Assuming Gene was bidding entirely sensibly, as I am sure would have been the case, Gavin might well have had a bid or bids in front of him just under his high bid in which case Gene’s high bid was the place to start.
Having started there he wouldn’t have done Gene any favours to allow someone dozing in the room time to realise that they might want to pay a bit more.
My recent Holts purchase was estimated at 800 to 1200. I thought it would go for quite a bit more but realised I would be upset if I didn’t try if it went for near the bottom estimate.
My first thought was to bid £880, then decided £900 was a fairly obvious bid for another punter, and emailed in a bid for £920.
I got it for £900, so Holts clearly played fair and didn’t go to the top of my bid. I assume the under-bidder was at £880 so if I had bid £880 he would have probably got it as my bid went in fairly late.
