If you followed it 'live' via the Youtube thing they had set up, there were some long pauses where the bidders were apparently giving their next bid some serious consideration. Don could probably tell us how many bidders there were, but when this item hit something like $40K, 'fair warning' was issued several times.
My speculation is that if the eventual winner hadn't been bidding, it would have gone for an amount much closer to the predictions given by board members. But if there were three bidders at the end, then it's a different story.
The guys here who gave their estimates (yesterday and previously), include some serious collectors and historians who know their stuff - I would not just toss their opinions aside. As I've mentioned previously, but it got lost in the wash - we've seen rare pieces go for huge amounts before, despite board member opinions. We've seen the same pieces sell for much less later on, indicating that perhaps we knew what we were talking about, and the winning bidder was indeed overzealous (or whatever).
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$co++ Forre$+
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