REA Archive Offerings/Bids
 

Has anyone had any luck with REA and their new policy of accepting bids on former auction items ? I can't find anything on the site to place an offer. I've emailed them an offer and haven't got any answer. Any info or help is appreciated.

Hi Mike,

All 35,000+ items from past auctions are available for search at the link below:

https://www.robertedwardauctions.com/search/

You can search items, go to the archive listing, and you'll see a "Learn More" button underneath "Do you want to make an offer on this exact item?"

You can click on that and submit an offer.

Since announcing the service right before the National, we've received hundreds of offers, some of which have led to private sale transactions.

All offers are being processed manually, so there is an initial backlog that we suspect will subside once the service has been around for a bit.

We have been reaching out to each and every buyer on items for which we've received an offer--many are happy to hold and just as many others have already sold or don't respond. We're navigating through and hope to have the service fully automated in due time.

I don't see any offers in the queue from you, so please email me to ensure that we have your offer and can follow up appropriately.

Thank you,

Brian

Why a "Learn More" button? Why not just "Make offer"? That seems to be the confusion here.

Thanks for the link.

Hi Brian...

Great program, and I've made offers on two lots so far. But before I partake in any more, my questions are as follows...

1. Do you ever provide updates (to the people making the offer) regarding progress being made with the owner?

2. If you receive a hard "no" back from the owner of the item, do you ever notify us that our offer was rejected? It seems that an update would be beneficial to the person making the offer, so we can subsequently put that item to bed (and perhaps proceed with a different offer).

3. Can the owner of the item counter-offer if he/she feels the initial offer was a bit low?

4. Lastly, if you never do receive a response from the owner, is there a certain amount of time you let transpire before notifying us that the owner failed to respond? For the sake of managing available funds, it would be nice to know, rather than hanging in limbo.

Thanks so much!

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your offers.

The person making the offer will be notified of the status (answer, no answer, acceptance, decline, etc). Our goal is within 72 hours. As I alluded to in my first post, there is definitely a backlog due to the massive number of offers coming in (one person has submitted nearly 50 himself). Each one is processed manually. I'm going to look into your offers myself and follow up with the status offline for you.

We have had a few instances where the owner of the item has countered, which has worked well. What we are encountering a lot is collectors who are happy to hold their items, so there's not much negotiating.

One thing to reiterate while we're discussing this is that we encourage collectors to lead with their best offer for the highest chance of success, and in all situations, we will only approach a buyer with an offer that exceeds what they paid for the item at auction.

We appreciate all the interest in the program, we thank everyone for their patience, and we promise to continue to work on it and perfect it.

Brian

I have made a number of offers, all unsuccessful, but I have received an email on the status of each of them. I think the 72 hour goal is a bit optimistic, but I have heard. On one occasion they even reached out to someone who got the item from the buyer. I like the program, understand that it is just starting, but wish I had been successful on at least one item. I will be making a new round of offers soon.

Thank you Brian!

I made the offers a few weeks back.... Thus, my questions about being notified either way. I'll look for the responses off-line, and really appreciate you addressing this.

Thanks as well to REA for creating this cool new program! I've drooled over countless lots in past catalogs, and even if only 1 in 10 of these requests comes to fruition, that a very cool option!

I would guess it will be closer to 1 percent than to 10, but if Brian and team are willing to do the work, no downside.

++ only entertaining offers that exceed what winner paid? So not what it's worth, just what someone has into it.

You might be right about the 1%, but my success rate with Heritage (who has a similar program) is closer to 30%. Admittedly it's a small sample size, but is certainly a potential win-win, with the seller not having to do any real "work" in order to realize the sale. Definitely no downside!

30%? That seems like a good success rate for offers. Maybe I should start making some!! For the record I had a good offer on a high end card and didn't take it. I don't think I have ever made an offer though. It has just seemed like such a longshot.