macrocephalopod

I get that flashing your maximum bid isn’t good practice, but I don’t see how it helped Ken here. The estimated value pre-Sotheby’s was $15-20mm. So Ken paid $20mm+ over?

What’s the estimated value to winning bid beta at Sotheby’s ? Could it be they consistently under mark it initially for marketing to new biz?

That’s a very good question. I’d wager it’s likely under, but a beta of 0.5 would surprise me. At a certain point, that seems like it hurts the reputation of the appraisers at the auction house.

I think it might be standard in the industry? Unsure, but- I was at the Star Trek prop auction at Christie’s and Everything went for way over! Was cursing when I was outbid on every item I wanted by A Lot!