MickM

Their approach keeps their costs down and they control the bidding. What's not to like from their point of view? Except that more and more people are questioning their approach and the quality of what's on offer declines. I suspect Steve Locket and Semra will eventually get the message. As it stands you either tell them what you are prepared to bid or let them know that you want to bid on an item by phone. As a regular bidder with them for many years I wont be going back until they have open and transparent bidding.

Thanks for your comments all. A little further analysis, my successful bids were on average 24% over high estimate, which is not unreasonable as estimates tend to be 'come and get me'. A telling stat however is that there were no occasions where my high bid was matched and I lost the lot because a rival bid was received before mine. As my bids were entered late I would have expected this to have occurred several times if the bidding was tight. Be interesting to hear what Semra has to say when I pick up my lots on Monday!

18 successful bids with LCA, 13 at my maximum bid. Nothing suspicious there then.

Thanks all. DNW it is.

I am looking for information on auctioning coins. I have a number of likely lots mid range - c £200 reserve, 1/4d, 1/2d, 1d. A better example is an 1869 1/2d in AUNC. I have used LCA with mixed results and was wondering about others, DNW, Lockdales etc. Any advice would be very welcome. Thanks

Many thanks. I will certainly seek out a copy of Cope and Rayners book.

Having bought Freemans book 'Bronze coinage of Great Britain', and considered his rarity index, and estimates for likely surviving numbers of each coin variety, is there a rule of thumb for what the split between the grades would be? Looking at valuations for each grade doesn't appear to give a consistent pattern. Any thoughts? Thanks.