Great Collections Bidding Process

As a buyer, sniping is great. As a seller, not so much. One will go out of business faster not having a large variety of coins on auction than you will having fewer customers.
Banning sniping makes sense from a business perspective.
That said, it is a reason I don't buy much here. I just can't keep track of when the auctions are, and I refuse to put in my final offer earlier than a few minutes before the end of an auction. This goes for live as well as online auctions. Seems like DL has the best idea. Require at least a minute or two after the last bid to declare the auction over allowing anyone that really wants the coin to have an opportunity to run up the price if they want to.

 

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Sniping is born out of basic human psychology. Nobody wants to show their cards early. If a coin is worth $400,somebody bids $400 and somebody else actually bids it up to their high bid and it sits there for five days, what happens?

People have days to think about it and will convince themselves its worth paying $410, $430, $450 for. Maybe even $500. Maybe somebody puts in an outrageous bid to clear them all out and somebody else tries the same? Somebody will rationalize paying more. On ebay it'll sit at $275 and then maybe go for $380 at the last second.
It's good for the sellers to not have sniping. A true price is going to settle out. Many people would convince themselves to pay more after a last second snipe comes in but time runs out. All depends on how bad you gotta have it and how bad the other people want it.
If I was ever going to clear everything out, I'm pretty sure I'd go with GCs myself.

 

I have been bidding on coins online since 1995. I rarely participate in E-Bay auctions, but, over the years, have won hundreds of coins at Heritage, Teletrade, Stacks Bowers, and Great Collections.
I have always just placed a bid for the price I am willing to pay and then let it ride. No bidding wars. Some times I am 50 percent over current CDN and at other times 50 percent below. All depends on how I grade the coin.
I would guess that I am successful about one out of four times. There will ALWAYS be another auction and another coin.
I am not sure how my approach comes across from a psych point of view. I don't make nuclear bids but can honestly say at least 50% of the time I win my exact bid is the exact winning price. I think the market has a way of setting the appropriate price. the trick is to know what that is at any auction site. James

 

I like GC, have picked up some nice coins & currency.