First European Auction Results and feedback.

coffeyce

I took a leap and decided to bid on 2 different European auction houses. I have never really done so before with exception of the local heritage auction in Hong Kong some years back. I found the process not too hard and was pleased with items available.

All in all it was a great experience and I will definitely enjoy more in the future

I obtained 4 from the First and two from the other.

I rarely buy coins already graded but took a leap.

My first example from this occupation colony.

The price was right on this one.

This one I really liked but will have to see the professional review of our host concerning the counterstamp.

This piece was a must have for me. Its a really hammered and beautiful example.

I was surprised this one went so cheap (but i'm very glad it did) as many other examples sold for a much higher rate.

(Edited for wording)

Bob13

How do the coins appear in hand vs. the auction pictures? Were you happy when they showed up?

neildrobertson

What were the two auction houses? What were their shipping fees? Shipping fees tend to be the most cryptic thing and you can rarely learn what they are ahead of time.

coffeyce

@Bob13 said:
How do the coins appear in hand vs. the auction pictures? Were you happy when they showed up?

I haven't got them in hand yet but I will sure post pictures for you when I get them.

coffeyce

@neildrobertson said:
What were the two auction houses? What were their shipping fees? Shipping fees tend to be the most cryptic thing and you can rarely learn what they are ahead of time.

Yea they don't really post shipping fees. The heritage Auction was going to cost me about $64 usd and I was lucky to be local and picked them up for free. Was a win win.

Chris

YQQ

Recently paid Euro 42 for shipping from Germany to Canada for 3 coins.
took 26 days to get here. Plus they charged 4% if using a CC or PP.
looks like i was their first PP user as they had no idea how to handle it. They Tried to charge me extra for eventually getting their Euros from PP to their bank. However, I had to enlighten them.
so Guys, be careful...when paying your bill to European auction houses.
They said Insurance is included in the shipping cost.
In Britain it is even worse with some of them. Shipping can be astronomical as most houses farm shipping and packing out to a probably wholly owned (by them) ( or at least with whom they have a very cosy relationship) sub contractor with some hefty fees. It usually also involves "pick up and collection" charges. Looking at up to 32% Juice for the actual items, it is a serious "rip off" or milder said, taking advantage of a situation.
Buyer beware!!

coffeyce

YQQ, thanks for the input. This auction had PP listed on the site with no extra fees I was impressed to say the least. Not sure how long shipping will take. I believe I paid 15-17% premium so it wasn't to awful bad as some go past 22%

Chris

Timbuk3

Love that gold Japan 1 yen, congratulations !!!

coffeyce

@Timbuk3 said:
Love that gold Japan 1 yen, congratulations !!!

thank you I appreciate that. I tend to like little gold Coins. China didn't have to many gold coins in the area I collect. I wanted the 2 Yen gold coin with the dragon but it was double the price of this one.

Stork

@coffeyce Isn't it fun to see how many cool coins are for sale around the world--one European auction house occasionally has some nice Japanese minors, and I've gotten two of my favorite Albanian coins from Japan. Go figure

For paying I generally use Paypal and once they get accustomed to it it's usually easy. The tacked on fees suck a bit, but then again they have to get covered. At my price points the fees are almost always lower than an international bank wire fee. That said I'm looking into the other options mentioned recently on the board with Xoom (Paypal but cheaper) or Transferwise (still debating about giving all my info to a newer company, but will probably give them a try anyway).

The only thing I'm worried about is that (and I hope it's the photo) but that one yen looks like it's the high dot variety. The low dot is a bit more difficult to obtain --and is more costly, so I'm also hoping you got it for the high dot price.

coffeyce

It sure does look like the high dot. I only paid 410 which would be around the auction value for the high dot.

Stork

That's good! The nice thing about an auction, everyone recognized it. PCGS is excellent about fixing mechanical errors on the labels (I've only had a couple, but they were excellent!).

coffeyce

@Stork said:
@coffeyce Isn't it fun to see how many cool coins are for sale around the world--one European auction house occasionally has some nice Japanese minors, and I've gotten two of my favorite Albanian coins from Japan. Go figure

For paying I generally use Paypal and once they get accustomed to it it's usually easy. The tacked on fees suck a bit, but then again they have to get covered. At my price points the fees are almost always lower than an international bank wire fee. That said I'm looking into the other options mentioned recently on the board with Xoom (Paypal but cheaper) or Transferwise (still debating about giving all my info to a newer company, but will probably give them a try anyway).

The only thing I'm worried about is that (and I hope it's the photo) but that one yen looks like it's the high dot variety. The low dot is a bit more difficult to obtain --and is more costly, so I'm also hoping you got it for the high dot price.

I agree many cool coins. I really wanted this 1870 2 Yen example but it was a little out of my price range as I bought several other items. The dragon is so much like the Chinese Qing Dynasty dragon. The high price is probably why it went unsold. They wanted MS62 price plus the juice.