Reserve Clause

[Archive]

Posted By: Bob Casmer

There's a flaw to Steve's analysis regarding looking at the third high bidder to determine the level of activity/want of a card in an auction. An awful lot of experienced bidders use snipe services nowadays. I can't speak for all snipe services but, the one I've used doesn't execute the bid if it is already less than the current high bid at the time it is to be placed. In Steve's analysis, say the second high bidder was watching the auction live and placed his bid with a minute to go. Any snipes previously set that were to be placed within the last minute probably aren't going to show in the auction results because of the timing. In this case, there could have been any number of bidders between the third bid and the second highest bid that just didn't register. As I said, I can't speak for all snipe services but, that has been my experience with the one I've used. That being the case, just looking at the third high bidder alone won't necessarily give you an accurate read on the market for that particular card/auction.