Buying & auctions
How to set a maximum price before an auction (and respect it)
Your maximum is the Discipline Ceiling: subtract your target margin and ALL costs (premium, VAT, transport, restoration, duties) from the validated comparable price. Write it down before the catalog opens. Never bid beyond it — FOMO dies the moment the hammer falls, losses compound for years.
The Method's take
The Method computes the ceiling with transparent formula from comparables YOU validate, minus margin, minus every euro that leaves your pocket. It exists to contest the part of you that loses money: emotional ceiling ('I love it') kills; financial ceiling ('what I can pay without losing') protects. The number is set once, obeyed always.
The math
Overbidding by 30% on a €5,000 lot burns €1,500 that will never return — plus the emotional tax of holding a piece bought wrong. Over ten auctions, discipline drift costs five figures. The 24-hour pass is €100; breaking it once pays for thirty-eight passes. Annual: €3,800 — one saved mistake funds four years.
One question answered here saved you a mistake. The engine answers yours — the exact object, the exact number.
Ask the engine — 24h pass €100