...and back in the day (maybe 20+ years ago or so), I believe most auctions were held with no restrictions on bidding whenever you wanted. All you needed was your bidder number to place a bid, period. Whatever auction house came up with/popularized the extended bidding and needing to place a bid before extended bidding eventually created a boon for all auction houses that followed in their footsteps. In my opinion, this is because it really created an atmosphere where the collector quite often subconciously feels that all the placeholder bids equate to extreme interest in the lot, especially in lots with low minimum opening bids, and that in extended bidding you will be in competition with a large number of bidders, when in reality in most cases you will just be competing with one or just a few.
I have always felt the placeholder type bids before extended bidding structure just creates the 'auction frenzy' atmosphere that builds up bidding overall and thus the winning bid price. Just my thoughts...perhaps others have other thoughts?
Brian (subconconciously unconscious even when conscious)
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