Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
What John is saying.
C'mon, pretty much everyone knows the real action doesn't start in online auctions till things hit the extended bidding period, and usually AHs don't allow people to bid during extended bidding unless they'd placed a bid before then. The more people still able to bid, the better the chances there will be at least two people to really drive the price up.
A lot of times people see various things in an auction they're interested in, but only bid on a couple so they don't overextend themselves and go way over their budget. And then if later on during extended bidding they get shut out, they can't now go back and bid on those other items of interest because they're now locked out of extended bidding on them.
In the long run, you would normally expect an auction item to end up at about the same winning bid, despite the bid increments. Just look at live auctions where the auctioneer will often cut the final bid increments to eke out every last dollar from the bidders.
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I agree with this and want to reiterate how important bidding is during extended hours. The more people that have already bid on an item, the better chance of a bidding war in after hours. And obviously there will be more people eligible to bid if there are smaller bid increments. For the same reason, I don't think it is in the consigner's interest to allow "straight bids" as a bidder can bid up the price in one fell swoop and prevent anyone else from getting in bids at lower prices.