Not necessarily Lance. Say I can't afford to bid on 2 or 3 things, I have to pick one, he just lost bids on 2 other items. If I know I could trade with others, then I could end up with the other plants I'd like and afford to bid higher on that one item, as could they, rather than thin ourselves out and end up with nothing. Does Nick get less? I have to wonder if Nick wanted to get the highest possible value why would he do one package of 652 plants? Would a commercial business want 100 plants of one X? How long would it take to sell them?
Depends on your point of view I guess.
I am not trying to be critical just making conversation here....
But when you wrote "Is it worthwhile to share your interest with others here
rather than bid against each other" you suggest that potential bidders should unite and not bid with the intent to keep the sale price low.
When ever a group of people are involved in an auction situation and they as buyers agree to not bid against each other it destroys the sellers fair chance to gain better prices.
And the reasoning of that if you unite (conspire?) you won't "thin ourselves out and end up with nothing" also goes towards reducing the final sales price because if you end up with nothing that means someone else paid more than you were willing to pay. That is what is supposed to happen when someone puts something up for auction.
You don't want members (buyers) to do this when you run the forum benefit auction because you want to gain as much income from each sale as possible. You always want as many people bidding as possible.
Yes Nick get less.
Yes a commercial business would want a hundred or more of one X. From a commercial growers perspective that is not very many plants. How many award quality plants would expect to get from only 100 seedlings?
I bet if you asked Nick how long it takes to sell a hundred plants his answer would be "too long".
Do you really think Nick wants to get less than the highest possible value?
I don't know Nick but I bet he wants as much money as possible returned from his years of hard work. He probably made the groups large because he wants to keep his handling cost to a minimum. Do you have any idea how much work it would be to pack and ship 652 plants to individual buyers?
As I said above I'm not criticizing your post but rather just pointing out what might be the commercial growers perspective. I hope everyone gets great plants a great prices. But I am sad to see the end of the orchid hobby era coming because individual plants sell for $5 to little.
