With the Teletrade auction just ending I was lucky to grab the two coins I wanted without getting into a bidding war. I paid a premium to get what I wanted so I don't think it would have happened, but I always worry about getting caught up in a bidding war. 1933-D Lincoln PCGS MS65 RD CAC certified 1950 Washington Quarter PCGS MS66 white....
Nice coins! Good pick-ups. Here is how you avoid bidding wars - determine what your max bid will be. Bid that. Then forget about it until you receive the "You won notice". And if you don't win then wait for the next nice one to come along. And yes bidding wars are very easy to get into...and that is how sometimes you end up over paying. Been there a few times in the past, but not for years now with this philosophy. Yes - I lose a lot of auctions, but oh well.
I too just won a coin on Teletrade without a bidding war. I just bid one increment over the highest bid ... and it worked. IMO I got it for a good price too, even if you count in the buyer's fee and S&H. It's one of those hard-to-find Capped Bust half dimes (1836 NGC MS-62). AND(?) it's unattributed but I think it's a "Small 5C" which is one of the varieties I'm missing. At least I hope it is otherwise the most I did was an upgrade. If it is I'll send it back to NGC for attribution. I generally try to avoid coins graded MS-60, -61 and -62 since there's always some annoying problem that caused it to be graded that low. But these Capped Bust half dimes are so tough to find I had to got with it.
That's my approach as well. Study the coins you want, wait for one to be listed, know what to bid based on previous research, place your maximum bid and place no more bids while waiting for the "You won notice.":high5: I also won a TT auction last night, using this approach, and my bid only advanced the realised price by one increment, fairly less than my max bid.:hammer:
My approach with TT has been one of sniping during the last minute. But lately, the bids have already pushed the price up too high by the time I get ready to snipe. Most of the Moragn silver dollars I'm interested in seem to be going for quite a bit more than they were a couple of months ago.
Just don't get involved in them. Pretty simple. No grey areas. Set the max amount you will pay for the item in your mind and if that gets exceeded, bail.
