TOPIC:

Got 1 out of 3 bid - the after effects of having to spend a lot of money on car repairs! Still, it was a nice 'a' Kimberley Star which will improve someone's OSA. I have to say, I think t he prices were very high this time and I think that's the effect of the exchange rate helping us overseas buyers. Can anyone enlighten me though, as to why Lot 28 went for ZAR 220,000 which was ZAR 130,00 over top estimate? I mean, its nice and rare etc, but that's equivalent to over £ 14,000 - seems very, very high.

Ian - expensive times

Re the QSA to Lt Hensman, the buyer must have really wanted it. There must have been several buyers for it to have gone so high too.

Totally agree, very good for Boer war Memorabilia.
In defence of this Oz QSA its a very unique story behind it.

The last email I received from you suggests that you are not a "bottom feeder" but a discerning collector!

Brett Hendey wrote: Given the prices that the 'good' lots went for, it is just as well that I am a 'bottom feeder'! Thanks to Natalie's flexible system of bidding options, I got all that I listed - 1 QSA, 2 ABO's, 1 BSACo and a non-Boer War group. My medal-buying savings are now well and truly depleted!

Brett

Frank
It is kind of you to say so! The medal that most attracted me at first was the Zulu War one to Lt Maxwell of the NNC. It would have been a perfect addition to the three Dartnell Patrol medals already in my collection (to the Natal Mounted Police, Natal Carbineers & Buffalo Border Guard). I thought that, if my bid was double the top estimate (i.e. R36000), I had a chance of success. Unfortunately, that was R6000 above my City Coins Fund limit, so I went down to the bottom of the pond again. That was just as well because the Maxwell medal sold for R65000! I would have been very sad!
Regards
Brett

Morning Brett,
Well that's the thing about auctions, you see something you want, you set your heart upon it and then fail to buy it, but, if you got something else you wanted, then all is not lost, of course, this particular saleroom is now and has been, for quite sometime, an international one, that is a good thing to many people, but, it does make the chances of getting a bargain rather remote, it also is not altogether good news for collectors in South Africa either, so many medals will leave the country forever.
Regards Frank