Anyone else have any trouble with the Crazy Uncle auction last night?
 

I was winning a lot at $39, I am old and can't stay up so I went to leave a ceiling of $65ish.. I know high dollar shit right....

Anyway, I used the drop down in their Max Bid Amount box and walla! it pushed me up to my Max immediately. I am like this can't be right so I do a Max of $88 to see if it did it again and sure enough, no machine bidding for me, just straight to my Max.

I am fairly sure I was the only bidder from $39 to $88 and I was winning at $88

Ugh

Dan Mckee

That's not good. I have seen other auctions do that as well...push you right up to your max. I don't like that at all.

It sounds like you were using the straight bid option?

Somehow the crazy uncle reminds me of:

Who can take a sunrise
Sprinkle it in dew
Cover it in chocolate
and a miracle or two?
The candyman
The candyman can
The candyman can cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good

I wonder if they're still in Dothan.

yes but I wasn't Pete..... their software has issues. I was hoping someone else tried to leave some max bids and had the same issue.

Dan, if you call me I can explain to you what happened. There was nothing wrong with the software just the way you were bidding

I was the high bidder on a lot at (and beyond) midnight, which is the time when their rules state there is a "hard stop" on their auction. They proceeded to take another bid after midnight to top mine, and I lost the item. It was a low price item, but the principle is the same. I think it is wrong.

Not sure how I was bidding wrong Bob when I clicked on the drop down in the bottom window labeled Max Bid and selected an amount larger than the amount I was currently winning at and it immediately jumped to the max amount I selected.

This wasn't the first auction I have ever participated in.

Dan Mckee

Yea my items were cheapies too but like you... it is the principle of it.

Dan Mckee

Just got a friendly phone call from them explaining to me what happened. They are trying to tell me that I placed a ceiling and there were other bidders on there and that is how I got pushed up. The problem with that is their site was showing me winning at $39 when I placed my Max. Maybe the site wasn't refreshed... I guess that is possible or another gent bid within those seconds that I was winning and placed a Max. Possible I guess.

Anywho they told me they didn't like my attitude and that my invoice was being canceled. A Woooo Hoooo 1 less auction catalog on my counter.

Sadly I screamed a few pleasantries at the young man that I can't write here and hung up on him. Oh well he pushed my button and I snapped so hopefully he has thick skin..

I do wish them luck in their future auctions as I actually love their logo!

Kinda neat

Dan Mckee

Dan, I will help explain if you call but I am not doing this in an open public forum

Thanks Bob but no need at this point.

I appreciate your kind offer though.

Good luck with your future auctions, I wish you all the best.

Dan Mckee

Why not, Bob? That might eliminate the possibilities of others having the same issue as Dan.

When you bid 65 did it then show you as high bidder?

Yes immediately..... and that is why I did it a 2nd time to make sure I saw what I saw and my 2nd ceiling was $88 and poof! straight to $88.

It's no biggie, all chump change stuff.

Hopefully they had a successful auction and will have many others.

Dan Mckee

So you were instantly outbid by a new bidder twice. Well, OK.
It's too bad Bob won't just clear it up, not sure why he can't explain here.

I don't like the fact they did that and won't be bidding. Too many other auctions around to deal with Tom Foolery. Speaking of which, whatever happened to Candiman Auctions??? LOL. They haven't had one for a couple years now.

Did they ever provide conditions for the cards in the 1959 set?

Not sure Jeff but there were 2 other lots I was interested in that didn't have pictures up until the final evening of bidding. They did however display pictures and I had time to place initial bids but didn't need any of the cards.

I was the person who made a post on Net54 asking about the condition of the 1959 set. I received a PM from Aaron saying he would work to get me a breakdown of the set. I did not receive a follow-up. In all honesty, I never went back to the website to see whether the condition for the set was added. I just tried to go the the website to check, but it seems to be down.

This thread has the recipe for something special.

Did Aaron ever explain where he got his mailing list?:eek::cool:

They did all along. "PSA, SGC, High."

So PSA and SGC sell contact information?

Why respond here and advertise the auction to begin with if you are unable to explain why someone was ghost bid up to their max? :confused:

It is my understanding that SGC does not. But sometimes people who work with them steal email lists. I’d be happy to discuss it offline with you.

I understand that I am not as well known here as DanMckee (who I support 100% in his assessment of this situation)... but not ONE comment about my being outbid and losing a lot after the auction was supposed to be closed?!?

I don't recall this being acceptable in any of the auctions in which I have participated over the past 30+ years...

Am I missing something here? :confused:

Anyone know where this auction house came from? Is Brandon Steiner involved? I started getting emails on my accounts that I had with Steiner Sports. I know Aaron used to work for them. Does anyone have more information on this?

I had that same thought. I never signed up with or bought anything from Steiner, but I have been on their mailing list for a couple years. And I recall AJR promoting Steiner auctions here in the past.

