How many of y'all place "Policing" bids in auctions?

I find that a lot of the time I place bids...on ebay...and sometimes in major auction houses...just to make sure an item sells for what I feel it should. And granted...this has backfired on me a few times...but I still do it.

I use to always drop in low ball bids and would win them occasionally. this is how I was able to help further my collection along at a low price and make a nice chunk of money on resales. Don't do it much any more because the resale market isn't as good as it was and the fees to auction have risen quite abit.

Lee

ullmandds wrote:I find that a lot of the time I place bids...on ebay...and sometimes in major auction houses...just to make sure an item sells for what I feel it should. And granted...this has backfired on me a few times...but I still do it.

this is how i ended up with unnecessary dupes . nowaday i make lowball bids and if i win it's a pleasant surprise. of course "lowball" is very subjective.

That sounds sorta akin to an auction house bidding on their own items. They don't really want it but want to make sure it sells for a certain amount.
Of course in your case, you do have to pay for it and pay the BP but I am not sure I would deem that an "arms length" transaction.

I do it occasionally but don't believe it's a really good habit because you can end up with stuff you don't want. I have to ask myself, "is this something I really want?" before I bid. Because often the answer is no.

I know a number of collectors that will do this in order to "protect their investment." I've always thought it's a bad idea. While cards tend to be a good investment, if that's why you are in the hobby, then you really shouldn't be spending your money here because there are better ways to invest it. I've never paid a silly price for something because "I have to have it." This when people tend to start placing protective bids because they want to be sure that they can at least get their money back when they decide to sell.

We collectors are funny people, aren't we?

I do this sometimes too, and just did it recently. Earlier this year I bought a fairly rare card in the highest grade given by SGC. They show only 2 of this card at that top grade level (and less than 10 in all grades).

After I bought mine, the second one came out in another auction. I bid it up to the price I paid for mine (even though this one was not quite as nice). Ultimately several more bids were placed by others and the card sold for a fair bit more than mine. I was happy...maybe even happier that I didn't win the second one .

This is kind of like a one-generation-removed version of bidding up your own lot.

edited for poor spellin'

Okay, I must admit that I just did this practice with the Silver Flint card in the Bussineau auction. I bid it up to the normal price for an OJ SGC 84 but then backed off because I didn't really want the card since it is a common. Frankly, I thought it went for a very fair price considering that the image is spectacular. Not too many OJ's like that.