This is an electronic version of our regular Mail-Bid
Catalogue, which is being sent out to our regular clients. Biding rules are of
the regular auctions, and not of the online auctions you might have seen
elsewhere.
THERE IS NO BUYER’S FEE!
Please refer to “terms of sale” for
specifics.
You must submit a bidding form via FAX or MAIL, if you’ve never placed bids with us before. The bidding form contains essential information to be filled out, and other important readings.
Mail-bid Sales are very collector-friendly and offer many advantages over Public Sales. One of the primary advantages is that they allow bidders to submit conditional bids (i.e. “Lot 20, lot 30, lot 32, lot 33: one only”) and demarcate limits (i.e. “Total winning bids not to exceed $500”). When placing limits: you may bid on, say, lots that would total $2,500. But you’ve placed a spending limit of $500. This means that you would list your priorities among your bids. Thus, if your spending limit coincides with bidding on your priority coins, you stand a good chance of winning them. The upshot of this is that if you bid on a number of lots, you have a greater chance of winning at least some. If you bid on only one or two, your chances are greatly diminished.
Mail-bid Sales also provide greater access to a broader range of collectors.
Auction estimates can often befuddle the reader. Some auction houses consistently estimate higher than market, with the result that a majority of lots are sold at a fraction of estimate. While other firms estimate low – notably European companies. This naturally can stimulate bidding. But the coins normally find their true market worth and some times more. So results are often higher than estimate which looks good to consignors.
What about us? Our estimates are conservative and realistic. Not weak, not wildly optimistic. In areas where we feel it is warranted, our estimates can be strong, but our guiding principle is conservative and realistic. Thus few lots will sell at a fraction of their estimate. The bottom-line and commonsense approach to bidding, is how avid are you for the coin and how much do you want to pay. Sometimes you’ll have to bid more than you hoped at the outset.
If you are very eager for a certain lot, phone bids make good sense. We welcome and encourage phone bids. On the closing day, our phones, obviously, will be very active, so be patient.
You needn’t worry about being too strong and then finding you’re all alone on the coin. We consistently reduce bids.
Bidding by mail is really a very simple procedure. Just tell us the maximum amount you are willing to pay. We will always try, as your personal agent, to obtain the lot for you at the lowest possible price.
The enclosed mail bid form has two sides for you to fill in. The front side provides all the information we will need to register you as a bidder, execute your bids and deliver your lots to you if you are a successful bidder. PLEASE, DO NOT FORGET TO SIGN YOUR BID SHEET.
On the back side you may list your bids. Please, do it after carefully reading the lot description. Continue to list lot numbers and bids for each of the lots you are interested in buying.
When we receive your bid sheet, we will record your bids at the amount you have authorized us to bid for you, and we will, in addition, note any lots where an increase is authorized if absolutely needed to win the lot. For example, if yours was the highest bid received, and the second highest bid received on the lot was substantially less, your bid would be reduced to about a 10% increment above that second-highest bid, just as it would be if you were present at the sale yourself to execute your own bids. If you have authorized a percentage increase on the front side of your bid sheet and the bidding by others has exceeded your basic bid, we will then, as your personal agent, increase your bid to the minimum amount necessary to obtain the lot for you. The authorized increase will never be excepted when your basic bid is exceeded.
If you chose to set a dollar limit we will be glad to execute your bids in order or preference or as alternates.