Let's talk about auctions
 

On the Eva of what's shaping up to be a pretty heated auction I'm curious what members think about the process. I enjoy the auctions for several reasons, I assume my buyers premium assures trust, now trust is a big thing for me and other members here so an AH that can earn that trust is invaluable. I think Scott flat guarantees that anything he sells will grade as opposed to the recent 33 Gehrig Kevin shitshow thread.

So Al and Scott closed their successful auctions and Roberts is closing tonight. Of course the REA tomorrow. My specific question is on the closing process. I sympathize with east coast folks at these auctions starting at midnight on Sunday, Im West Coast so I'm okay with it but keeping folks up past midnight makes no sense to me. Is there a reason auctions close at midnight?

My other pet peeve is the lot closing process, it's per lot or per auction. Per auction is certainly not buyer friendly. If two guys are battling over a 35,000 Ty Cobb they have to wait for two guys battling over a 1961 Fleer Boudreau. Now either one of those fights are fun but they have nothing to do with each other. I get why waiting to end the entire auction until all lots have no further bids helps the consignors and the AH in general but let guys battle it out for individual lots and close the lot when the battle is done.

Thoughts?

PS, good luck to all the Net54 members in the REA.

I think the people can afford to drop 100K on a type 1 photo, don't really mind it ending at midnight because chances are, if they can afford to spend that much money on a Photo, they probably don't have many things to worry about :D Even if they have Jobs the following day, I'm sure they'd be fine. I'd be interested to know the details of your 2nd point, as I agree with you.

An auction can end on a per lot basis where once the auction ends everybody who has bid on the item can bid again until there is no more bidding for a period of 10 or 15 minutes I which case the lot ends and you're the winner of the lot. Birmingham closed this way.

As opposed to the same 10-15 minute format but every lot is open to bid to previous bidders until every lot in the auction no longer has any bidding action.

For example: you and I are bidding on lot one after bidding ends, you have the high bid on that lot for 10 minutes without me raising the bid, you win that specific lot. With the every lot format you have to wait until two other guys bidding on lot 15 also stop bidding.

Nothing worse falling a sleep during extended bidding at 12:30ish winning an auction with buffer built in to lose at a astound 2 AM. That happened to me last night, but ultimately it is the rules of the auction and I put what I was comfortable bidding.

I do like the way Birmingham does it better of course .

The thing to remember here is that auction houses try to maximize prices for their consignors, so they can get more consignments down the road. That’s the driving factor behind the closing process.

For the closing time, they are looking for a time convenient to both coasts. Close too early and the West Coast is still at dinner. Close too late and the East Coast is already asleep.

Generally closing the entire auction at one time has yielded higher prices since people can switch their funds to other lots of their top targets get outbid. However a large segment of bidders got fed up with this late night process that they basically started boycotting auctions with these types of closes. Therefore most auctions have moved to lot by lot closing for the convenience of the bidders.

Yeah, we had a lot of these discussions about three years ago and it looks like many auctionhouses have moved to earlier times to accommodate those concerns.

Seems like an awful lot of flipping going in with signed cards and others. Many cards with record sales in the past few months headed back to the auction block

which one are you advocating for?
the one drawback i see to 'lot-by'lot' is that if I do not win Card A, I want to be able to shift my focus on another card. I might have 3 live bids, where I definitely want to win at least 1, but have lost on all 3 options I bid to the wire on Card A.

Years ago I would set my alarm at 4 or 5 est and get up and check my bids, making additional bids as needed. Recall once stealing a nice photo out from another bidder like 5 min before the aiction closed. Those days are over. Getting a good night sleep is too important. Same stuff is sold over
And over again. I have exactly two one of a kind items. Rest of it is churned over and over again. Have seen the same photos sold 20 times. Not losing sleep over any of it. Figuratively or literally.

I'm advocating for lot by lot like the recent Birmingham. I might have 6-7 lots I'm bidding on and prefer concentrating on the dynamics of just those lots. It doesn't help if the clock on my lot(s) is affected by the action on a lot that I have no interest in.

