I'm currently doing this. I know I won't win the coin, but rest assured I'm aggravating someone. I believe it to be overgraded, but if I win it I won't be unhappy. I put in a max bid and probably going to bed soon. Am I being mean?
technically no.... you're just riskin' it in hopes you won't be the one that ends up with the coin and paid too much for it Seriously, though, knowing what type of coin it is helps us detail our reply a lot. If it's a toned Morgan or Peace, you probably ain't winning it, but on a lot of other stuff you may have a chance. You could be aggravating an actual coin collector, or a status collector - the latter of which I significantly approve of.
It's a really nice Morgan. I'm just not that good of a grader. I fear it's over graded by one grade, mostly because of snob status, it's in a ICG holder. I've bought many coins in those slabs, but most of the time when I thought they undergraded. They are a decent TPG, but they seem more inconsistent than the rest. I placed my max bid a full grade below PCGS list price, so I'm not sweating it either way. I just decided to show my hole card early and call. I will not be unhappy either way this goes.
I wouldn't exactly call that "snob status"; that sounds more like personal preferences, which go a long way in coins. ICG is sometimes inconsistent depending on the era; the most inconsistent I've seen is with the blue labels, but the recent white labels seem to be good. Also, you're technically buying a coin sight unseen if it's online, even if you have detailed pictures, so bidding one grade below price guides like PCGS is a good strategy no matter the company.
I've caused quite a few prices to go up but that's what I was willing to pay for it. Someone else would do the same anyway by trying to snipe it at the end. I don't understand deliberately doing it to try to aggravate some anonymous person though. Or thinking that that's what you're doing, since you'll never know if you aggravated them or not, so where's the satisfaction? I don't get it.
Stimulating the economy. I like it when a high bidder stacked their name up a few times. I think it's an intimidation tactic, these are the easy ones to help spend their money.
