[Archive]

Posted By: Eric Brehm

Leon -- I see your point now, that after 11PM, if the house can close the auction without warning due to low bidding activity and the lateness of the hour, the 15 minute clock at that point becomes essentially meaningless. Maybe at that point the house could show the total number of bids received within the current period, with a published rule that the auction will close if less than N bids have been received by the end of the period. Bidders who want to try to win by staying up the latest could still prolong the auction artificially, i.e. to make sure that the number of current bids gets to N, but it would be more difficult than when only one bid in 15 minutes, on any lot, is required to extend the whole blasted thing another period. I don't know if that makes any sense in practice, and it is probably overly complicated, but I'm trying to figure out a way that an auction can end when it is reasonable to end it, without taking anyone by surprise.

I like Joann's idea of dividing larger auctions into categories, which each probably attract different types of collectors, that have their own simultaneous closing rules. That would introduce some complexity into the process, but would probably be workable.