Authentic Caria Rhodes, Helios-Rose Bud?

I haven't priced these recently, but the centering and detail on that one is not bad at all for $399.

was doing a search on the net for info about rhodes when I came across this discussion. there's something weird and I thought I ought to point it out, for what it's worth. I went through the trouble of registering in order to ask this question. it's a mystery, and I am very curious about it...

i saw the images of the rhodes rose coin at the top and had just happened to see those exact same images on eBay--but from a completed auction on ebay in *october* 2012. I was wondering if you guys were having a joke, or what? the coin sold for 6,500 USD!! (talk about ouch!)

if this is new news to you, then here's the link to ebay. if you prefer to not link directly, or this ridiculously long link doesn't work, you can just look it up by title or item number. since it ended back in october, I was surprised to see it still up there, and I don't know how much longer it will be there, so I hope at least someone gets to see it while it's still visible, and can explain this mystery to me...

TITLE- Certified Greek silver Coin 188-170BC Caria Rhodes, Helios-Rose Bud 15mm # 836

ITEM NUM- 261080371405

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Certified-G...047675.l2557

First, welcome athena. Glad to have new blood on this forum.

DVC is correct. This Bing would never consider spending $6500 on this or just about any other coin (of course that could change the day I hit the lottery). The coin pictured at the top of this thread was listed on ebay as a "Buy It Now" coin for $399 at the beginning of December. For this "bottom feeder" that's a lot of money. But, since I have been wanting one of these Rhodes-Helios Rose Bud coins for quite some time, and I still do, I was considering buying the coin pictured. I did not, what with Christmas coming up and other considerations. I have kicked myself in the posterior several times since. I should have pulled the trigger. And now that I see the exact coin selling for $6500, I feel sick that I did not bite that bullet.

I don't understand how the coin was being sold for that kind of money in October and reduced to $400 by December. I'm with you athena. Something seems fishy. But to answer your question athena, this thread was no joke when I posted it.

hi guys -

thanks for the kind welcome :)

okay...so you were all serious...what does that mean about the listing? hmmm.

I guess, it could have a legitimate scenario like this...

The first time, the seller may have just put up a price that was either wishful-thinking or to see if he/she could snag someone who wanted it so badly they would buy at any price. Then...someone could really have bought and not followed through with payment...then, the seller did more research, needed quick cash, or decided that charging top dollar on ebay was a bad idea afterall, so put it up for a great price...and either didn't get feedback, or maybe there was a big dispute over the transaction for some reason.

...or maybe there is indeed something fishy going on? I couldn't find the december listing either--bing, do you still have a link to it? Did you save it in your ebay watch list?

Still a mystery. *sigh*

The reason I was looking it up was because I am going to be selling off some of my own coins and was going to list one of those myself, but have no idea what their current market value is. Mine is nothing like that one, and I was trying to determine the approx value.

I just got the freeman and sear catalog, and there's only one there--6k also, listed as 'extremely fine.' even so, it's a diff variety--face forward and no incuse. I obviously can't guess based on one coin no matter what, but there's none of Rhodes 'helios facing right' with incuse rose--which is my variety, so that catalog doesn't help.

The current ebay listings are around 300-500 for the coin in my approx condition, but no one is buying. Is that because the price is too high, because they don't trust the sellers, because no one's that interested, or because it may not be a good time to sell--so soon after the holidays?

I will be continuing my online research to see if I can get a better feel for a reasonable, expected value--in any condition.

If you guys could shed some light on this, it would be very helpful. :) thanks!

So I've looked through a few of the seller's auctions of ancient coins. For the most part, they are common Roman coins with rather steep "buy it now" prices, such as this coin.. The seller also claims certification, but doesn't submit the document in the auction itself--which is a little odd. So I don't think their asking prices reflect real market values. A better way to valuate your coins might be to compare to those at acsearch.info or Vcoin--I see a few similar types for sale there.

This seller makes Highratinglowprice look 'cheap'