Bidder 1 Winners at Great Collections

JBN · August 3, 2026 5:32PM

While tracking this half dollar
https://greatcollections.com/Coin/2200592/1825-Capped-Bust-Half-Dollar-PCGS-AU-58-CAC-Green

ahead of its auction, I recognized the durability of the first bid placed on the lot. Withstood all those challenge bids. An electronic version of holding your card up at auction. I'm thinking that only a few percent of lots auction off in this fashion.
Curious as to what some of you think the percentage of the lots are sold to Bidder 1.

jmlanzaf · August 3, 2026 5:37PM

@JBN said:
While tracking this half dollar
https://greatcollections.com/Coin/2200592/1825-Capped-Bust-Half-Dollar-PCGS-AU-58-CAC-Green

ahead of its auction, I recognized the durability of the first bid placed on the lot. Withstood all those challenge bids. An electronic version of holding your card up at auction. I'm thinking that only a few percent of lots auction off in this fashion.
Curious as to what some of you think the percentage of the lots are sold to Bidder 1.

Pretty much every lot I win goes to the first bidder. I don't go back and change it very often

Old_Collector · August 3, 2026 5:47PM

@JBN said:
While tracking this half dollar
https://greatcollections.com/Coin/2200592/1825-Capped-Bust-Half-Dollar-PCGS-AU-58-CAC-Green

ahead of its auction, I recognized the durability of the first bid placed on the lot. Withstood all those challenge bids. An electronic version of holding your card up at auction. I'm thinking that only a few percent of lots auction off in this fashion.
Curious as to what some of you think the percentage of the lots are sold to Bidder 1.

In my experience very few, some clown will make a minimum bid just to watch the lot. I picked up a 16-S St Gaudens PCGS MS65 and it was not even close to bidder 1, I was bidder 2 with a following bid and then made a full bid a week later and 1 never bid again it was a gradual group of 3-6 that never reached my bid and I got it at a fair price with gold being down. I find this is very common. I've taken down some more expensive items where there were several dozen bids, again having just put in a following bid as #2.

Although, I have lost quite a few on those last minute, or should I say last second bids that makes HA a lot more civilized as a true auction. At least there I can bid up to a limit and decide on whether to drop out.

1madman · August 3, 2026 5:48PM

Bidder 1 placed multiple bids on this auction over its span. They didn’t place 1 nuclear bid from the get go.

Walkerfan · August 3, 2026 5:54PM

@1madman said:
Bidder 1 placed multiple bids on this auction over its span. They didn’t place 1 nuclear bid from the get go.

Exactly

Still not the best bidding strategy, but better than one early, initial, nuclear bid.

JBN · August 3, 2026 6:10PM

@1madman said:
Bidder 1 placed multiple bids on this auction over its span. They didn’t place 1 nuclear bid from the get go.

Thanks. Not aware of this. I thought that each bid was counted in the tally. That being said, the bidder (and any of their updated bids) was savvy in never surrendering the lead.

edwardjulio · August 3, 2026 6:53PM

""Bidder 1 placed multiple bids on this auction over its span. They didn’t place 1 nuclear bid from the get go."

This is not correct. Bidder 1 placed a "secret maximum bid".

epc · August 3, 2026 8:20PM

@edwardjulio - If you look at the bid history, it shows that Bidder 1 placed an initial bid on July 21, increased it on July 22 (while still in the lead), and increased it again on July 31 (again, while still in the lead). So, it was not an initial nuclear bid. It was three progressively higher secret maximum bids.

humanssuck · August 3, 2026 9:22PM

@JBN said:

@1madman said:
Bidder 1 placed multiple bids on this auction over its span. They didn’t place 1 nuclear bid from the get go.

Thanks. Not aware of this. I thought that each bid was counted in the tally. That being said, the bidder (and any of their updated bids) was savvy in never surrendering the lead.

Staying in the lead isn't savvy, it ensures that you maximize the price you're going to pay.

By constantly being higher, other people kept bidding him up. He would have won the lot for less $ by placing a last second bid as opposed to trying to stay on top all the time.

124Spider · August 3, 2026 9:45PM

@humanssuck said:

@JBN said:

@1madman said:
Bidder 1 placed multiple bids on this auction over its span. They didn’t place 1 nuclear bid from the get go.

Thanks. Not aware of this. I thought that each bid was counted in the tally. That being said, the bidder (and any of their updated bids) was savvy in never surrendering the lead.

Staying in the lead isn't savvy, it ensures that you maximize the price you're going to pay.

