help understanding Heritage max bid

ad4400 · January 9, 2007 12:49AM

I think I understand the max bid policy but I ask since of the whopping half dozen lots I’ve won over the last year or so at Heritage, two have been a max bids that were increments between the next bid, and I think both won by $1. So if I won on a max bid of $512, does that mean that the 2nd highest bid was $511? That would seem like an uncanny coincidence since picking an increment is somewhat of a random affair. Or could the next highest bid been $500? Guess I'm trying to understand what "one increment" is.

The current bid on any item in a Heritage Auction will always be calculated as the lesser of:
1. The maximum bid on the item, or

2. One increment above the second highest bid on the item.

ziggy29 · January 9, 2007 12:59AM

My (possibly incorrect) understanding is that most likely an underbidder took the item to $500. At that point the next full bid is at $550. But if no one bids $550, the auctioneer can accept a "cut" bid on the floor or the maximum bid from an Internet/mail bidder (if it's over $500 but below $550). Your max of $512 was presumably taken on that basis.

It's possible that other bidders entered a max above $500, but of those, $512 was the highest.

swhuck · January 9, 2007 2:12AM

Ziggy pretty much hit the answer on the head. The increments in Heritage auctions are absolute and do not vary based on the bids we receive. This means that there is always an increment at $400, $425, $450, $475, $500, $550, etc. So, if you bid $512 and win the coin, you will win it for "2. One increment above the second highest bid on the item," if the underbid is below $500, and for "1. The maximum bid on the item," in this case $512, if the underbid is anywhere in the $500-$512 range.

In general, if you win an item at an off increment, the underbid will be on the increment or perhaps a dollar or so higher. It's unusual, but by no means unheard of (I found this out the hard way on one of my own bids), for two bidders to both be off-increment and only a dollar apart.

help understanding Heritage max bid

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