Auction lot opinions, is the sum worth more than the whole

[BobC]

This concept can also work counter to a consignor and AH if it is a sale of something rather unique/special, where maybe only a few people are seriously interested in the set, or certain items in it, and they know each other from years of collecting the same things. An autographed set to me could fit this description.

If the seriously interested parties get together to bid as a group, they could combine forces, and pocketbooks, and agree not to bid each other up on individual items, and work together to split the total set. Chances are, without them bidding against each other, individual items will go for less than they otherwise would, and fewer people would be willing/able to go higher for the overall set due to the dollars needed. And if there did end up being a number of other bidders running up the individual item auctions way more than expected, the group could wait till near the very end of the auction and decide to abandon going after the set after all, and each go after the individual lots they were interested in.