[dm]

There is something that bothers me about the frequent skyrocketing of auction bids. An occassional brain aneurism or drug-induced mistake could result in an unusually high bid, but I have a difficult time imaging that the mere experience of looking at a picture of an object on a screen and the ticking clock causes people to frequently buy things at far more than their value elsewhere. For unique items, excursions of 100% can be understood as the value is impossible to validate for one-of-a-kind. For common items, such as 1940 lugers in worn shape or luger holsters in VG etc, frequent high valuation either means actual value is much much higher than collectors believe or there is something odd happening.


Are there that many silly bidders such that a substantial percentage of auctions of common collectibles are won at 50% or more of the normal price? Is there another explanation? Is it related to the casino phenomenon?




dm