JorgeStolfi
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June 13, 2014, 09:44:14 AM

Regarding silk road coins, if you had around $1.809.000 and bough BTC for it, would you sell them straight away? I don't think so. Anyone buying those coins will be longterm holders.
I have this notion (please correct me) that government auctions of other kinds of property, such as cars and houses, generally are closed well below the respective market prices.

It seems that the people who bid at government auctions usually include "professionals" who buy only to resell.  Those people place bids significantly below market price; if there are no higher bidders, they have made their day; otherwise they just retrieve their deposit and move on to the next auction.  People who are not "professionals" tend to be scared away by the bureaucratic requirements and the large deposit.

Since there will be some delay between sending the payment and receiving the coins, the bidders will also have to factor into their bids the likelihood of the market price falling in that interval and then taking months to recover. 

In summary, it is by no means assured that the auction will close above market. I rather expect the opposite.