it appears. I get burned when it's more than a grade off what I think I see in the photos.
