Foreclosure below approx upset?

[Sami Poykko]

Hi, 

this might be stupid beginner question, but I attended Sheriff's sales in Camden Co, NJ on 6/15/2016 and I must admit I did not get a very good grasp of how the auction goes. Most of the properties were bought by the bank for $100, but even the ones that were bought were bought really cheap. See example: bought for $71,000, Approx upset $290,427 and zillow estimate $213,000. What am I missing here? 

[Ibrahim Hughes]

my guess is that rather than do a short sale, the bank is looking to dump the property cheap on the spot. The bidders know this but may not know how low the bank is willing to go. So they may have started at rock bottom with the lender countering . Once the lender stops countering, that signals that the lender is willing to accept that amount.