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Bernie

Disastrous month

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I thought that I would share my three tales of woe. Firstly I was the successful winner of an extremely rare halfpenny on Ebay. I paid for the coin with Paypal. The next day Ebay informed me that my $910 had been returned to my account, with the reason, "out of stock or damaged". I contacted the seller directly and he informed me that a colleague entered the coin on Ebay in error and that he no longer owned the coin. Next was a Venetian rare coin auctioned on a Polish auction site. This auction was conducted in up to two stages, pre auction bidding leading to live bidding. I made many pre auction bids, each bid resulting to being "you are outbid" My last bid of 3000 zlotys returned that I was the highest bidder and an email was sent to me stating that my offer would be entered into the live bidding. I watched the live bidding of the coin, ready to continue bidding if necessary. The coin sold for 3000 zlotys. Four days later I hadn't receive an invoice, so I contacted the auction site. They later informed me that I was outbid. I contacted them again, showing them their email confirming that my bid would be entered into the live auction. They then informed me that another bidder had entered a bid of 3000 earlier the same day as my bid. Next misfortune was winning a low grade halfpenny on Ebay. The picture was not brilliant but it appeared to be a Freeman obverse 6. On receiving the coin it was clearly obverse 7, a lower leaf of the third group clearly visible on the coin. I have mentioned this because digital pictures can be very misleading, especially border teeth alignment with letters or colons in the legend. I have attached two pictures of this halfpenny, one from ebay and one that I have scanned of the coin.

 

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1861 ebay obv half.jpg

IMG_20210713_0004.jpg

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36 minutes ago, Bernie said:

I thought that I would share my three tales of woe. Firstly I was the successful winner of an extremely rare halfpenny on Ebay. I paid for the coin with Paypal. The next day Ebay informed me that my $910 had been returned to my account, with the reason, "out of stock or damaged". I contacted the seller directly and he informed me that a colleague entered the coin on Ebay in error and that he no longer owned the coin. Next was a Venetian rare coin auctioned on a Polish auction site. This auction was conducted in up to two stages, pre auction bidding leading to live bidding. I made many pre auction bids, each bid resulting to being "you are outbid" My last bid of 3000 zlotys returned that I was the highest bidder and an email was sent to me stating that my offer would be entered into the live bidding. I watched the live bidding of the coin, ready to continue bidding if necessary. The coin sold for 3000 zlotys. Four days later I hadn't receive an invoice, so I contacted the auction site. They later informed me that I was outbid. I contacted them again, showing them their email confirming that my bid would be entered into the live auction. They then informed me that another bidder had entered a bid of 3000 earlier the same day as my bid. Next misfortune was winning a low grade halfpenny on Ebay. The picture was not brilliant but it appeared to be a Freeman obverse 6. On receiving the coin it was clearly obverse 7, a lower leaf of the third group clearly visible on the coin. I have mentioned this because digital pictures can be very misleading, especially border teeth alignment with letters or colons in the legend. I have attached two pictures of this halfpenny, one from ebay and one that I have scanned of the coin.

 

 

 

 

Firstly, commiserations on such a frustrating series of events.

With regard to the emboldened bit above, this is a situation I find quite intriguing as it appears you were shafted through no fault of your own. Indeed, possibly through nefarious practice, since the information you were given about being the highest bidder was inaccurate. Maybe the software hadn't got the sophistication to tell you that you were the equal highest bidder. So you entered the live bidding under the mistaken belief that you were the only high bidder, and that the absence of further bids meant you'd won it. Really unfortunate.

I definitely agree about photographs and numbers/letters to border teeth. They can be incredibly misleading. I've bought one or two thinking they were a rare variety, then in hand it's a huge disappointment as your hunch proves wrong.  

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Unbelievable. If there were two bidders at 3000 zlotys the auction house should have notified you - as the later bidder - that you had been technically outbid. Either sharp practice, or extreme inefficiency. I sympathise.

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Not only had you fooled Bernie. Had me fooled too. I was the other bidder. I had it down as an obverse 4 with reverse F. F272. R17.  I've been kicking myself these last few days for not putting in a substantially higher covering bid, so a little relief for me I'm afraid.

Your first loss seems a little convenient for the seller too, especially if he didn't know what he had.

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