Why Do People Get Into Pre-Live Auction Bidding Wars?

It drives me to drink (as if excuses are necessary). I am watching some lots on SAN for an upcoming live bidding auction and several of my lots are climbing towards or have surpassed high estimate in pre-auction bidding. This happens occasionally and I cannot fathom why anybody would engage in this behavior. It is like the Pavlov's Dog Ebay bidding where people keep getting "outbid" notices and have to keep entering numbers. Dumb, dumb and dumber. Bid live, wait until the last possible moment or enter a book bid number that you are willing to pay.

Now where did I put that corkscrew......

Better yet, use unattended live bidding, which unlike ebay won't reveal your high bids until the live bidding is under way. In both cases, ebay and san, no reason to post live bids ahead of time and move the needle in favor of the seller.

Great point James regarding SAN unattended live bidding. I have used it and loved it and completely forgotten about it.

Why not use pre auction bidding to chase out some bidders? Some people may see a high starting bid and move on. Sometimes a high start bid wins and sometimes it just indicates fierce bidding during the live auction. I'm not sure it makes any difference in the end.

I know what you are saying Ken but I am watching the bids throughout the day steadily increase as I assume one bidder outbids the other and so on. It just seems stupid. I could be wrong. If I were going to bid $1000 on a lot that was estimated at $500 I would hold it until necessary. I see no upside for me in laying my cards out on the table. No upside in letting everyone know that I am big and in town. Just me. Seems more like emotion at play than anything else. Whatever, that bidder is not at my top bid yet.

rogdcam, without specifics I won't attempt to say what is going on here, which can be any of a number of things.

And I would think by now that you know that for some houses, estimates will be lowballed or will be absolute fantasy.

Other people might wonder why you are following bids well before the auction begins. You note here (brag?) that the item in question isn't at your top, so it is your emotions at work here. All that really matters is the opening bid at auction time and whoever is still bidding at that time.

Are you really expecting to steal every lot you bid on? You know that doesn't always happen by now.

So drink that wine but not because of pre-auction bidding. Why worry about something that's out of your control?

Good luck!

Thank you!

The only thing this behavior "chases" is money out of the winner's pockets. Agree with Rog that it's senseless and strictly amateur. Wait for the main event.

I feel the same way about eBay auctions- why place more than one bid and why place that bid any earlier than say 5-6 seconds before the close?

Doesn't make sense to me, either, but some people have no self control.


Say you see 8 bids with the bid at $10, one day before closing. The number of bidders shows me (at least) the typical bunch of $1-$2 bottom feeders these days are now out of the running. You come in and bid $50 at this point (where the item is worth at least that to you) and if the high bid is now $10.50, you could discourage people who keep bumping up the top bid but never end up with top bid themselves.

Similarly in a live auction, the bid may open at $100, then start up 110, 120, 130. Then somebody will make a jump or shutout bid (depending on their intention) to $300. It may be designed to stop everyone else from bidding, or intended to cut to the chase and just take bidding to a (legit/more legit) level where there may be only one other serious competitor.

In either case, it doesn't work every time but it can work sometimes so long as you have a strong idea of the item's value.

About a month ago I was keeping my eye on a US No.1. It was through a Toronto outfit that is famous for very slow live auctions that take four 12 hour days to complete. People generally do not pre-bid on any lots and there is almost no internet participation. About three days before the auction I went ahead and made the minimum bid of $150. The auction came and it was too tedius to watch, so I didn't. After the auction it said there were two identical bids, and that mine was first. I was sure that I had won since the Floor Bidders usually rule at these. I seem to be the only off-site Bidder. It turns out that I didn't win. I contacted them and they said that someone on another internet platform bid on it first a few days before me. It didn't show up on their own website, but they assure that it was made. The lesson is that with these online auctions you can't always believe your eyes or put trust in the Site you are on.

I also bid exactly $425 on a set of stamps that was currently going for about $150 on another unrelated auction. I ended up winning for the full amount. Not $400, or getting outbid at $450. There is something very fishy about that too. How do I know the next highest bid wasn't $300 and they just took my max at their leisure? I am backing away from auctions until the fall now. Better things to waste my money on.

A lot of this pre-auction bidding is intimation of other bidders . It seems to work because then other buyers start looking for other lots to spend their money on .

Experience bidders have different methods to scare away other bidders . Look at the method used by New York Stamps, after watching them thru a few auctions , I created a lot of pain for them and they knew it and so did the auction house who just smiled thru the bidding process .

Casey Magoo ----- Harmers was good for that ,I have two invoices and my faxed in bid sheets that show all my bids were won at my high bid or the next lowest bid to my maxmium bid . These are the last time I will ever put in pre-auction bids .

These chat boards have helped to reduce this type of fun and games that the auction houses play .

I can understand the strategy, but sometimes I feel like what is happening is people are nibbling off someone's initial high bid especially during pre-auction. I see it all the time on eBay where someone places an initial high bid and then all the subsequent bids are probably shill bidders nibbling at that initial bid. Especially if the bids are all small increments. It is the reason why I never place a bid on eBay before the last few seconds of an auction. I saw something the other day that had over 40 bids and most of them were bids trying to find out the eventual winners high bid. All $1-2 incremental bids.

Some of the pre-auction silly bidding is purely emotional because prices end up in silly territory.

Recently I watched a lot of Russian material that Momen was auctioning on Ebay. It was laughable. People were bidding more than Loral retail, more than catalog for pretty common easy to find stuff. Just bidding their brains out for days before the close and then sniping on top of it. IF the bids were all real there were a bunch of brainwashed folks doing this.

True bidding is not always a financial decision . For many years the Asphalt business was done and finished in Chicago around November 10 th , Greg Manning Auctions in New Jersey were around the second week of December. This gave me time to put away the equipment and collect all the invoices money for work done .

Going to the auction was for entertainment for the long winter until the next season of work ,purchasing was looking for fun stuff to work on ....not something to sell on EBAY or to invest money ....it was enjoyment .....bidding never was a issue of how much to bid .