I Don't Win Auctions Anymore. How Should I Adjust My Bidding?

Have you thought about changing your Deodorant ?

As others have said it really can be quite interesting. I recently-ish purchased a nicely toned 1957 Washington quarter PCGS MS67 with attractive mint set toning. There were 2 nearly identical coins hammering that night, the one I bought had a rich blue color and the other the same blue but a slightly lighter shade. I decided to go after the full blue coin and got it for $50, the other hammered for $100. Effectively identical coins at the same auction house on the same night. Weird right?

I obtain most of my coins via auction, and while I'm aggressive, I have also recently been blown out on several coins that ended up way above the max bid I mentally set. I'm going to share some random thoughts on the initial question, along with observations on some of the replies, in no particular order. I will also share what I consider two important tips on bidding strategies.




1. Once one has done their pricing research, you really need to make sure your max bid takes the B.P. into account, along with sales tax, so that if indeed you are the high bidder, the total price you pay is not higher than your researched max price. I suspect most people reading this make those mental pricing adjustments, but apparently not everyone does.

2. Coins are not commodities, where every MS6x is the same as the next one in that same grade. Eye appeal matters BIG TIME, especially as you climb the grading scale. It sounds like @Sharkman has developed a better eye, or maybe is seeking out higher graded coins with strong eye appeal as the reason for missing out more than in the past. Regardless, I strongly suggest to determine your price well before the auction starts, and stick with it. Leave emotions out! Don't chase a coin, as that is how you will end up overpaying and getting buried in that coin. On the otherhand, as I mentioned at the beginning, I bid aggressively, so if there's a coin I really want, I don't mind paying a "strong" price, even if that's not a bargain.

3. keep in mind we now have a "Two Tier" Market - coins with CAC's and coins without CAC's. Like it or not, coins with CAC's IN GENERAL have been holding steady in price, or increasing in price over the past few years, while those without CAC's IN GENERAL have been dropping in price. As such, when doing pricing research, compare apples to apples. if the coin in the auction has a CAC, look mainly at sale prices of coins in that grade with CAC's.

4. Comments made above regarding being the underbidder are so true. You really have no idea if the high bidder's max bid just happened to be only one bid increment above yours, or a lot more. My guess is more often than not, it was more than just that one increment.

5. My first tip on bidding strategy (and this is subjective - not everyone will agree) is NEVER place your bid any earlier than you need to. For those that place their max bids early, even when you end up as the high bidder at a price well below your maximum bid, you may still have ended up paying more than you otherwise would have had you bid at the end. For example, say your max bid is $500, and you ended up the high bidder at only $380. Yes you are happy, but MAYBE others were just chipping away at your "current' high bid over time, seeing you still topped them, then over time gave it more thought, and bid higher again. then still gave it more thought, and bid even higher again. Ultimately they gave up and you got it for $380 plus b.p. I truly believe that in this example had you waited until the end to place your max bid, MAYBE you would have been the high bidder at $320 or so, as the person who got outbid did not have the time to ponder if they should go up anther increment or two.

6. I believe the end part of this last point is the one of most value: With Heritage, to bid late you can utilize their "Live Bid" feature, which allows you to place your max bid a day or more before the coin comes on the auction block (so you don't have to hang around your computer). That max bid is not acted on during the Proxy bidding portion of the auction - it's just kept on the side until that lot actually comes on the block. While their instructions imply that you can place that bid only 24 hours before THAT SESSION starts, the unknown secret is that you can actually place your max bid on Live Bid 24 hours before the VERY FIRST session of that auction. So if it's a multi-day Heritage Auction, and your lot is in the Sunday session, but the first session is on a Thursday, you can actually place your max Live Bid on Wednesday, 24 hours before that Thursday session starts. This is important if your max bid is tied by a Live Bid placed after yours, or if someone truly bids live as the coin is on the block. The tie goes to YOU. However, if during the Proxy bid period someone makes a Proxy bid the same as your max Live Bid, the Proxy bid will win a tie over a Live Bid. This strategy has helped me numerous times.

7. One final unrelated point regarding terminology. Almost all of us use the term "Winning" a lot at an auction, whether it's an eBay auction or a Heritage, Stacks, GC auction, etc. I don't consider being the end high bidder as having "Won" the coin. I consider it as having BOUGHT the coin at a price I was willing to pay (and there was an underbidder and others who chose not to pay as much as me at that time for that coin). When I "Win" something, maybe it's a raffle, or a horse race, or a football bet, where I end up with something of more value than what I paid for that opportunity. Just my thougts.

But if you do join Live Bid when it's on the block, and the most you bid is the same as my max Live bid, then you lose out to me, which is the point I was making. If your max bid is higher than mine, then I would have lost to you regardless of ANY bidding strategy. In the meantime, I may be relaxing over some fine wine at a restaurant, or watching TV, or spending time with friends, or some other ralaxing activity, while you have to watch your computer screen every second at that time. Separately, G-d forbid if your internet connection gets hung up.

Actually, that's incorrect, as your bid during Live Bid on Heritage would have to be a full bidding increment above my max bid (or use a one time only split bid increment). The strategy you describe by the $5 only works on eBay and GC. That's why I never place my max bid early on those two auction sites. When I place my max bid in the last few seconds on those sites, you won't have time to think about trying to outbid me by $5. But again, that's my point. I avoid the error of placing my max bid on those sites early, because if I did place it early, then you and others would indeed have plenty of time to try to flush out my max bid. And even if in that situation you chose a few times to catch me but then chose to stop, my ending cost would have been higher than it otherwise would have been had I not placed my max bid early.




Oh, I see!

Or possibly others felt there was value that you felt was not there. That's OK. I fully agree no one should bid at a price that is not of value to them.

Oh, I see!

I still don't understand this post. If you pay more than what you expect to pay, that's not really winning, that's overpaying.

If the item sells for under your max bid than thats buying at a good price. Losing a bid is good if the cost would be more than what you feel is a fair price.