Do you ever bid on online auction lots with absolutely no chance of buying the coins?

MrEureka

Easy enough to do it with no risk of actually buying the coin, as long as the current bid is obviously way too cheap. Just keep bidding one increment more until you tie the high bidder, at which point you'll know exactly what he bid, and know that he's not saving a penny. You might do it just for sport, or maybe to protect the value of something similar that you own, or maybe because a friend consigned the coin and you want to help him out, or maybe just to be mean. You know if you've done it. Time to confess!

BTW, this game only works on auctions like Heritage and S-B, because the bidding steps are predefined. It doesn't work on eBay and GC.

Edited to say this is a stupid post, but I'll leave it anyway. Have fun! LOL

DCW

No, and I think we'd all be better off as a hobby if people didn't play such games.

MrEureka

@DCW said:
No, and I think we'd all be better off as a hobby if people didn't play such games.

I agree. But obviously some people will continue to play the games as long as they can.

Randoms

Many years ago I did it on eBay. I played in a very thinly traded market. I knew my chief competitor. I would bid the first item up believing another one or something similar would be put up for sale. When the second one came around I had less competition and would pay less

Cougar1978

Not if chance win too low. Start at at least some chance win 50 - 75 pct bid like maybe they all at Long Beach or FUN. You can ratchet down if u think too high. I taper the bids accordingly.

However - Using AS I might low ball heck outta them if slight chance win 60-67 pct CDN bid. Picked up many. Sometimes win then price around CPG for show. Sweet. If it’s around FUN you might bump some down lower. Done that and scored good.

The more demand, popularity of the item the tougher the sledding. However it’s a really fun, rewarding activity for me.

Ronsanderson

Definitely not for any of the reasons you mentioned. They just seem perverse and mean to some stranger who may be hoping to gain something they really appreciate but is at the edge of their resources. If someone else bids them up they may never get another chance at it again. Kind of like a cat “toying” with a mouse - fun for the cat, but not so much for the mouse.

Nonetheless, sometimes I use a very low bid to have my interest show up either in daily bid summary emails or text notifications. My bid will never affect the final outcome but triggers some extra pings from the auction site so I don’t miss the action and can reconsider if the current pricing is within my reach.

Mr_Spud

Sometimes I bid on new auctions with a low bid just to “watch” an auction. That way I get actual notifications on the auction without having to sign in to check.

coinbuf

Yes but like some others not for the reasons you called out. It's just fun to be the first bidder on a 20K coin with a 2.5K bid, I'll never win the coin but I'm not shilling or screwing with someone else. And bty this does work just fine on GC too, I've sworn off ebay for the most part.

TheGoonies1985

No I bid on coins I actually want to win.

lilolme

@MrEureka said:
Easy enough to do it with no risk of actually buying the coin, as long as the current bid is obviously way too cheap. Just keep bidding one increment more until you tie the high bidder, at which point you'll know exactly what he bid, and know that he's not saving a penny. You might do it just for sport, or maybe to protect the value of something similar that you own, or maybe because a friend consigned the coin and you want to help him out, or maybe just to be mean. You know if you've done it. Time to confess!

BTW, this game only works on auctions like Heritage and S-B, because the bidding steps are predefined. It doesn't work on eBay and GC.

I may not be reading your post correctly but Heritage does allow bids that are not on increments and also a secret max bid may not be on a standard bid increment.

Also it would appear that the example of increasing the bid by one increment could result in the secret max bid being executed and beating the prior bid by one increment (so it is unknown that the secret max bid has been hit) and then the next bid would go over it. In this example one never does tie the high bidder.

MrEureka

@lilolme said:

@MrEureka said:
Easy enough to do it with no risk of actually buying the coin, as long as the current bid is obviously way too cheap. Just keep bidding one increment more until you tie the high bidder, at which point you'll know exactly what he bid, and know that he's not saving a penny. You might do it just for sport, or maybe to protect the value of something similar that you own, or maybe because a friend consigned the coin and you want to help him out, or maybe just to be mean. You know if you've done it. Time to confess!

BTW, this game only works on auctions like Heritage and S-B, because the bidding steps are predefined. It doesn't work on eBay and GC.

I may not be reading your post correctly but Heritage does allow bids that are not on increments and also a secret max bid may not be on a standard bid increment.

Also it would appear that the example of increasing the bid by one increment could result in the secret max bid being executed and beating the prior bid by one increment (so it is unknown that the secret max bid has been hit) and then the next bid would go over it. In this example one never does tie the high bidder.

