Scot Kamins wrote:

In article ,
Alan & Erin Williams wrote:

People tend to forget that on each purchase made
from EbaY, they were the high bidder. In Other Words, no one at that
time was willing to pay *more* for that coin than they were, making
them, by definition, the high water mark for that coin that day.

Well, no. It was the high water mark for the coin on EBAY that day.
It's quite possible that the coin was priced much higher in one or more
other venues, including other auction sites such as Teletrade.

Not to overly quibble, but a *similar* coin, not the *same* coin. It's important.

For instance, today EbaY showed me an "MS-64 Maryland Half Dollar" which
semi-irked me since my search included "NGC". The listing popped in
because the dealer is an NGC agent. He has other slabbed NGC coins for
auction. But this one, this 'MS-64' was raw. It doesn't look
unreasonable. It may well be similar to an "NGC MS-64". But it's not
one. It's raw. And since the seller didn't slab it...perhaps it's
*not* the same. Priced like one, though. Nasty-looking strike, I
think. But 'crisp' Maryland? Alas, I rarely see any that are.

So anyway. that's my point. It looks equal to, it's priced the same as,
but it definitely is not an NGC MS-64 Maryland Half. I try to think of
the coins as individuals rather than interchangeable parts. ;-)


Before I place my bids on eBay, I do quite a bit of research to make
sure I'm getting the best bang for my buck. Of course, sometimes I fail
- I recently paid about 1/2 more than I should have for a batch of unc
euros from The Netherlands because of a sloppy search formula I was
using on Google (a mistake I WON'T make again). But more often then not
I make out quite well.

I should mention that the VAST majority of my experiences have to do
with rare books, but the same principle applied to coins is proving
itself out.

I get a rush out of reading the rare book listing ads in the New York
Times Book Review each week. Never have placed an order, though.

Alan
'too many crayons in my house'