What Is Your Auction Strategy?

[glchen]

I agree with Leon about the strategies. Generally, I go w/ the put an earlier marker in and then bid during extended bidding. However, sometimes you know that a lot is worth X dollars. The cards in the lot are common enough that you can buy elsewhere, so you want to stake your max bid at X since at the next high bid, the lot won't be worth it anymore. Finally, sometimes you want to go with a straight bid early rather than a max bids that jumps a number of levels to knock potential bidders out of the lot.

[benchod]

I suspect there is no right or wrong answer.
In the end the lot will sell for the same regardless of your strategy

[Mark]

If it's something that I really want, I place what I would consider a fair bid early, and then I watch it. During extended hours, I am willing to bid about
%25 more.

[barrysloate]

What also plays into most bidders' strategy is the importance of the lot. Some lots are must have ones, others are simply worth a bid if they don't go too high. So one might implement a different strategy for each.

[Exhibitman]

I also rarely sit around watching an auction into the depths of the evening. I typically just plug in my final bid and that's the end of it for me, win or lose.

There have been some occasions where I know my max is a specific increment and I will lodge that bid early just to be sure I am owner of that increment.

[steve B]

Online bidding is so different from live bidding.

I'm on a budget as well, and most of my buying is from Ebay. There I seldom bid before the last few minutes, or preferably the last few seconds. If I Really want something I'll bid maybe 75% of my max just in case I miss the ending. Or for common stuff I just bid and if I don't win that's fine.

I haven't bid with any of the major auction houses, nearly everything is more than I could reasonably spend.

I do go to a few local auctions, and I prefer live bidding. It's far easier to get a feel for wether the other bidder or bidders are hitting a comfort level they won't pass.

One of the auctions has occasional big surprises. Like a 40's braves warmup jacket. Hung in a corner during preview with the plain red back facing out, put up late, and in really rough shape. Announced as Ernie Lombardis and coming from a family that was friendly with him (Yeah right, but it is huge...)
Luckily it went for very little, I'm not sure where I'd have decided to stop on that.

Steve B