New Harlan J. Berk Ltd. Buy or Bid Sale (# 223) Launched Today

[DonnaML]

For anyone interested, the link is https://www.hjbltd.com/#!/inventory/buy-or-bid/ . 578 Lots of ancient & world coins and antiquities. The market must still be relatively strong, and/or they're having trouble these days finding decent inventory to sell: I didn't really look at the ancient Greek coins, but (with sincere respect to our members who work for HJB!) I was a bit surprised at how high the "buy" prices are for the Roman Republican and Imperial coins, even though I didn't think most of them are in a condition that would entice me to pay such prices.

I did see some interesting Roman Provincials at what I thought were reasonable prices given the coins' condition, and bought two of them, both issued under Gordian III. Along with an 1892 Grover Cleveland/Adlai Stevenson Sr. political campaign token I couldn't resist. I will post all three when they arrive, of course. I'm not buying any more antiquities at the moment (because if I do, I'll soon be sharing that van down by the river with a number of you!), but there are some really nice ones up for sale -- including Egyptian scarabs, Roman oil lamps, ancient Near Eastern cuneiform objects, etc.

Edited April 20, 2023 by DonnaML

[Kali]

Two Roman Republics I thought about, but I agree, strong Buys, decided not to bother, keep the money for something else.

[Hesiod]

I was not a fan of the greek prices, and the argos tet seems suspiciously close to the Caprara exapmle to me; though I'm not certain. A lot of the coins seemed to be generously graded as well (the worst example pointed out to me was https://www.hjbltd.com/#!/inventory/item-detail/ancient-coins/102364?fromBbs=223rd Buy Or Bid Sale )

Edited April 20, 2023 by Hesiod

[Curtisimo]

Berk always has really nice stuff. I didn’t see anything on my high priority list so I’ll be sitting this one out. I did note that the first century denarii section was a bit lean.

It’s probably for the best. I’ve hit the bid button a bit too often lately. 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Curtisimo

[Jay GT4]

Berk always has high quality coins, but I find  their website cumbersome to navigate and I rarely go there.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Jay GT4

[John Conduitt]

Presumably, the buy prices have to be high, otherwise why would you consign to them? That’s the maximum price and you have to really want a coin to pay it.

The few English medieval coins are indeed way overpriced. This Henry III is ok - a decent strike with few flat spots but off centre, a weak eye and fairly worn - $225? You can get similar for half the price (or less) just by doing a Google search. So I guess people just bid lower.

They never have anything of interest to me but I don’t collect Greek or Roman Republic. The bid system also seems too complicated to work out a strategy, and I couldn’t be bothered with that.

[kirispupis]

HJB in my experience seems to have prices all over the place. There are always some coins where I feel "wow! they want a lot for that!" and then there's others where the price is very reasonable. I've bought a piece or two at some of their recent auctions, but didn't find anything in this one, which is good since I've been buying too much... 🙂 

[KenDorney]

Berk pioneered the 'buy or bid' format and in the 80's and 90's of printed catalogs was very common but I do think in this day and age is essentially a dead concept.  Nevertheless, you can always submit a bid.  They can only deny it and you are out nothing.

[Deinomenid]

They also drop the prices quite a lot later in the sale. I think there are 2 dates when prices  fall so  if the market agrees x or y is too expensive there's a decent chance you can buy it more cheaply. They send  emails when they drop prices, so it's not a cumbersome process. I lost a couple of coins I thought somewhat overpriced and tried to bag  in the postsale extra drop at  by that stage  probably under market price  but I was  not the only  one with that plan. And I was the slower...

[El Cazador]

On 4/20/2023 at 5:22 PM, Deinomenid said:

They also drop the prices quite a lot later in the sale. I think there are 2 dates when prices  fall so  if the market agrees x or y is too expensive there's a decent chance you can buy it more cheaply. They send  emails when they drop prices, so it's not a cumbersome process. I lost a couple of coins I thought somewhat overpriced and tried to bag  in the postsale extra drop at  by that stage  probably under market price  but I was  not the only  one with that plan. And I was the slower...

Unfortunately 99% of the time, prices are only dropped for the coins that nobody wants, or these are extremely overpriced even after 40% discount 

Edited April 22, 2023 by El Cazador

[DonnaML]

3 hours ago, El Cazador said:

Unfortunately 99% of the time, prices are only dropped for the coins that nobody wants, or these are extremely overpriced even after 40% discount 

I pretty much agree with you. I usually find that the nicest coins, unless the buy prices are completely outrageous, are sold at those prices within a couple of days of the sale being launched. Which is why I always try to scroll through all the pages within an hour or so of getting the email announcement on the first day, and make my decisions right away.

[El Cazador]

4 hours ago, DonnaML said:

I pretty much agree with you. I usually find that the nicest coins, unless the buy prices are completely outrageous, are sold at those prices within a couple of days of the sale being launched. Which is why I always try to scroll through all the pages within an hour or so of getting the email announcement on the first day, and make my decisions right away.

Same here, i check within an hour of posting new sale, and most of the time I find ridiculous prices for the coins I want…

[Tejas]

On 4/21/2023 at 1:30 AM, KenDorney said:

Berk pioneered the 'buy or bid' format and in the 80's and 90's

It is called a "Dutch auction" and I think it was Dutch merchants who pioneered this format in the 17th century 🙂

Personally, I don't really like this format, because of the great uncertainty during the sale and the high chance of "winner regret" if you buy early. In a normal auction the winners knows that there was at least one under bidder. In a Dutch auction the winner may have bid well above anybody else.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Tejas