REA open for bidding!

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by Matt

Blair - Qualifying bids are expected. What is surprising is that people have already entered their ceiling bids on day 1. I got the 'your bid was automatically outbid' message several times yesterday. It doesn't bother me, because in the end whoever is willing to pay more will win the lot, but it is surprising.

Hi Matt,

I wonder how much of this is a "blocking" strategy. By this I mean that I would much rather go into overtime with only one or two other qualifying bidders against me than 5-7. So if I personally place a number of those preliminary "under market" bids, that blocks another person from putting in that bid as a marker bid to qualify for O/T.

Not knowing what is going on with other bidders - such as how their other bid lots are running up, how their finances are looking, how much they really want the lot etc. - I'd rather face fewer competitors, despite the fact that I know it only takes one other to run up the price.

(Barry S. and I debated the usefulness of this kind of strategy last year...he doubts it makes a difference, but I feel it might.)

Cheers,
Blair

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Bosox Blair

Hi Matt,

I wonder how much of this is a "blocking" strategy. By this I mean that I would much rather go into overtime with only one or two other qualifying bidders against me than 5-7. So if I personally place a number of those preliminary "under market" bids, that blocks another person from putting in that bid as a marker bid to qualify for O/T.

Not knowing what is going on with other bidders - such as how their other bid lots are running up, how their finances are looking, how much they really want the lot etc. - I'd rather face fewer competitors, despite the fact that I know it only takes one other to run up the price.

(Barry S. and I debated the usefulness of this kind of strategy last year...he doubts it makes a difference, but I feel it might.)

Cheers,
Blair

There are lots of strategies to bidding. I know from running our own auctions that a lot, if not most, of the first day bids are markers. The only time they wouldn't be, and here is the real strategy, is if someone got one of the first bids in and made it a straight bid to their max...in other words, say there is a $2000 card you really want and it's starting at $200. There are no bids yet and you do a straight bid, before any others, and put it at $1800 (w/o BP). That would be a strategy to block others and one that I have used infrequently, but have definitely used. That locks out other bidders from getting in later unless they want to go above your max. I remember many years ago, and I have told this story before, I called Lew on the first day of his auction. He had the E94 overprints x 8 as one lot. There might have been one bid but I don't think there were any. I asked him if I could raise the bid to anything I wanted. He said yes as long as it was above the next increment. I said, ok. The lot was at either $1000 or $1100...... I said take it to $8000. He thought I was crazy because at the time the overprints hadn't taken off. The bid held from that 1st day until the end and I won them for that amount, plus BP. I locked everyone else out with that strategy unless they wanted to jump me which would have been crazy at the time given what the cards were going for. regards

[ethicsprof]

my chief strategy is to wait until the catalogue arrives.
it's tough on me but gives me incredibly focused inner strength.

best,
barry