If this in fact DID happen...it's obviously not a good thing! With all the reputable AH's out there...not sure why people choose to deal with "suspect" ones?

Oh ya I do...STUFF TRUMPS ALL...I forgot?

Nothing like transparency.....
 

Wow! No matter what the back story is, had to be a better more reputation building way to respond....... unless Dan's suspicion is correct!

I think last night the auction accepted a late bid of mine.

I think the mystery on the strange max bid case has to do with secret reserves. I was reading the rules and saw this: maybe this is the reason...I don’t know why they would not just point to this if it’s the reason, since it’s already available in print:

“The Reserve Price is a minimum bid set by the consignor below which the lot will not be sold. Accordingly, if the Reserve Price is not met at the conclusion of the auction, the lot will not be sold. Reserve bid prices are not publicly available and will not be published, except that twenty-four hours prior to the auction close, any item with an unmet reserve will be annotated with “Reserve Not Met” in the online bidding. Reserve bids are available to the House and the House may, at its discretion, on behalf of the seller confidentially set an “up to” bid where the next bid in succession would hit the Reserve bid. No reserve bid placed by the House will be executed at a level greater than one bid below the actual reserve.”


Tony

Hi Pete...

Thanks for your response and comment. Unfortunately, I had no prior experience with this AH, and I felt it was worth risking a $59 bid on an item and participating in their auction in order to determine whether or not I was dealing with a "suspect" AH. It wasn't an item I 'had to have" and it wasn't a matter of "stuff trumps all." And in the end, without any outlay of money, I have the personal experience I need to make my determination regarding this AH. :)

I have no problem with disclosed reserves, but hidden reserves are a reason for me not to participate in an auction, regardless of the stuff.

These issues are the reasons I avoid all "generic" auction houses. Small start ups, with little integrity. "Ghost" bids? Auction House just shilled their auctions.

Just my two cents.

Dan was the high bidder, period. He did not mention seeing anything about reserve not met, which would have been designated by that time.

Nice kind words..sounds like a recommendation..you should put that on Yelp so others join the site and bid

Crazy Uncle Invoice
 

Received my invoice today from Crazy Uncle Auctions. Has anyone noticed the address information and does it raise a concern for you?

Thanks,
Jason Schroeder

At least it didn't say Dothan, AL.:eek:

Here is their address from their website. That invoice doesn't look legit to me.

Crazy Uncle Auctions
175 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014

(914) 439 - 7105 main
info@crazyuncleauctions.com



.

Uneasy feeling
 

Makes me uneasy. Why would they do thst.

Well, I personally have been somewhere in Arizona and saw no evidence of a crazy uncle, nor a post office.

I had a similar experience in Last Chance, Colorado.

And to reference my first post and Peter’s Dothan reference, all zip codes in Dothan begin with 36xxx.

Furthermore no zip codes in Arizona begin with 28xxx, except somewhere.

Research you can count on from a reliable source.;)

Might be a generic address template for people to fill in and it wasn't filled in. Ala "Fill in you address, ala 'Joe Smith ABC Main Street...."

That and the fact that making payment has turned into a major side quest.

The invoice says "Payment may be made by credit card, check, wire transfer or PayPal. For payment by any method other than credit card please contact us at info@crazyuncleauctions.com and we will assist with the purchase."

All auction houses I've bought from will add a link to pay via Paypal on their website, and that is how I prefer to pay since it is so simple. Having to contact them to pay by Paypal seems...odd. No worries, I'll just pay by credit card, except there are no directions as to how to do that. No radio button on the My Account page and no indications in the rules.You needed to give a credit card to register, so do I just wait and they'll automatically charge me? Or do I *also* have to contact them to pay by card?

In an auction with nearly 1000 lots, having to contact them to make payment just adds another place for human error to creep in. I have other issues with how this auction was run, but the payment process is enough that I doubt I'll participate in any future auctions.

Since it started with "Crazy Uncle Auctions" and ended with their email, that doesn't seem to make sense, it's their address, not a template for the buyer.

As David (hey David) said above, the invoice address is probably a template, not fully filled out. I am not positive though.

So why did it have their name and email address if it was generic? Or maybe they only partially filled it in? Whatever. If they want to establish themselves in this space, IMO they need to improve and they should not be refusing to address Dan's situation publicly.

I’m concerned with how this auction was run too. I received an email saying they were delayed in sending invoices out, so my expectation is it would be right. Literally nothing in their invoice other than their name is correct. Additionally, the rules state there’s a discounted buyers premium if payment is mailed. Where is it mailed to? The invoice didn’t provide the discount price either as all other auctions do. I feel the shipping is used as another profit source because mine was pretty high. With so many auction options available I see no need to put myself in this predicament in the future.

I'm very curious why Bob, wont explain on this thread, especially since he responded twice and is convinced he knows why .........