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Overbidding mistakes: they happen, you learn

One came up on auction from a seller I trusted, and so I
placed a high bid, thinking no one would match it and I just might steal the
coin in an online estate venue where many gold buyers treat collectible coins
like bullion. They look up the bullion price and bid retail.
I admit I checked auction and eBay values for the coin
pictured above and bid $2,250.
I made two errors. Gold does fluctuate in value, and you
have to take that into account when checking sale prices on Coin Values or
Heritage Archives. I admit, in this case, I didn’t do that. I just looked at retail
value and did a quick check on eBay, seeing recent sales of the No Motto Wells
Fargo Saint Gauden’s coin above $3,000. Here’s
an example.
The 1908 No Motto Saint is a fairly common coin with a
mintage of 4,271,551; but the Wells Fargo hoard provenance and the old green
holder add a premium. The 9,900 coins found in one of the company’s Las Vegas
banks were spectacular coins, with PCGS grading 101 of them as Mint State 68
and 10 at MS-69. See
David Hall’s description in PCGS CoinFacts.
Here’s the second mistake: I didn’t check coin retailers
like APMEX where a similar coin at the same grade in the coveted old green holder
retailed at $2,295 (by check) and $2,390 (by PayPal).
Well, you guessed it. Someone at the online auction wanted the
coin almost as much as I did and probably had the same strategy in mind, but I
won it with my top bid. Now add the 18% buyer’s fee, and the price of my coin
totals $2,655.
In other words, by not checking bulk and wholesale coin
dealers before placing my bid, I lost $360.
This is what happens when you make a mistake (or two) in
online bidding. Learn from mine.