TOPIC:

Not long to wait now!

Natalie says 'The first provisional listing of prices realized will be placed the website on Monday, 22 October 2018 at 3pm (SA).'

They are very quick considering the complex instructions they allow around bids. No one else I know of is that flexible.

I have on more than one occasion secured items by specifying the out-of-numerical-order sequence when bidding: e.g If Lot 999 not secured transfer R1000- to Lot 888. However, that makes winding up of the "Prices Realised" much more time consuming
Henk

Knowing that Natalie and her team are working on the bids this weekend, I have been pondering what they have to do. Single bids can easily be calculated using a spreadsheet to identify the two top bidders snd then determine the hammer price as the next price level above the lower bidder. If bidders use a strategy like the one Henk mentions, the calculation moves from basic arithmetic to become an optimisation problem requiring multiple iterations to find the optimal solution. This is programatically complex and can be complicated further by the range of bidding scenarios that can be submitted.

Let's hope that Natalie and her team do not have too many of these scenarios to deal with!

I wish them well this weekend.

Natalie and her team is actually Natalie on her own! She does all calculations personally.
Henk

This is the first time in nearly 20 years that I have not placed a bid on a City Coins auction, so, rather than feeling stressed while waiting for the prices realised to be posted, I feel only regret. This is also the first time I have not received a hard copy of the catalogue. The SA PO probably has an unequaled record for all kinds of negative reasons. This week I received a postcard from a friend, which was posted in the Netherlands on 2 May, and I count myself as fortunate to have received it at all.

Brett

PS At about now the SA PO is to take over the monthly payments of social pensions to the 17 million people who qualify. Good luck to them!