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Have any of you ever gotten really lucky at underbidding? I sometimes underbid things hoping that I

TheLiberatorTheLiberator Posts: 1,023 ✭✭✭
in U.S. Coin Forum
...but I haven't gotten lucky yet. Now, I don't mean a coin you have been after awhile or anything. I mean do you ever see a coin that is nice and you think "Yeah...that is a 1000 dollar coin. If I could nab it for 700, that would be nice."? If so, have you ever bid and won something like that? Inquiring minds want to know!

For instance, I saw a really nice barber half recently and put in a bid that was probaly 300 too low. I don't think I'll stand a chance of winning it, but it was prettty much an impulse underbid. You see, siince i am a type collector, I figure I could just troll and troll in addition to making smart bids on coins I really want but I won't waste my time if this never yeilds anything. Anyone else have any luck doing this?





Comments

  • RYKRYK Posts: 35,797 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have done it and never been lucky with a lowball bid. Efficient market and all that...
    My Box of 20: https://pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/box-20/ryks-gold-box-20/17132
  • ajcajc Posts: 226
    I was thinking that I was just not lucky...no it has never happened to me.
  • relayerrelayer Posts: 10,570 ✭

    That only happens when I'm the Seller
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  • MercuryMercury Posts: 1,052 ✭✭✭✭
    I have tried, but....no luck
    Collecting Peace Dollars and Modern Crap.
  • RussRuss Posts: 48,514 ✭✭✭
    A couple of times I've picked up good bargains with lowball bids. Most of the time, though, I just get sniped by the zillions of bloodhounds crawling around the auction venues with the sole purpose of making sure I never get anything decent. (Marty is the leader).

    Russ, NCNE
    eBay consignment sales | | Collectibles from Resco CCC
  • ElcontadorElcontador Posts: 7,523 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I wouldn't call them lowball bids, but I have gotten two coins for less than my max bid in the last three years. One was an attractively toned 1899 Liberty Nickel in PC 6 (MS) that I got for type money ($250 less than my max bid), and the other was an attractive 1883 Shield Nickel in NGC 6 that I got for $150 less than the max bid).

    I have been the underbidder far more often than I actually got the coin.
    "Vou invadir o Nordeste,
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  • CameonutCameonut Posts: 7,293 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Never really been lucky at lowball bids - have tried a number of times.

    I once won a $5 item for $1 if that counts. image

    “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson

    My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!

  • BigGreekBigGreek Posts: 1,090 ✭
    I've cherrypicked raw coins and even one or two undergraded slabbed coins.
    These are typically coins with poor pictures or presentation which turn out to
    be nice coins. I picked up a '41 Walker for about $30 shipped, which I think
    may get me my first 66 Walker submission (its in at PCGS right now). I also
    grabbed a coin which had obvious PVC residue for about $25 (a '46-S Walker).
    Came back 65 in my last submission. But, to find these I had to pour through
    a ton of listings and also had to accept some overgraded coins.


    image
    Please check out my eBay auctions!
    My WLH Short Set Registry Collection
  • DNADaveDNADave Posts: 7,271 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm proud as hell of this buy so I'll show it again. Sorry if its getting old.

    Take a second to compare the Aution pics and the pics of the coin after I got it. I just got the Fax back from ANACS with the grade and its a MS64 imageimageimage I'll post the pics of the coin again after I get it back.

    Here is the picture given in the feebay acution. The seller stated in the auction.....

    "I am not a coin dealer so grading is based on my personal opinion using an old issue(1970) of a photograde guide, so please look at the pictures, judge for yourself and bid accordingly."

    I won it for $73.00.auction link

    image

    The coin arrive in packageing that was less than desirable. It was not in any type of holder but was in a piece of scrap plastic that was crudely taped closed.

    I believe this coin spent most of its life in a paper coin envelope. It has plenty of luster under the heavy tone and I would grade it AU58.
    Would anybody go Unc on it? To me, its a guaranteed original, never messed with.

    image


    image


  • KurtHornKurtHorn Posts: 1,382 ✭
    No I haven't but it sure has worked in reverse. Like the full steps nickel from a few weeks ago that I ended up selling for $2.68 or something like that. I usually put reserves on things to prevent that, but I didn't remember or didn't feel it was worth it or necessary. Heck I have some ANACS MS 63 Walkers on right now that are going for like 99 cents with two days to go.
    "Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner
    NoEbayAuctionsForNow
  • WhaleWhale Posts: 73 ✭
    You already took the time to look at the auction and determine the coin's value, so placing a cheap bid takes only a few seconds more. Just make sure you scrutinize the auction as carefully as you would any other auction you'd normally bid on. Make sure you don't overextend your funds by bidding on more than you can afford if you happen to win a few you weren't planning on.
  • bgricebgrice Posts: 1,180
    Auction Sniper is pretty cool for stuff like that. I've found a few coins that I have tossed up lowball bids on as soon as I saw them(7 days to go) and then just walked away. If my bid is too low it never gets placed, so no loss. If I win I get a serious bargain. Ended up winning a ICG MS61 1920 walker for $120.00. I cracked it out and sent it in to NGC who graded it MS62. Sold it for $465.00.

