Are you the silent bidding type?

Are you the silent bidding type? You know the type - always in the back of the crowd (usually leaning against lockers.) You'll never hear him/her bid, but if you watch carefully, you might see a wink or a head nod.

Are there any advantages to cloaking your bids?

I've only been to 1 live auction, but I don't get why you wouldn't want your presence known.

The unfortunate part of this business is that if you hit a couple of good rooms and people find out they assume you always know what you are bidding on.  People will start to bid on rooms just because they see you bidding.  Its an easy way to skip the time needed to figure out good rooms on the fly and I get this alot.  I've had people tell me they only bid on rooms when they see me bid. 

As such I talk to the auctioneer ahead of time and let them know if I bid I'll be using hand signals or other ways to hide it from the crowd.

I've only been to 1 live auction

You operate a storage auction website and you've only been to one storage auction? That doesn't give much credibility to the site listed in your profile. And what's up with the multiple accounts?

but I don't get why you wouldn't want your presence known.

For starters, if you have a rivalry with other bidders, if they don't see you bidding, they're less likely to run you up. And like Auctionguy said, if people assume you know what you are bidding on they will start to bid on rooms just because they see you bidding.

My most profitable units have been silent bid units. I like that auction format much more.

I have always been the silent bidder type. In addition, I would work with someone else to get a bid in under the radar when others would try to get my locker. Sometimes I will move around during bidding and act disinterested until people would stop watching to see if I bid. I would toss in a bid while they weren't looking and then immediately turn around and continue to act disinterested before they could look in my direction to see if it was me that bid or someone else.