A recently discovered rare text by the great 16 th-century Belgian alchemist Gerhard Dorn is being auctioned off by Sotheby's. Suppose that you, an avid (and wealthy) student of alchemy, are one of the bidders. Your competitors (other bidders) are all scholars of alchemy, and their enthusiasm for buying the text is driven entirely by their personal value for owning the text. None have a desire to resell the text at a profit. Thus it is clear that the auction is going to be a 'private values' auction. You also have the following additional information: Your value for the text is exactly $8 Million (only you know this). There are nine other bidders for the object. The values of all bidders are in the range of $7 Million to $10 Million (Sotheby's and all bidders know this). The expected (mean) value of all bidders is estimated to be $8.5 Million (Sotheby's and all bidders know this)