Add me to those that do not understand this thread.
The AH shows the highest current bid but not the highest that someone is willing to pay.
Lets say that me (I am in Switzerland) and someone in NA are bidding on the same card.
The price starts at 5,000 with a BIN of 20,000
I see the card and before I got to bed and decide I want the card. I decide that the card is worth a max of 13,000 and I will go no higher.
I bid 13,000.
That does not mean that 13,000 will show up right away.
Lets say that someone who is not one of the two people I described is scraping the AH for cheap buys hoping no one bids on a card. They bid 5,500
My bid would be over that and it would show 5,550. My 13,000 bid is still hidden.
Okay, so now the NA player gets involved after I go to bed for the night.
They try and bid 6,000 but the bid fails because my bid is still higher. They go higher and higher. They have a max bidding point as well.
Lets say they value the card less than I do. Let's say they are not willing (or able) to pay more than 11,000 for it. Sooner or later they will stop bidding and I will win the auction unless someone else gets involved.
If they valued the card at more than 13,000 then I would have lost the bid anyways even if it was daytime for me and I was online.
Maybe I am weird but every card I see I have a max I would be willing to pay for it. And I don't go over that.
It really does not matter if I am around to bid or not.
Sure my points may be tied up but I rarely if ever bid on more than two cards at once.
I really fail to see a time zone disadvantage.
I can also ASSURE you that many players set times on their auctions and fail to take into account when the auction will end.
I have been able to get some cards at massive discounts because someone wanted to make a quick PP and set the auction to last for 6 hours but did not at 10:30 PM EST or something similar.
Then I log in late morning or early afternoon for me but very early morning for NA and I find some really cheap deals.
The one downside is like someone said earlier, I have less liquid points in case I see another auction. But most of us are not commodities traders when it comes to the AH.
We buy and sell a handful of cards a week.
Those that need 'liquid' assets are checking the auction house 30+ times a day and are getting less than 3 hours of sleep anyways
