Bidding Tip for DLRC (David Lawrence Rare Coins)
winesteven
Posts: 4,784 ✭✭✭✭✭
While most of my purchases are from GC, Heritage, Stacks and dealers, I buy about three or four coins a year from DLRC. Tonight I bought one on DLRC, using a bidding strategy that saved me a few dollars. As such, I thought I’d share it with my fellow collectors on this forum.
I believe most/many bidders on DLRC believe their max bid must be “on increment”, but that’s not the case. While the max bid you place must be at least as high as the next increment, you can bid just a little bit above that, even if it’s not “on increment”. Following is the real life situation from this evening, clarifying my point, and then showing how it saved me from having to pay $9 extra to still end up with the high bid (unlike Great Collections, where bids can include cents, with DLRC bids must be in whole dollars).
The coin in question is a low priced coin, but the following strategy often works at any level. This coin had already been bid up by others to a high retail level, where the current high bid was $130 near the end of the auction when I was ready to place my bid. At this level, the bidding increment is $10. I then placed my max bid at $141. That $141 turned out to be the winning bid. Yes, the underbidder, who it turned out had a “hidden” max bid of $140, could indeed have then chosen to bid at least $151 after seeing my high bid of $141. He had at least three minutes after I placed my high bid, since DLRC has a “soft close” to avoid sniping (unlike GC, which has a hard close). (As a bidder, I prefer a hard close, but as a seller I prefer a soft close, but this has nothing to do with my point).
- How do I know the underbidder had a “hidden” max bid of $140 when his high bid showing was $130? Had his max bid been that $130, then when I placed my $141 max bid, it would have then shown my high bid at $140, one $10 increment over his $130 bid. But since it showed my high bid was $141 and not $140, that’s how I know he had a max bid higher than his high bid showing of $130.
- What if his max bid would have actually been only $130? No harm, as my max high bid of $141 would then have shown me at $140, one $10 increment above his bid of $130, not at $141. So by me bidding this way, there was no disadvantage.
- What would have happened if I decided to place a max bid of $140 instead of $141? As it turned out, he would have gotten that tie, and the system would have shown he had the high bid of $140. To get the coin, I would then have had to bid at least $150, a $10 increment over his newly revealed high bid of $140. As noted, it would then have cost me $9 extra to get that coin!
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
Comments
Steve, why not bid $140.01?
Coin Photographer.
As noted earlier in my post, unlike with GC, DLRC requires bids to be in whole dollars.
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
Ah, I missed that, my mistake.
Coin Photographer.
"...unlike Great Collections, where bids can include cents, with DLRC bids must be in whole dollars)."
Very nice Steve. Do you mind sharing the coin?
I’d prefer not, since any discussion of the actual coin would only be a distraction to the point I made.
Thanks for your understanding.
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
From a bidding strategy if you’re the high bidder at $130 instead of having a maximum bid of $140 make your max bid ~half an increment higher (ie. $145) to prevent this from happening.
That’s my point - it can even be done at $141, but make it higher “off increment”. My experience is that most/many DLRC bidders don’t do this!
Had the underbidder done this in the example actually described above, either it would have then cost me more, OR more importantly, I may have then decided not to pay that much, and then the guy would have ended up as the high bidder! Instead, his high max bid was $140, and I got it at $141, just a dollar more, since he decided not to bid at least $151 in those last three minutes!
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
The underbidders strategy was lacking and he probably wasn’t following the end of the auction.
My guess is he may have been following, since his bid was placed with only 14 minutes left. However, it’s also quite possible he may have placed his bid, and decided that was truly his max, so he had no need to watch the end (although we know he looked at least once to find out if he ended up as the high bidder or not).
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
The computer ate my post AND the draft I copied of it to start a new discussion about a CU computer bug.
Looks Like the "Bug" got me before I could post it. Everything I wrote is gone. I'm out of time this morning so I'll need to write it again tonight.