If you only want to read about coins, skip to the bottom and see a post of an interesting coin I won. I buy most of my coins, and other numismatic toys, in auctions. This week I learned about Vickrey Auctions listening to one of my favorite radio shows: Engines of Our Ingenuity. Use the link below to read (or hear by clicking a link on that page) about several kinds of auctions. http://uh.edu/engines/epi2559.htm A Vickrey auction is used by several auction houses for e-auctions and pre-bids to floor auctions. In this kind of auction the bidder pays what the second highest bidder offered. It is named for Dr Vickrey who earned the 1996 Nobel prize in Economics for his work in game theory. (He died two days after receiving the award.) The $85 bid I just made in an electric auction shows as $75, or one increment above the last high bidder. Why this type of auction makes sense for both parties can be found here: https://www.quora.com/Game-Theory-W...ay-the-second-highest-price-and-not-his-price I decide what I will pay and bid at the last time I am awake before the auction bidding closes. I watch the live auctions where I want more than I can afford (all of the time). I have bid early in three current auctions, and have been told I am not the high bidder in one. I won this coin last year below my max bid and below estimate. There is a long list of where I was second highest bidder. If you want to, post your auction thoughts. (Or you might not want to give away your bidding secrets.)
I knew several stores that would put out Dutch Auction tables (Amish Country). They literally CLEARED all the tables by day 3! It was a great way to create a sale urgency, and for the Store to get rid of merchandise. It was was a perpetual sale that ultimately every one was happy with the purchase price and getting rid of slow moving stock.
Auctions vary in rules so it is important to read any materials offered stating the terms. Some are more well written than others. On potential problem arises with how bids are handled that are less than a minimum advance over the second high bid. Lets say a coin is started at $500. If on the first day of the sale a bidder places a bid of $2200 and on the last day of the sale a second bidder posts $2100. The rules clearly state that a minimum advance for lots over $2000 is $250. Does the long standing additional $100 win the lot or is that last advance not allowed because it fails to exceed the second by the full amount of a legal advance. That depends on how the software was written or whether a human intervenes to handle strange situations. We see some sales that allow bidding with cents attracting bids like $150.03 since that number will bounce a last second snipe of $151. What the rules are is nowhere near as important as being sure we understand what the rules are. I prefer sales that do not post or reveal what bids have been received on a lot. Attention is not drawn to popular coins and each bidder has to decide just how high to bid without knowing that someone else was interested at a dollar or few dollars less. When the sale closes, the high bid wins at one advance over the second bid. The second bidder could have bid more if he wanted to but he would not know if it was necessary until it was over. For example, a JA sale here on CT tells us that one of our friends has bid on a coin so many of us won't bid him up. That hurts the seller. Someone else will say that if the lot is worth $10 to someone, it would be worth $11 to him. Sales that disclose the name of the bidder make this worse since some of us will not bid against Steve because he had to shovel 3 feet of snow but would be happy to bid up panzerman because 3 feet of snow would bring him landfall profits. If one of our Floridian members gets 3 feet of snow, I'd feel I should buy the coin for them. Over the years, I have participated in many variations on the sales systems. None are really better than the others if we allow for their time, place and potential number of participants. Things have really changed since the internet came onto the scene but that might be a subject for another thread.
Gosh I don't like auctions. I get too caught up in it being "mine" then when I lose I get bummed. This is more true with ancients than with my other numismatic passion because I'm still a bit behind with values and such.
My usual strategy is to enter a lot of cheap bids and hope I get lucky on a couple. (Except for stuff I really want.) Seems to work pretty well, but there are risks. Sometimes I only win one inexpensive coin and get dinged on shipping (but usually the auction firm will hold it for me until next time). Another risk is to win way more than I expected and face a huge bill, but this hasn't happened yet, not really.
My strategy is simple: I bid the most I'm willing to pay for a coin at the latest possible time in an auction. If I win it much lower than my bid, I'm very happy. If I win it at or near my bid, I'm pleased. If I don't win it, I do have regrets - but not about the bid I placed!
This happened to me when I bid on several Roman Republic Didrachmae and Marsic Confederation Denarii... I won them all, except one. The Invoice was pretty "tasty", but I absolutely LOVED them!
I'm new to the auction world... ...but I've had some excellent initial successes. I acquired these items from the best auctioneer that I know. Here is one of them.
Awesome coin, rrdenarius (congrats) My auction strategy varies ... some auctions have several coins that I find attractive, so I tend to spread myself pretty thin and hope to score a couple of thrifty prizes ... ... but occasionally, an auction will contain a single coin that really fires me up!! => gawd, it can get ugly!! ... I have paid more for a few coins than I probably should have (but on the flip-side, most of 'em are my favourite coins, so I get over the sticker-price pretty quickly) It's a hobby ... so I never let any of my coin purchases spoil my day
After reading everyones reply I seem to be a mix of all. If I see something I really want I will usually bid what I'm willing to pay. Sometime that is not the case but it's near my top end. If I see something I have some interest in I'll bid a low amount and keep an eye & research it and see if it holds my interest. If someone is willing to pay more than I am so be it I don-t get upset about it. @Mikey Zee can back me up on that. I also think out of respect if you know who is bidding on an item contact them to see where they stand, again Mikey can atest to that. @dougsmit brought up JA's auction and I agree an auction among freinds can hurt both parties but surely JA already understands this. I've lost out on a few items in his auctions and he does reach out to put an honest effort to see what you wish to do. I've not yet had my feelings hurt in any of his auctions thus far. I do however have one in my sights this week that I'd like to have. Would I go higher than I bid or am I topped out? I'll answer that come Thursday evening, lol.
Basically this is my 'strategy' as well. But, as @Smojo states, I also can switch to a multitude of bidding strategies, mixing many approaches.
