It's all about the registry

[Stampsfan]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

The numbers are actually chilling for the high bidder who "won" the lot. And no, I'm not talking about the buyer's premium that he now must pay or any selling fees he'd incur were he attempt to liquidate his "investment" now. It's the brutal underlying mathematics of being the high bidder in an auction.

Consider. It's actually the second highest bidder who's the key in setting the hammer price. And if the lot were to go up for auction again, it would be the third highest bidder of the auction just concluded who'd be the second highest bidder of the new auction. But if two bidders went head-to-head on the concluded auction leaving the third highest bidder in their dust, the third highest bidder's maximum bid of say only 50% of the hammer price in the previous auction would be the bar that would need to be beaten by a tick in the next auction. So the hammer price of the next auction might well turn out to be only half of what the "winning" bidder in the just concluded auction paid!

That can be exactly how it can play out. Early last year I was the underbidder on a PSA 6 C55 Vezina that, with BP, ended up going for about $60K CAD. At the next large card show, it was the talk about how it set a new bar. I've not bid on one since, but the last 6 (in fairness, newer grade and OC and a slight diamond cut) went for just over half of that. None have come close since.

I never told anyone I was the underbidder, but the buyer knew me and also knew I cost him almost $15K (his last bid, then mine, then his winning bid).