Auction house bidding

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Posted By: Lentel

I was just bidding in a recent auction that I had placed an absentee bid in about 2 weeks ago. A few days later two other people place bids. One person and my self have the same bid amount although mine was place first. The auction house bumped me up to the next increment which was my max. I thought if two people have the same bid amount the one placed first gets it, not pushing the bidding up another increment. Is that true or am I wrong?

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Posted By: pete

depends on the house rules...what did they state? pete-

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Posted By: Richard Simon

Haven't there been posts on this forum about leaving max bids with auction houses and warning against the practice.
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Posted By: David Vargha

Different places have different rules. In some auction houses, the max bid increments jump by two levels rather than one as your scenario seems to describe. Here is what happened (using made-up numbers):

You had a bid of $1,000 with a $1,250 max bid. Another bidder bid $1,000 also, bumping your bid up to $1,250.

In many auction houses, you would have been required to have a $1,500 max bid. The next bidder would have been required to bid $1,250 and you would have then gone up to your max bid of $1,500.

So in one sense, consider yourself fortunate that scenario #1 took place instead of scenario #2.

DavidVargha@hotmail.com