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Marc S.A word of caution. There are a small number of auction houses with whom I would never place a max bid due to concerns of being exploited. I think duking it out in the after-hours is perhaps the safest thing...
I've tried Leon's strategy of an initial blocking bid many a times in different auction houses. It has not been successful for me yet. Not sure why, as I always put an initial blocking bid in at more than I thought the card(s) were worth. But I'm inevitably outbid. The one advantage of a blocking strategy is that you more acutely define your competition. Rather than a handful of deep pockets, it could be one deep pocket. If you lose either way, it may not matter. But competing against one whale sure sounds a lit better than a herd of them.