I've never understood the purpose of AH estimates, even after it's been explained to me with great certitude by their all-knowing principals. Seems to me that if you make it too low, you're inviting bidders to feel foolish or guilty when they exceed an estimate by much, and if you make it too high, you're taking the risk of discouraging bidding by bottom or middle feeders, which gets the ball rolling and is at least a bid, presumably better than no bid. If a high estimate is actually suppose to be a clue about a reserve on the item, just make the reserve the starting bid save everybody the trouble. The whole point of an auction is to let the market decide what something is worth, so what's the point of the AH trying to guess it--or even worse, not really trying to be accurate in their estimate but instead trying manipulate the bidding in some way?
|