[dougscats]

Interesting question, Leon, but I'm uncertain about a couple of terms:

By auction, do you mean an ebay-type auction, or an auction house, or perhaps both? Or something else, like a Net54 auction?
Also, when you say privately, I'm confused. Do you mean a BIN price or store price on ebay? Or are you talking about a private listing on Net54, for example? Or something else?
I think you may have different answers, depending. Thanks for any clarification.

I have very little experience at auction house bidding, but on ebay I sometimes let a BIN item just sit on my watch list, sometimes to my regret. There's often not a great sense of immediacy with BIN, and I may tend to mull over the price/a best offer at length.
More often, I don't even look much at BIN items, as many prices are outrageous, and I figure the good deals are already gone. In fact, due to time constraints, I often screen out BIN, and I don't think I'm alone in this practice, so I may not even see your good deal.

Doug