So apparently, we're in the midst of breweriana auction summer. Rand's OI auction has just completed and now Dan Morean has another high end auction running.

With three weeks to go in the current auction, there are already at least six cans bid up to over $1,000 each. My question is: Why telegraph your bid so far in advance? These cans may very well go much higher, but why fan the flames so far out? All it does (IMHO) is encourage others to bid against you as they become more confident (over a three week period) that others see value in the can as well.

I really don't get it.

Some people bid early on with the idea they are only willing to spend X dollars so why not just bid early and be done with it. I agree with your thinking though. If I bid my maximum amount early, that gives that opposition plenty of time to reconsider their top bid.

I bid early on many items. Not my max bid though. Reason? I then get email alerts to remind me that something is ending that I actually want. I watch lots of items just to keep current with prices. This separates the ones I'm just 'watching' from the ones I'm watching with real interest in bidding on. But hey, that's just me.

I bid early on 2 cans in the last auction and won them both. They may have received an additional bid or two, but didn't receive any bids during the live auction on Saturday. The main reason I did this was because I was traveling the day of the auction and wasn't sure if I would be able to see it go off. There was a third can I might have bid on, but it went higher than I was willing to go a few days before the auction. In both cases, a reasonable argument for bidding early, although my preference over the years has been to wait until the final seconds. I may be changing my outlook...

I threw a few bids in on Rand's cans the day before they ended because I hoped to eliminate some cans from my scope. I shot at a few I thought might go higher than I was willing to go, and that strategy did help me focus. Generally, though, I treat an auction like a poker game.

I do not understand the strategy of bidding a can up to a significant percentage of its value weeks before the auction ends unless the object is to intimidate people by showing that you'll do whatever it takes to maintain the high bid. I will say this though - the bids on a couple of Rand's cans scared me off within the first few days.

Marc

That Kent jumped pretty high pretty fast.

Leon wrote: ↑Thu Aug 16, 2018 7:16 pm That Kent jumped pretty high pretty fast.

Yes, that was the first one I gave up on.