One of the ways to get coins is to participate in an auction. And the best tool you can have is knowledge.

You need to know that quality is value what you want and what it is going to cost to afford your desire.

First of all, auctions will generally draw a larger audience than your local coin show, and as such they create more competition.

Auctions make their money by placing a " TAX " on the items they sell. Generally these " Buyer Premiums " add another 10 - 20 % to your purchase price.

And it is that part of the equation that we can see in effect on places like E- bay, where they take 10 percent of the sale price away from the seller.

Auction houses take their premium ( % 20 ) from the buyer. Your $ 1000.00 coin will cost you $1200. Plus insurance to ship, plus any state duties placed upon the sales of coins, plus postage. And then there is the transfer of funds " bank fees " for first time buyers and the currency conversion charts if your purchase is not in your countries currency.

But I still feel that auctions offer you the best bang for the buck if you can tolerate the initiation process.

In an E-bay type of hunt, you often find people trying to ram Rod in their last second bids in a desperate attempt to WIN the sale.

And I have taken that understanding with me when I WANT, a coin that I am going to bid on.

Do the research and understand what the price history of any particular coin demands before it is bought.

And I want to say that " NUMISBIDS" IS THE PORTAL, to use.

Numisbids affords you the ability to join for free, and keep a close eye on the entire auction world.

It allows you to keep years of your watch list a click away. Although I do keep copy's on my computer, in a word doc. , under file, under country, under year, and under coded descriptions, so that I can quickly reference the coin, and compare actual sales prices against the pictorial quality of the coin.

One other thing that I want to point out is that these world auctions attract two types of buyers.

1 - One is the professional coin dealer who will quite often relist the EXACT same coin months later, either on E-bay or at their local coin shows, and is interested in the immediate profit margin, while the other buyer is;

2 - The end collector like me, who has waited for the opportunity to force the issue of ownership. 

Now that might be just as costly in the end when you consider all of the other parties who have their hands out with one form of tax or another, but if you are like me, someone who collects outside of the American marketplace, then it is often the only way to get the coins you believe in.

Here are just a few of the web sites that I use when I am looking for my collectable coins.

1 - Google Translate / https://translate.google.com

2 - A coin size chart / http://mdmetric.com/tech/cvtchtfdm.htm

3 - A currency converter / https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/

4 - Coins listed by Davenport Number / http://www.coinfactswiki.com/wiki/Silver_crowns_by_Davenport_number

So when I feel that I have enough information on any particular coin that is currently up for auction, after looking at the history of coin sales for that particular type of coin, after I look at the pictures of all of the other coins, I grade the coin myself.

I do the math of taxes, and then I place my bid above the level of sanity of any professional coin dealer's profit margin.

If someone wants' it more than me, I will make them have to bleed to get it.

You might think that am crazy, but I get the coins I want without having to pay what I am willing to pay.

The auction houses all have incremental bidding. They do not simply grab your high bid by default.

Yes it is painful at times, but to me, a collection of quality coins are worth the price you pay.

Keith