You guys RELAX!!!

[Leon]

I think discussing bidding makes a good thread. We almost all bid in auctions for our cards. What could be more relevant to what we do? On ebay, I snipe with about 5-7 seconds left, approximately 95% of the time. In auction house auctions I usually put in a marker bid early, then wait till the last day and last hours to see how things shape up....and to decide what I will go for in earnest. Even if I HAVE to have something I will usually use these methods. Every now and then I will try the straight HIGH bid methodology very early on, in order to dissuade some bidders. But that usually doesn't work. I remember about 10+ yrs ago, it was the first day of a Lipset Auction. He had 8 of the E94 overprints in one lot. No bids were placed yet. I called Lew and asked how high I could do a straight bid. He said I could bid anything I wanted above the minimum. The starting bid was $1000. I told him to put an $8000 bid in for me. He thought I was crazy but did it. That was the first day and first bid on the lot. It held up for the next 2-3 weeks and I got it for that bid plus the BP. LL

[travrosty]

if you put your maximum bid in the first day and forget about it, you will either get the card or not. if sniping were to get a card for less, because someone else didnt get a chance to top your bid, then why is he willing to let time run out before he can put in a higher bid? that's stupid. he has a price where he is willing to go so he is just going to put that in as his snipe bid or early or whatever. it's just psychological but at the end of the day everyone is putting in their max bids one way or the other so either yours is higher than his or vice versa.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Travis in a rational world you are right but in an irrational one when someone sees a bid he might decide to go higher even if it exceeds what his max would have been in a vacuum. Thus a reason to snipe and not show your hand.