Leon:
I agree with you 100% and believed that for years as a consignor myself but have always been told by the auction houses that it is in both mine and their best interests to start the bidding lower to attract more bidders. Based on this, I have almost always been unhappy with the starting price of my items and believe that the final sale price of many of my items fell short of expectations partly because of the low starting bid. If the starting bid was at the level that I had requested, like you said, I would either be happy with the result or get my item back.
Now that I am looking it as a bidder, the "new" higher opening bids are forcing me to pay almost a "sale price" for an item that I want just as an initial bid. It feels to me like I am coming out on the short end both ways and am not real pleased with this turn of events.
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