VAuction 148 is now open

[kbarry]

Stop by at: http://www.vauctions.com

Our current 'hot' items include:

Constantius II, AE3, 324-325, Antioch, Officina 1 - RIC VII, 55 - Interesting Armor Design (No reserve)
Current Bid US$31.87

CONSTANTINOPLE COMMEMORATIVE Æ4 (14mm/1.13 gm) Constantinople 330 AD Bust of Roman People / Milvian Bridge? Seldom Seen aVF
Current Bid US$66.50

ROMAN REPUBLIC: Anonymous SILVER SESTERTIUS (12.5 mm/0.99 gm) 211-208 BC Toned Scarce Denomination
Current Bid US$80.00

L. Calpurnius Piso L.f. L.n. Frugi. 90 BC. AR Denarius.
Current Bid US$65.50

Regards,
Kevin Barry

Member ANA, ANS, VCoins
http://www.bitsofhistory.com
http://www.vcoins.com/barryanddarling
Co-Owner of the Moneta-L and ACM-L Lists

[cogito]

Kevin,

Thanks to you and other vauctions dealers who offer coins with no or little reserves. I wish I could say the same for other dealers who tend to list coins with high reserves. The general lack of action on these coins should be a hint to the dealers that bidding competition generally sets the market price and generates more interest in one's wares.

Jeff

[admin]

Jeff,

Dealers must make a profit, even though I know they would be very popular if they decided to forgo it. There are often some outstanding buys available among the reserved items. It's really a chicken and egg thing -- if there are sufficient bids on unreserved items so they make a fair price, more of them will be listed. So the more bids you place, the more unreserved items you will see. Not placing bids will have the opposite effect.

Bill

[cogito]

Bill,

Don't want to be argumentative, but I place plenty of vauction bids, but for those with high reserves there often is little-to-no competition. So, even though I may place a bid for $500 or more, the reserved auction often ends with a price of $1.00 because no one else even bothers.

What's the advantage of listing coins at high reserves on vauctions over just placing the same coin in one's vcoins store at the same reserve price?

I realize that dealers need to make money, but it's almost a law of nature that auctions with no or low reserve will generate more interest and more competition.

I have no dog in this fight...just find the high reserve auctions frustrating. :rolleyes:

Regards,
Jeff

[vozmozhno]

It's really a chicken and egg thing -- if there are sufficient bids on unreserved items so they make a fair price, more of them will be listed. So the more bids you place, the more unreserved items you will see. Not placing bids will have the opposite effect.

My 2 cents in response (warning: I'm feeling particularly verbose this morn :D )

How many auction venues ever got off the ground by placing the onus on the customers to bid high before they started offering their wares without the safety-net of high reserves? The answer so far as I know is NONE. I'm not criticizing anyone for doing this, I'm just pointing that it is a proven recipe for failure that shows a complete lack of understanding of auction psychology.

How do you build a successful auction venue? You generate BUZZ by offering items at very low or preferably no reserve and opening bids of $.01, $.99 and such. At first you will lose money, but soon word will get out and more and more customers will make it a point to check out your auctions on a regular basis. Multiple people will set their hearts on that same item going for a fraction of it's worth. They will get into bidding wars and drive the price up. Those who lose one bidding war will place a bid on another coin they might have been only marginally interested in--they don't want to let the auction end without scoring something. Thus final bid prices will go up all the way around. It's all about bargains, bargains, bargains--real or perceived.

What's the quickest way to kill a successful auction venue? Start offering items with high reserves or with starting bids equal to retail prices. No longer sensing bargains to be had, customers will cross it off their list as a waste of time and won't bother to check out future offerings.

When I sold off my non-tetrarchic coinage on eBay, I listed it in large batches of no reserve auctions. The first batch or two I lost money on, but soon customers took note and my auctions were breaking even or making a profit (on coins purchased at RETAIL prices). Now if I had listed those same coins from the start at the prices for which they sold, do you think they still would have sold? The answer is NOT A SNOWBALL'S CHANCE IN HELL :D In fact, I love to see a coin I'm interested in listed on eBay at a starting bid approx. 50-75% of retail. Why? Because it means I will have little or no competition when I swoop in to snatch it up in the final few seconds of the auction. I have picked up several stellar coins this way which I'm confident would have gone for considerably more if they had started at a penny or a dollar or even ten dollars. Contrast this with eBay dealers (I can name several) who offer regular batches of nice coins with no reserve opening at next to nothing. Even the "crap" they offer gets bid up, because they have a lot of customers eagerly anticipating and scouring their latest batch of goodies with the idea that there are bargains to be had and they don't want to miss out.

Voz

[admin]

Voz,

Have you looked at any of the statistics I've posted on how many items VAuctions has offered at $1 with no reserve? I think your comments are valid, but should not be directed at VAuctions unless you know the stats. (They are on this board somewhere.) When I started VAuctions, I personally put up dozens of no reserve items to generate the "buzz" you're referring to. Now the other dealers continue it each and every week.

Bill

[admin]

Jeff,

You put your dog in the ring with your reply to Kevin's post. :)

My point was not related to bidding on reserved items. My point was this: If there are large numbers of bids on items with no reserves, more will be offered. BUT, the real point is that there are plenty of them already -- EACH and EVERY week. It would be nice to have the focus on those instead of on the others.

Bill


Don't want to be argumentative, but I place plenty of vauction bids, but for those with high reserves there often is little-to-no competition. So, even though I may place a bid for $500 or more, the reserved auction often ends with a price of $1.00 because no one else even bothers.

What's the advantage of listing coins at high reserves on vauctions over just placing the same coin in one's vcoins store at the same reserve price?

I realize that dealers need to make money, but it's almost a law of nature that auctions with no or low reserve will generate more interest and more competition.

I have no dog in this fight...just find the high reserve auctions frustrating. :rolleyes:

Regards,
Jeff

[kbarry]

Hi Guys,

Jeff...thank you for your kind words. I try to list most of my items each week as $1, no reserve auctions.
However, there are times when I have to place a modest reserve on an item, for instance in the case of
consignments or if I have a lot of money (to me at least ;) )in a particular item and cannot afford to
take a loss. When I do set a reserve it is usually within a hair of my cost.

No reserve auctions are always a crap shoot. And with the warm weather here it is even more so because
collectors typically turn to other things. For the summer I may use more no reserve, starting at my cost
type auctions. (Bill and I disagree about whether they should be considered no reserve auctions. :D ).

Then, when things settle down in the fall, I'll go back to my regular auction format.

Kevin