By constantly being higher, other people kept bidding him up. He would have won the lot for less $ by placing a last second bid as opposed to trying to stay on top all the time.

Correct; he was bidding against himself, effectively, by driving up the bidding. It makes no sense in a GC acution, and makes little sense in any auction.

jdimmick · August 3, 2026 11:28PM

I normally dont even bother looking, but a coin I was chasing at GC the other wekk, bidder #1 came back at end and took the lot with new placed bid, not a prior bid.

Old_Collector · August 4, 2026 1:55AM

Here is the bid history of that coin and it was done in several maximum bids by bidder 1, look at the time/date of bids -- bidder 1 put in an initial high bid of around 675 and following the bid of 4 put in a bid that was 1640.25 on Wed but then came back and raised that max bid to 1775 (or higher we cannot know how high it was) Friday, so when 9 bid 1725 on Sunday the 1775 bid was automatically placed. He clearly wanted the coin IMO.

epc · August 4, 2026 7:54AM

Bidder 1 did not bid against himself. He simply increased his secret maximum a couple times in response to other bidders. And he probably didn't expect his initial bid to win anyway. His actions did not guarantee that anyone else would enter bids.
That said, I am in the camp that thinks active pre-bidding does tend to increase the final price. If everyone waited to enter snipe bids near closing time, I think there would be fewer folks going beyond their pre-determined bid "limits".

Old_Collector · August 4, 2026 8:53AM

@epc said:
Bidder 1 did not bid against himself. He simply increased his secret maximum a couple times in response to other bidders. And he probably didn't expect his initial bid to win anyway. His actions did not guarantee that anyone else would enter bids.
That said, I am in the camp that thinks active pre-bidding does tend to increase the final price. If everyone waited to enter snipe bids near closing time, I think there would be fewer folks going beyond their pre-determined bid "limits".

Yes, he made three distinct limit bids as shown in the record on Tue, Wed, and Fri.

I agree that is generally the case unless you really want the coin and are lucky enough not to have to deep pockets after the same coin, some really go well above what they should when that happens.

If I really want something, I often consider the highest amount that I will pay, add 20% and make that my first bid if it is something that you just never see available. Yeah, I pay a bit more perhaps but sometimes things rarely come along.

MFeld · August 4, 2026 9:55AM

@Old_Collector said:

@epc said:
Bidder 1 did not bid against himself. He simply increased his secret maximum a couple times in response to other bidders. And he probably didn't expect his initial bid to win anyway. His actions did not guarantee that anyone else would enter bids.
That said, I am in the camp that thinks active pre-bidding does tend to increase the final price. If everyone waited to enter snipe bids near closing time, I think there would be fewer folks going beyond their pre-determined bid "limits".

Yes, he made three distinct limit bids as shown in the record on Tue, Wed, and Fri.

I agree that is generally the case unless you really want the coin and are lucky enough not to have to deep pockets after the same coin, some really go well above what they should when that happens.

If I really want something, I often consider the highest amount that I will pay, add 20% and make that my first bid if it is something that you just never see available. Yeah, I pay a bit more perhaps but sometimes things rarely come along.

By saying “Yes, “he made three distinct limit bids as shown in the record on Tue, Wed, and Fri.” are you agreeing or disagreeing with @epc, who said that the bidder didn’t bid against himself?

epc · August 4, 2026 11:24AM

To be clear, when I wrote that Bidder 1 did not bid against himself, I meant that by entering his second and third secret maximum bids, in neither case did that increase the current bid at the time. In some pre-bidding plus live bidding auctions, it is possible to enter a pre-bid, and go to the live auction and bid against the pre-bid. I've been to HA (?, or maybe SB) live auctions in which the auctioneer actually caught that situation and didn't hold the bidder to the live bid.

MFeld · August 4, 2026 12:40PM

@epc said:
To be clear, when I wrote that Bidder 1 did not bid against himself, I meant that by entering his second and third secret maximum bids, in neither case did that increase the current bid at the time. In some pre-bidding plus live bidding auctions, it is possible to enter a pre-bid, and go to the live auction and bid against the pre-bid. I've been to HA (?, or maybe SB) live auctions in which the auctioneer actually caught that situation and didn't hold the bidder to the live bid.

Thank you.
That was how I interpreted your post but I couldn’t tell whether @Old_Collector did, as well.

Cougar1978 · August 11, 2026 11:31AM

Many will try bid in last 30 seconds. Maybe get it below CDN bid. Or A player might bid CDN bid plus 15 pct to win one in last seconds ) snookering them.

Bidder 1 Winners at Great Collections

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