[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by Jobu

The flip side of this is that, considered vs. a fixed price that we assume the buyer saw and thinks is a bit high, the buyer might be willing to risk paying more at auction to acquire the chance to pay less.

I also think there is an element of people getting excited about owning a particular when they follow an auction for days (or weeks) where the current bid is well below market, something that is missing when looking at a card at full price. I don't know that this is the fun of the chase as much as it is that the person develops a longer relationship with a card they are bidding on while a card with a price on it is a pretty short time to pass/buy without days/weeks thinking about that exact card.

Kind of a corollary to that, but there are times when I have seen a BIN that I was tempted but then let pass. After it survived without a bid and is relisted I start to get more confident that I can get the card at my leisure, and maybe for an offer at a lesser price. Then at some point I see the card is listed as a straight auction, and it becomes more of a now or never situation, so I need to adjust my thinking. At that point and depending on how badly I want the card, I will bid up to and a time or two even more than I could have had it BIN (although not by much). Of course, there are occasions when someone else jumps on the BIN and the card is gone, but I've learned not to get too worked up over that.