Patek Philippe

those are their estimated initial values.....obviously, the hammer eventually decides...

just wondering if that's an anecdote...or...a new wind is blowing...

1. It attracts bidders.  Low estimates attracts bidders who become "invested" in this piece after researching it.  They then tend to bid more than what they normally would because they feel they've invested time in this specific piece. 

2. The low estimate means that the reserve cannot be higher than the low estimate.  No self-respecting auction house will set a reserve higher than its low estimate, that would be a major faux pas because that would mean the auction house believes the reserve is too high for the item to likely and fairly sell. 

3. Avoid buying at auction houses.  I personally often have problems.  And auction houses will not solve the problems they create from their own negligence.  

I didn't state anything that contradicted that statement; and I reaffirm, auction houses are a heavy influencer of second hand prices.  I merely provided you advice from an individual who has had more than several experiences with auction houses and a majority of them where major problems arose.  You can take one of three ways; 1 that I'm either a difficult client for auction houses, 2 auction houses don't meet clients' needs, or 3 a combination of both difficult client and that auction houses are partially to blame. 

You may have many acquisitions from auction houses and never noticed a problem.  Or you may have noticed many.  Or you may have had none to very seldom experiences with auction houses.  I really don't know nor do I wish to assume.  But I do know this...  Given enough experiences with any auction house, you will eventually encounter a problem. 

So many people say "First Class on Airline X is a great experience" or "Hotel Chain X is fantastic."  I just state that they haven't flown First Class on Airline X often enough, eventually you'll run into a problem where Airline X was lacking.  That goes for anyone, even if you do or do not have high expectations.  Given enough chances, someone will screw up.  I recently stayed in the Fairmont Hotel Tented Camp in Kenya and had a terrible experience; I had a dirty placemat with dried food at every breakfast and dinner meal; despite being promised by the chef on my first meal that this problem would be rectified, every subsequent meal after my initial notice was never satisfactory.  So, I caution fan-boyism of anything.