What in the world are all these crazy people thinking?

Many of you know that one of my goals is to assemble a collection of gold First Spouse coins in PF-70 condition. Over the last year, I have managed to keep the collection current only lacking Louisa Adams and Jackson?s Liberty in PF-70 condition. This past February, I was able acquire Louisa Adams in PF-70 directly from a coin dealer?s web site for a good price leaving Jackson?s Liberty left to upgrade. Unfortunately, I only saw one Jackson?s Liberty come up for sale on my dealer?s web page and someone else got to it before I noticed it.

Like it or not, one of the best sources for purchasing coins is Ebay. Currently, I maintain several email notifications for coins I desire to add to my collection. One of those coins of course is Jackson?s Liberty. For months, I have been keeping a single coin on my watch list with a ?buy it now price?. The coin would always expire without any buyers and then the seller would re-list it. I saw the price of this coin go up and down as I watched it for months without any notification of new coins being available for sale. The price this seller wanted for their coin always seemed too high for me, so I patiently waited for other coins to come up for sale.

This past week another ?buy it now? coin posted with a price $10 less than the other seller, so I added it to my watch list. Often BIN prices are a bit inflated and for the most part, unless a coin is rarely available, I prefer the auction. A week ago, yet another coin posted, but this time as a true auction. Immediately, I placed the coin on my watch list and thought about my buying strategy.

Halfway through the listing with numerous bids on the coin already, I posted my highest bid based upon postage costs, EBay bucks to redeem, and the asking price for the lowest BIN. More often than not, this has always been a winning strategy for me. Soon after I placed my bid, a few bidders tried to test my best offer as the bidding went up, but my bid held at a price with which I was happy. For the next few days, there was no further activity on the coin. However, near the end of an auction with several bidders, there is often what I call an end of auction ?feeding frenzy? when people go crazy bidding up an item. This lot was no different, and I found myself outbid before the end of the auction.

What I find crazy in this is the final price of the auction item sold for $39 MORE than the lowest BIN item! I wonder if the human instinct to win sometimes trumps good old-fashioned common sense. Certainly, the other bidders should have been aware of the BIN coins.

Now, knowing the market would bear the higher prices and with a few EBay bucks in hand, I pulled the trigger on the lowest BIN. When I think about it, I can only smile at the lunacy of this entire episode and laugh all the way to the bank. My only hope now is that lunacy will be the order of the day when I sell the coin my most recent purchase is replacing. Until next time, happy collecting all!

Gary