Yes, of course. My post was stupid. Blame it on a very long day of travel and exhaustion, or on stupidity. Your choice. LOL

On the other hand, there are times when you can stumble on another bidder's max and quit shilling him just in time. But you can't count on that happening every time, as I had mistakenly suggested.

rte592

I often walk my bid up and get a clue where the high bidder is.
I'm fully prepared to be the high bidder if I get there.
What gets me is a bidder on eBay that stacks their name up 2x 3x 4x etc times trying to intimidate the other bidders.
Don't do that, I will help you spend your money to a point.
That's just cheap entertainment for me helping you out spending your money.

jdimmick

I wouldnt do that, but have thrown a token bid on something for a place marker in case I want to revisit it

seatedlib3991

I should probably keep my mouth shut but I do employ a certain bid strategy. NOTE I only bid on coins I am after but I will place a bid that is around 90% of what the cdn price is and or what i think is a very near bid. I do this early and only on a coin i think is quality enough to go high.
I "let" them outbid me and then i wait until the final few minutes to place my actual bid. (I have a theory that can't be proved that someone will become so fixed on a certain price they become obstinate to bid higher). Won't say it always works; but has been a winning approach a few times. James

coinsarefun

I used to because one never knows. And I’ve been lucky a few times too.

jesbroken

I have never placed a bid on a coin I did not want to win and most likely never will.
Jim

87redcivic

I did when I was younger, had a (much) lower coin budget, and I wanted to be "part of the action".

JimTyler

Yes

scotty4449

I only bid on coins I think I can win. Although, I will admit it is sometimes wishful thinking.

Jacques_Loungecoque

I was doing this with super lowball opening bids on GC to keep the items I wanted to watch on the same buying activity page as the items I do want to bid on.

But then I realized all the items I bid on show up on my watch page. 🤦‍♂️

seanq

I have placed many bids on coins that I never expected to win, but on some level I always want to win them. Or to put it another way, I have never placed a bid that I hoped would **not **win an auction.

Sean Reynolds

WCC

No. I only bid on coins I want to buy which I can realistically afford or are within my self-imposed financial limits.

Project Numismatics

@rte592 said:
I often walk my bid up and get a clue where the high bidder is.
I'm fully prepared to be the high bidder if I get there.
What gets me is a bidder on eBay that stacks their name up 2x 3x 4x etc times trying to intimidate the other bidders.
Don't do that, I will help you spend your money to a point.
That's just cheap entertainment for me helping you out spending your money.

I don’t view placing multiple eBay bids on top of each other as “trying to intimidate the other bidders”. When I do it, it is because I reconconsidered my bid and want to place a higher maximum before another person bids. This is usually based on additional market research for truly rare items as sometimes it can take a couple hours over several days to research value for a very rare item (certain tokens) or because I decide I really want the coin and need to increase my max. It has nothing to do with other bidders or mind games!

jedm

I do bid on coins that I MOST LIKELY have no chance of winning; however, if I don't bid at all I SURELY have absolutely no chance of winning. So there's that.

Copperindian

Yes; I used to when I was following more auctions than I do now. It was a way of keeping track but they were always coins I was interested in buying. And, one never knows - on any particular day it might end up to be a winning bid!

jmlanzaf

I do it all the time but not for any nefarious reason. Sometimes things slip through. Other times it's just fun to bid on a rare coin.

Walkerfan

No, I’ve never done it and I’ve never understood the desire to. An acquaintance of mine did that and bid what he thought was too much. He didn’t get any sleep that night, Until he found out that he was outbid the next morning and was very relieved. 😅 I thought it was kind of funny yet foolish on his part. 🤣

scubafuel

I don’t bid early anymore. Many of the coins I want to buy do not really have a “set” value, and I don’t want to help with any potential price discovery before it’s game time.
I’ve also stopped talking about what lots I’m interested in. Most people are smart enough to know this instinctively, but I had to learn the hard way 😉

ARCO

Yes, I sometimes bid for fun. It is always at a price point far below what the coin will sell for. Sometimes, I just feel bad seeing a really nice coin not getting a bid on Heritage or Ebay. I know like myself, the consigner probably gets excited to see those bids come in and the auction price rising. Or, like jmlanzaf stated, it is just fun to place a bid on a really rare and expensive coin.

So, Just doing my part to keep the excitement going.

Project Numismatics

@Walkerfan said:
No, I’ve never done it and I’ve never understood the desire to. An acquaintance of mine did that and bid what he thought was too much. He didn’t get any sleep that night, Until he found out that he was outbid the next morning and was very relieved. 😅 I thought it was kind of funny yet foolish on his part. 🤣

“An acquaintance”? Mmhmm.

oreville

I sometimes bid an early price bid of $1 to $100 just to be able to watch the bidding of the coin after my bids.

For the very first time I bid up to $250K for an ultra rare coin I was fascinated with many years ago which was the 1975 no S proof dime. I did have the funds if I had won the auction and might have kept it or flipped it but was not expecting to win the dime.

Shurke

I wouldn’t bid up another bidder on a coin I have no intention of buying.

I have however occasionally put unrealistically low bids (I’m talking sub-$50) on things like proof gold that I know will go for tens of thousands of dollars. Mostly just as a way to make sure I follow the auction, but also for the small thrill of bidding on something spectacular.

Walkerfan

@Project Numismatics said:

@Walkerfan said:
No, I’ve never done it and I’ve never understood the desire to. An acquaintance of mine did that and bid what he thought was too much. He didn’t get any sleep that night, Until he found out that he was outbid the next morning and was very relieved. 😅 I thought it was kind of funny yet foolish on his part. 🤣

“An acquaintance”? Mmhmm.

I swear it wasn’t me. It was a guy I used to work with. 😅. When he told me what happened; I thought he was crazy! 🤪 it wasn’t a coin either. It was an expensive car.

alaura22

It seems I bid on coins every week with absolutely no chance of winning!!!