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.

[oldjudge]

The process is flawed. Let’s say it is a hundred card lot of roughly equivalent value cards. Let’s further assume that the whole lot is at $10,000 and the sum of the individual lots is at $9800. Further assume that there is one card in the lot that you really want that it is currently at $100. You might be willing to pay over $200 for that card but auction software won’t let you bid because once you go to $110 you are the high bidder and you can’t top yourself. The software should be adjusted so that the aggregate lot total can bump your bid, but to my knowledge no auction software is constructed like that. I had this very situation happen to me in an auction years ago. I had to call the auction and instruct them to bid against me (I may the only person ever who asked to be shilled) so that I could get my bid to the point where the total of the single cards exceeded the aggregate and I could win the card I wanted.

[FrankWakefield]

I've seen this process more times when small farms are sold, than I have with other stuff. And having read Jay's post above, I agree with that, there's a flaw in the process, especially for computer program auctions which would include eBay. Seems to me the quickest way to deal with that, using Jay's example, would be for me to get a friend to underbid the that card he was after with a $190 bid (if that fit the increments) so that Jay's $200 bid activates.

Still, the problem remains that if 2 dozen of the cards only draw bids of $70 or so, then the higher 'set bid' would win. It would definitely be frustrating. Realistically, the frustrating part is you think you've won with your bid when you haven't. You have to win in whichever auction of the two brings the higher price.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I have a vague memory of bidding on and winning both the Mize and Rickey cards in the 1941 St. Louis team set, at very good prices, but winning neither because the set went for more. Many of the commons had pretty much zero interest as singles as I recall.