Well, the trend of getting crushed at auction has continued in earnest this last week with major disappointments, for me, on several fronts. First there was a Ukraine P1b (inverted back, which is the normal orientation for this note. Pick 1a, standard orientation, is the much rarer/harder to find note for this issue.) with a preauction estimate of $400 - $500, it is a lovely note in the old PMG Gen 2 holder with the blue-green tint, I already had a graded example of this note but at a lower grade so I was semi-interested in this note. I bid it up to $450 which was my limit for this one, in the end it sold for $757.50 (price includes BP and shipping). Bye bye P1b. 

Next were some Zimbabwe notes a P64* (PMG 68 EPQ) and a P64 (PMG 68 EPQ). I wasn't going hard on the P64* but I put what I thought was a healthy bid on it, in the end it sold for $129.50 (shipping and sales tax not included). A few days after the P64* auction ended the regular issue P64 was closing, this note I was really keen on getting, more so than the P64* as it would complete my Zimbabwe Agro Check set all in 68 EPQ and all standard issues (no replacements). Again, I put what I thought was a healthy bid on the note and woke up the next morning to find that someone else valued it more than me, the note ended up selling for $88 (shipping and sales tax not included). Sigh.

Next up on the Crushed list were 6 lots of Ukrainian WWII German issued banknotes, I bid on all of the lots but really only wanted two. Three of the lots were duplicate notes that were in the same grade or lower than my current notes, but I was hoping to get a deal, the fourth lot was a note that I didn't own but was not in the condition that I wanted so I lowballed that one as well. Not surprisingly I lost those four lots. Three of the four lots went for just under auction estimates and the fourth went over by $100, no real loss there. Of the two remaining lots I was actually interested in one was a two-note lot both of which would have been upgrades for me, so I bid the lot up to just over $100 above auction estimate and walked away. When I had woke up the next morning to view the results I had lost the auction by $1, with BP the lot had sold for $307.20 (not including shipping). Again, not a crushing blow as I already have these notes, but it would have been nice to have won that lot. The final lot was the note I was really gunning for a Ukraine P 57 and there was a little something special about this note! I wasn't going to mention this but what the heck the person who won this probably already knows but if they don't here you go, the note was an unlabeled Super Radar! Whomever submitted the note must not have paid to have this checked and added to the label or it just got missed at any rate the serial number was 2171712 and I thought since it was not attributed on the label I might get a really good deal here (Wrong!), I was also willing to bid higher than I normally would have for this note because of the fancy serial number. So, we have a P 57 super-radar, Top Pop 66EPQ banknote from 1942 that I don't currently have in my collection. Oooo, so excited! The auction estimate was $250 + I pre-bid it up to $350 and I'm winning the auction, a few days later I'm out bid and I place a few more bids finally stopping at $600.  I just couldn't justify going any higher than that, super-radar or not. With BP the note sold for $750 (shipping not included). 

I guess it was just my week to get chewed up and spit out in the auction circuit and loosing just doesn't feel good most days. So, to ease my pain I went out and picked up a few raw notes.   A new 100 UAH commemorative banknote with binary serial #, another 100 UAH commemorative with a ladder serial number (not a true ladder but as close as that note can get with only 30,000 being printed and the serial number being 7 places), and a complete set of Shahiv banknotes.  All for a LOT less money than I would have spent on the auctions that I lost.

Oh, I picked up a 2021 silver, 30th anniversary 1 hryvnia coin to go with the 30th anniversary banknotes and a couple of 2021 Ukrainian 1/10 gold Archangels as well.  It was too good of a deal to pass up.

I guess that the high prices realized on these notes is a good thing in the end, that is if I ever choose to sell any of my notes, but I have a feeling I'm really only bidding against a handful of collectors and that these notes will be available again very soon and at much lower prices. At least that has been my experience to date. We'll see.