Pwcc
 

I was watching a video on YouTube this evening. As is sometimes the case, an ad started to play part of the way into the video. The ad was PWCC talking about a promotion they're running.

If I heard correctly, anyone can bid on any item during extended bidding.No reason to place a qualifying bid before the extended session begins. Unlike the video, ads have no "rewind" feature. I probably heard something wrong. Can somebody either:

(a) let me know what the ad campaign is touting

or

(b) confirm that I heard this correctly


If this is true, it's certainly interesting.

I got an email from them a few weeks ago that seemed to suggest what you heard.

The concept of not requiring a bid on an item before extra time starts is not completely unheard of.

Sterling Sports Auctions has a somewhat similar rule. From their latest auction: “One bid in the entire auction prior to 8:00 PM EST on March 30, this bid is all you need to qualify to bid on ANY item in the auction during the extended bidding session.”

And I think Clean Sweeps requires that you bid on 10 items to get “VIP” status which allows you to bid on any item in extra time.

So PWCC has taken a more extreme approach. Not sure how I would feel about their approach as a consigner. It obviously removes the incentive to bid before extra time, but can increase bidding in extra time.

...and back in the day (maybe 20+ years ago or so), I believe most auctions were held with no restrictions on bidding whenever you wanted. All you needed was your bidder number to place a bid, period. Whatever auction house came up with/popularized the extended bidding and needing to place a bid before extended bidding eventually created a boon for all auction houses that followed in their footsteps. In my opinion, this is because it really created an atmosphere where the collector quite often subconciously feels that all the placeholder bids equate to extreme interest in the lot, especially in lots with low minimum opening bids, and that in extended bidding you will be in competition with a large number of bidders, when in reality in most cases you will just be competing with one or just a few.

I have always felt the placeholder type bids before extended bidding structure just creates the 'auction frenzy' atmosphere that builds up bidding overall and thus the winning bid price. Just my thoughts...perhaps others have other thoughts?

Brian (subconconciously unconscious even when conscious)

PWCC has done this for the entire month of February