Name Your Partner High Match - Proceeds To CCF

In celebration of my soon-to-be 250th post, I'm having a bidding contest (I know that SOUNDS like an auction, but read on) where 100% of the proceeds will all go to the nice folks who run this forum.

Here's how this works:

There are two groups of coins pictured below. You can only bid on one of them. You have to specify in your bid if you want coin group 1 or coin group 2. There is no minimum bid. You can bid one cent and try to "steal" one of the groupings, if you'd like. The CATCH to all this is, you can only win if someone else bids the exact same amount on the other group that you did NOT choose, and only if that person names you as their partner. The two highest, matching bids will win. (There's a theoretical example of how this works, below. Please read on...)

So why is this a CONTEST, and not an auction? It's because I expect a contest of strategies. There may be some who want to partner with someone else to win the groups at a low price. There may be others who want to help benefit The Forum without actually winning and having to pay for the coins, so their strategy might be to bid up the low-ballers. Still others may want to see The Forum make some decent bucks off of this, but if they bid too high, perhaps no one else will care to match that high bid.

And here is an important rule: You can bid multiple times, but only under these conditions:

If there is a set of matching bids that is greater than your un-matched bid, you may bid again OR you may match someone else who has already bid higher than the current high matching bids.

If there is a set of matching bids that is higher than you and your partner's matching bids, you may bid again OR you may match someone who has already bid higher than the current high matching bids.

If your unmatched bid is higher than the current highest matching set of bids, you CANNOT bid again. You must wait for your bid to be exceeded by two matching bids before you can bid again OR you can "campaign" to try to find a partner to match your bid.

If you have already bid, and there are no matching bids whatsoever, you cannot bid. You must wait for two others to match and then see where your bid is in relation to that match.

If you have already bid, and there are no matches whatsoever, you are NOT ALLOWED to match someone else's bid. You must wait until there is a match and then see where your bid is in relation to that match.

You are NOT required to keep the same partner throughout the contest, but if you have an unmatched bid you cannot "decline" someone who wants to partner with you.

Here is a theoretical way this might play out. Let's pretend there are only 5 members on this forum who participate. We'll call them M1, M2, M3 M4 and M5.

M3 starts the bidding by bidding 1.00 on group 2

M2 bids $5.00 on group 1
M4 bids $5.00 on group 2 and adds, "I match M2"

(At this point, there is no longer any sense in bidding $5.00 or less. M2 and M4 have locked up the $5.00 level. But the game goes on...)

M1 bids $40.00 on group 2. (Wow! Big spender!)

M3 (his earlier bid has been eclipsed by the M2 M4 $5.00 match) now bids $6.00 on group 2
M5 bids $6.00 on Group 1 and says, "I match M3"

M4 bids $10.00 on group 2
M2 bids $10.00 on group 1 and says "I match M4"

M1 adds to the levity by writing, "You people are a bunch of cheap-skates!"

M3 bids $10.00 on group 2 and says "I match M2"

At this point I step in and say to M3 "No you don't! M2 and M4 are already partnered at the $10.00 level. You have no partner!

M3 curses under his breath and bids $10.01 on group 2...
M5 decides he really doesn't want to spend this much and does NOT match or bid

Time goes by. The contest reaches it's deadline. BZZZZTTT! The final buzzer goes off! M2 and M4 are declared the winners at $10.00 each. I mail them their respective groups of coins and The Forum becomes $20.00 richer as I send them $20.00 via PayPal. M3 wonders why M5 bailed on him and why nobody else likes him. M1 comments again, "You people are a bunch of cheapies!"

Contest ends at midnight eastern time on June 13th.

Questions?

Here are the coins: