Heritage Auctions - Boston Garters

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Suppose lete in the bidding there's just one or two lots where it's obvious another bidder really wants them and would go to the moon to get them. You really want the set so abandon the plan to win all individual lots and chase the set. Suppose too nobody else would have bid higher on the other individual lots on which you are now high. At that point aren't all your other bids built into the set price you now have to beat? Wouldn't you have done better just to chase the set from the get go?

This would be another example of why you need to control both sides of the auction. You can't know ahead of time which side might have that one guy that is willing to go to the moon, but if you can continue to bid on the other side, you can shut him out as long as you have enough competition on the other side to overtake him. But if there's no competition on that other side, then you won't have that option available to you, and you'd have to take him on head to head. Basically, you have to be willing to take on all bidders on both sides in order to guarantee a win. You can switch which sides you bet on, but you only switch sides due to action by other bidders forcing you to switch, not by your own action on the other side. Because if your action on the other side is sufficient to overtake, you won't need to bid again. You're always overtaking someone else, never yourself.

Honestly, it's a non optional strategy for the auction house to run it this way. It almost ensures the hammer price is less than if it had been individual lots only. Especially for something easily trackable like a set of 12 cards.