    Note: I've gotten more *Your bid is too low* e-mails from Auction Sniper than *You've Won!* ones.image
  • DeadhorseDeadhorse Posts: 3,720 ✭
    Yes, but only because I could see something through a bad picture. I'm sure most bidders just moved on and I've grabbed a couple of nice end roll toners from people who didn't generally sell coins on Feebay. I also grabbed a batch of raw Walkers for a tad over spot a couple years ago that all graded 63 to 65.

    It's rare, you can either get lucky or spend tons of hours, but it is possible.


    I think Russ once sold one or more older mint sets for less than the original price, so it does happen.
    "Lenin is certainly right. There is no subtler or more severe means of overturning the existing basis of society(destroy capitalism) than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."
    John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff
  • DMWJRDMWJR Posts: 6,006 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>...but I haven't gotten lucky yet. Now, I don't mean a coin you have been after awhile or anything. I mean do you ever see a coin that is nice and you think "Yeah...that is a 1000 dollar coin. If I could nab it for 700, that would be nice."? If so, have you ever bid and won something like that? Inquiring minds want to know!

    For instance, I saw a really nice barber half recently and put in a bid that was probaly 300 too low. I don't think I'll stand a chance of winning it, but it was prettty much an impulse underbid. You see, siince i am a type collector, I figure I could just troll and troll in addition to making smart bids on coins I really want but I won't waste my time if this never yeilds anything. Anyone else have any luck doing this? >>



    Keep doing that over and over and eventually you will hit on a coin or two. If you are sure you know the market, you will pick up a few bucks here and there.
    Doug
  • DMWJRDMWJR Posts: 6,006 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's rare, you can either get lucky or spend tons of hours, but it is possible

    This is part of the fun of it for me. I never have too many bids out there that I can't make all of them at one time. I have quite a collection of coins I need to sell now, but I keep watching the market climb for these coins. I'm sure I'll cash them in sometime.
    Doug
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,966 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Years ago when I was working on my Massachusettts Civl War token collection, I threw in a "cover bid" in an auction for a Sam's Inn piece that was about $400. At the time I figured that I needed to bid $500 to $550 to really have a chance at getting the item. I won it in the acution at the $400 bid. Today I could sell that token for well over $1,000. Yes, cover bids can work sometimes if no one else in the room is looking for something and it "slips througn."
    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • PrethenPrethen Posts: 3,452 ✭✭✭
    I won an 1878 3CN NGC PF65 for PF64 Ask money that normally I had no right to win. That proof only coin rarely even comes up for sale and when it does it goes for above CDN (not always, but usually). In fact, I paid less than my max bid. The coin is a beautiful blue toner on top of it with a shot at Cameo. That was a bit of luck. The pictures of the coin were not the greatest (see below) and I took a chance.

    image
    image
  • AgMeAgMe Posts: 881


    << <i>A couple of times I've picked up good bargains with lowball bids. Most of the time, though, I just get sniped by the zillions of bloodhounds crawling around the auction venues with the sole purpose of making sure I never get anything decent. (Marty is the leader).

    Russ, NCNE >>



    image

    While I haven't won anything, I have been sniped by ~$3 USD on a number of items (low-ball bid)... I think that makes it worse...image

    -g image
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  • ksteelheaderksteelheader Posts: 11,777 ✭
    A few weeks back, one of the dealers that I win a lot of proof sets from, had a 1935 Gilbert Erector set up for bid. These normally go for $200+. I just decided to put in a lowball snipe for the hell of it and won it for $17.60!image
  • razorface1027razorface1027 Posts: 4,242 ✭✭
    Once. It was a B.I.N. of $300.00 on a 81-CC M.D. G.S.A.. Sent it to PCGS and it came back 64-PL. Made a few bucks, nuttin' great.


    Tom
    What is money, in reality, but dirty pieces of paper and metal upon which privilege is stamped?
  • barberloverbarberlover Posts: 2,228 ✭✭
    Its gotton harder to do the last few years.

    In 2000 I won on a lowball bid at a kingswood coin auction a p.c.g.s. m.s. 64 1902 S barber quarter for 880 dollars that I later sold for 1400. Nothing like that for me since.

    Les
    The President claims he didn't lie about taxes for those earning less then $250,000 a year with public mandated health insurance yet his own justice department has said they will use the right of the government to tax when the states appeals go to court.
  • morgannut2morgannut2 Posts: 4,293 ✭
    Only once but a nice score. At B/m in Balitimore last year I bought a nice PCGS 1890CC DMPL for $1200 but coundn't pass up another in NGC Dpl for a bid of $700. By the time I got the coin, tried to cross it at PCGS twice--(worked second try), and just got it back--the greysheet bid went to $1650!! I guess no one wanted it in a PCGS holder--but the coin looked fine.
    morgannut2

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