After searching for 13 months, Mr. Renwick, 36, the marketing director of an Internet company, and his wife, Marla, 28, bid, sight unseen, on a property at 148 West 121st Street, in the Mount Morris Park area of Harlem.
When it came up for sale there was not a bid in sight.
There wasn't a bid in sight, and Tobias Meyer, the evening's auctioneer, gave up trying to sell the work.
There was not a bid in sight for "Study for Portrait of P.L.," a 1962 painting of Peter Lacy, Francis Bacon's drug-addicted, alcoholic lover at the time.
"Camouflage Last Supper," a 1986 image in bright red and pink that was being sold by the San Francisco collectors Kent and Vicki Logan, was expected to bring $1.5 million to $2 million, but there wasn't a bid in sight.
Many times, however, unsuspecting bidders at auction have bought artworks or high-priced decorative objects without a genuinely contending bid in sight.
With an N.C.A.A. tournament bid still in sight, Northwestern has everything to play for in its final four games of the regular season.
Here's a sampling of the different types of companies that have emerged to service the buyers and sellers on eBay -- and beyond: PICTURE SERVICES: No one wants to bid on something sight unseen, but posting pictures can be cumbersome.
In West Allis, Wisconsin, Scott Walker, the union-bashing governor of the Badger state, started out his speech after comfortably defeating his Democratic challenger, Mary Burke, by paying tribute to his state's active-duty service members, which is what you do when you have a Presidential bid in your sights.
Representatives from the Vision Fund often talk of having the ambition and the patience to transform entire industries, and Opendoor is trying to upend the traditional home-buying process by bidding on homes sight unseen, agreeing to buy them, then — contingent on an inspection to verify the quality of the home —selling them, charging an average fee of 6.5percentt.
Opendoor bids on homes sight unseen, agrees to buy them, then — contingent on an inspection to verify the quality of the home ("sometimes customers aren't aware of things like foundation issues," explains Wu) — it sells them, charging a fee of "about 6percentt," he says.
