Seriously?

[ITSv40]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

On the subject of "fat fingers", it's a search engine to search ebay for items listed with typos that generally have no bids so can be picked up very cheaply :

http://fatfingers.com/

As for the mechanics of the bidding, i remember going to ACA about 15 years ago and the person went with was looking for a car. When the one he wanted came up, he waited until the bidding got to about £600 and slowed then threw his bid of £990 (i think it was that, might have been £1050) out and the auctioneer accepted it - nobody else bid after either so the deal went at £990 or £1050 as per his bid, plus of course Buyers Indemnity Premium/commission.

The viewpoint seemed to be that if he was willing to offer that bid, they would accept as their job is to get the best price which earns them the best commission on the sale.

That was a strategy my father regularly employed at auctions. At farm sales and military disposal sales he would mentally decide what limit he was prepared to pay. Wait until the bidding slowed and then bid two or three times the bidding increments - provided he was within his set limit. It would generally kill the bidding dead and would end up with goods below his limit. He always maintained that as long as the purchase price was below his set limit he was happy and it killed the auction fever in others before it started.

With country house sales, he knew a couple of local dealers who would buy for their retail stock. He would always bid against them as he knew there was a margin left if they were bidding. The house is still furnished with antique furniture bargains bought in the '50's and early '60's.