Recently I participated in participated in Heritage's FUN auction and I placed a online bid through their website rather than Ebay ( You save 5% on the buyers fee). I offered $230 more than what I thought it was worth and won as this is something that I have been looking for over 2 years. I realize my online bid is suppose to be secret, but it seems a little suspicious that my max bid won the item up to the last dollar. Has anyone ever heard of secret bids being leaked to the floor bidders and they push up the bid price? Example an auctioneer stating to the floor bidders come on guys we have a online bid $200 higher?
I've never heard of that happening at Heritage, but some auction houses will start low bid just below the highest posted bid in hopes of inflating the bidding. I've seen this mostly in smaller local auction houses though. Guy~
Online bidding ends before floor bidding starts if I am not mistaken. Remember, all it takes is one other person to want the same coin almost as bad as you did.
Heritage bidding, like eBay, goes up in steps except Heritage steps are much larger than eBay's and I believe they are at fixed values. i.e. regardless of the bid, the steps will be $200, $220, $240, etc. where as on eBay they are $X above the previous high. I believe that the step at $200 is $20. If you bid $230 and won it for $230 only means that someone has bid $220 or more. Assuming that someone else has bid $220 and you bid $239, you would have won it for $239. Had you bid $241, you would have won it for $240. As funny as it sounds, if the previous bid had been $219, I believe that you would have won it for $220.
I've used their site, but as for using their auction services, can't really say that I am all that interested
No that does not happen. Heritage is one of the most reputable firms there is. Think about it, those floor bidders all bid on-line from time time too. And if Heritage did such a thing, how long do you think it would take before everyone refused to use them ?
i use heritage extensively. they have always been prompt, courteous , and i have won coins well under my top bid for something i wanted. i think they are an excellent company to deal with, as well as an excellent research site for actual coins being sold. the auction archives go back to 1990's and nearly all have photos for examination.....steve
Yeah - I wondered the same thing when using heritage. Since then I have won floor auctions and online auctions at less than my max bid. I like heritage auctions, especially their history. I use it a lot.