I've always assumed they picked closing times to make them less than attractive to bidders as a way to encourage aggressive "max" bidding by everybody who goes to sleep before midnight, figuring that the bidders who prefer to slug it out to the wire will stay up anyway. If your objective was simply to maximize the number of real-time/deadline bidders, you would end before 11:00 ET. But they (out of loyalty to consigners) are trying to get both: strong "max" bids from early-risers AND frantic extended-time bidding by the vampires.

How “long” does the extended bidding usually go? The REA offering tonight is loaded so I assume there will be some extremely drawn out bidding.

I’ve only “set it and forget it” bid on lower end items and checked back the next day to see what happened in the past.

However there’s a few mid range offerings tonight I’d really like to purchase. Should I wake up at 4am and check and rebid or will that be too late?

I don't think this is true. I think closing the auction all at once loses consignors money. When you do that, one of two things happens. Either the auction goes on into the wee hours of the morning or you set a hard close at the end and it becomes eBay with buyers sniping auctions. And I have had that happen with me leading an auction and then it closes and someone has out bid me with no chance to bid again.

I have noticed with Heritage that many lots enter extended bidding and get no bids. Many more are closed within 30 minutes to an hour. Very few of the auctions I have watched have gone on longer than that. Who do you think is getting the most? The one with a high bid before extended bidding or the one with auctions sniped or bought at 3-4 am?

Just close item by item after 15 or 30 minutes. Not that complicated.

A business model that requires 50, 60 and 70 year old men to stay up to 4 or 5 am seems a little flawed to me, but what do I know. Maybe they are counting on those frequent bathroom trips in the middle of the night.

Is the REA format different?

From 6pm EST until midnight extended bidding remains open on all lots as long as there is action on any lot, only after midnight does it switch to lot by lot with a 10 minute timer.

Other auction formats move to extended bidding with a timer on a lot by lot closing immediately at the close of auction.

THIS! +1. It can't be THAT difficult.

That will almost assuredly be too late
 

You should start watching/strategizing/bidding on your items at midnight when the 15 minute clock kicks in

Agreed, but who is Eva? A hot babe up for auction maybe?

Seems like a lot of stuff ended within first 15 mins...

Agreed, but who is Eva? A hot babe up for auction maybe?

Eva was a brutal auction mistress tonight...

It has been pretty amazing watching some of the lots in the past hour. The battle for the Altoona Tribune Ruth has been fun to watch.

And it was interesting to see this one sell for this price:

https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...e?itemid=71907

More than double what it sold for less than eight months ago:

https://loveofthegameauctions.com/Lo...entoryid=20810

Yeah, interesting auction. An hour after individual lot timers and only about 20 items still live. There should be a lot of happy people during mid-morning bathroom runs. :D

I hope a member here was able to pick up the La Azora Cobb running, such a great image

I am not a fan of the auctions ending so late especially on Sunday nights. I would have definitely went higher last night on a couple items and on numerous other REA auctions but need to get up early Monday mornings. I went to bed around 11PM with a comfortable number above my max just to see most of the bids finish on the next amount above my max.

I think REA is the best major auction house out there. I think they always represent their customers' interests well and have a professional staff that always helps the hobbyist however they can. I sold many different lots with them at auction and always get great service at a low cost. Their writeups help consigners get their best price at auction and Brian and the rest of his group are a class act! I plan on selling off a lot of my collection through them in 2021 and beyond. Interested to see what other experiences with REA have been. Happy collecting everyone!

I agree with your assessment of the professionalism of REA and I'll put Heritge in the same category. Help me understand why they have 6 hours of "dead" time between the end of the auction and the lot by lot 10 minute clock. Do they expect old white guys to stay up till 2am bidding? Did you stay up to see the results?

I never understood the staying up thing. I put in a max bid of the most I’m willing to pay and go to bed. The next morning I either won or someone else overpaid.