I am Done With Internet Bids

Floor bidder may get preferred treatment on bidding, not saying that's the way I would run an auction business.

 

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That's what I thought had happened but clearly this was not the case with Randy, sadly nothing surprised me any more with auction houses.

 

One bidding strategy is to look at the bidding increments and plan accordingly. If the increments really are $50 when the bid level is $150, I would not even bother with the auction. The increment at that level should be in the $10 neighborhood.

Still if you buck it up to series money, like $2,000, the increments might be $100. A strategy can be to look where the increment is $250 and bid at that point. It makes it more expensive for someone to outbid you.

 

It's not about preferred treatment. It's basically just a way to run auctions without prebids. The max "bid" you send to the AH is really just you authorizing them to bid up to this point for you during the live auction. If the increments are so ordered that your bid doesn't end up on your max bid, it goes to the other bidder. There is nothing nefarious about it, nor any preferential treatment going on.
If you are really wanting the lot, the strategy would be to bid an increment over just in case you don't happen to top the other bidder before the bidding hits your max.

 

Yeah I just used those increments to make the illustration easier. That would be way too big on a real auction.

 

I would probably skip using this auction house, but it does sound like what was mentioned where they favor the onsite bidder for whatever reason.

 

If an auction is a coin that I think I'll NEVER see again, then I'll probably bid way over 2X what it's worth, if I have the money; and I'll submit the bid in the last 4 seconds. That's about the only way to win. Even then, there's no guarantees.

Only rarely do auctions for popular coins 1) result in a win for me, and 2) result in a reasonable price.

Otherwise, I will just try to find it at a coin show or online retailer.

 

Makes sense if that's the way the auction house runs.
Would be better to bid $300.01 in those cases.

 

I suppose in this case, might be worth reading the fine print
I usually throw a little bit more on my bids...
$300.01 for the people who stick with basic bidding.
And Then $301.01 type bids for those other people who like their $.99 end bids.

 

Most of the time, I decide the maximum I’ll pay and pre-bid that amount (corrected for buyer’s premium) a day or two before the day of the auction. Then I wait until the auction is over and check the result, usually the next day. This way I don’t have to spend time watching the auction for the lots of interest to come up. And I avoid the temptation of upping my bid during live bidding.

The only time I participate in live bidding is if there are two identical coins of interest coming up for bid. I’ll pre-bid on the first. Then in the live bidding, if I don’t win the first coin, I’ll immediately bid that same amount on the second.

Mike

 

Agreed it could be something in the fine print. I also do kind of the same thing - usually like 1005 or something like that. I have yet to lose an auction when it went at my max bid - when I was the first one to bid it. I usually do not even watch the auctions close anymore - just wait for an invoice. Been a while since I won an auction, but I keep trying.

 

That’s usually the way I do it as well. I plug in what the most I am willing to pay and go on about my life. Occasionally a coin will really grab me. I think it’s been twice now where I felt I wanted to follow the bid. Honestly, I expected the coin in that auction would go for more and I was ready to do a live auction for it…… But most every other coin I bid on previously, I bid exactly like you do.

 

This strategy is well known to eBay coin bidders. I've seen bids like: X.03, X.06, X.17, X.29, X.51, etc...

One time while trying to get deals on eBay live (before I discovered it's more or less a waste of time for that purpose) I bid something like $15.27 on a coin, but was quickly out bid. Then I saw some one in the chat say "how did we end up with the 27 cents?"