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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2674750, member: 19463&quot;]Auctions vary in rules so it is important to read any materials offered stating the terms.&nbsp; Some are more well written than others.&nbsp; On potential problem arises with how bids are handled that are less than a minimum advance over the second high bid.&nbsp; Lets say a coin is started at $500.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; The rules clearly state that a minimum advance for lots over $2000 is $250.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; That depends on how the software was written or whether a human intervenes to handle strange situations.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; What the rules are is nowhere near as important as being sure we understand what the rules are.</p><p><br /></p><p>I prefer sales that do not post or reveal what bids have been received on a lot.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; When the sale closes, the high bid wins at one advance over the second bid.&nbsp; The second bidder could have bid more if he wanted to but he would not know if it was necessary until it was over.</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;t bid him up.&nbsp; That hurts the seller.&nbsp; Someone else will say that if the lot is worth $10 to someone, it would be worth $11 to him.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;&nbsp; If one of our Floridian members gets 3 feet of snow, I&#039;d feel I should buy the coin for them.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie93" alt=":troll:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Over the years, I have participated in many variations on the sales systems.&nbsp; None are really better than the others if we allow for their time, place and potential number of participants.&nbsp; Things have really changed since the internet came onto the scene but that might be a subject for another thread.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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