Auction psychology

[BobC]

Originally Posted by raulus

It has certainly been the case historically that I've regretted missing out on stuff. However, over the last 24 months, I've regretted losing a lot less, even though I'm losing a lot more. Maybe I'm just numb to it, but more likely, the prices are just so high that losing seems like winning sometimes, particularly if I am willing to wait for another one to come back onto the market.

Just for fun, here's a couple of somewhat recent examples where I was the underbidder, and I'm not really regretting it:

https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...?itemid=103985

https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...?itemid=103692

What is even more surprising to me were the final hammer prices. Both PSA 9s, but the older '54 Topps Mays card going for exactly 30% less than a '62 Topps Mays?!?!? They are both not always found well centered, but if anything, I would have expected those prices to more likely be the other way around. Possibly a case of two determined collectors fighting for registry improvement or superiority in regard to the '62 Mays?

The PSA pop reports show a total of 16 '54 Mays cards graded as 9s, with three of them having qualifiers, but none graded higher. Meanwhile, the pop report shows a total of 9 '62 Mays cards graded as 9s, with none having any qualifiers, but in this case there is 1 single higher graded '62 Mays card graded 10. Though there are actually fewer '62 Topps Mays cards graded 9, or higher, I can't see enough of a difference in the numbers to justify and explain the big difference in those final auction prices being based on these pop reports alone.