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Posted By: Joann

The best idea I heard was awhile ago on this board, in which the time period to pass with no bids gets shorter and shorter so eventually you are down to no bids for two minutes ends the auction. The shorter time to juggle would force people to get really serious about a few lots they really want, and also still allow everyone to have a genuine last shot at the things that are high in priority.

The only other thing that I can think of is to have separate ending times or no-bid extension periods for different categories. When you think about it, why should a guy bidding on a Beatle's album hold open the auction for a 19th Century cabinet card?

It wouldn't take a lot of categories - it could be simple. The current REA is maybe 1700 or so lots. There are 344 autographed items that could all end when no bid has been placed within that category for 15 minutes. Even if all pre-war cards were lumped into one category it is still only 600 or so lots that would end when no bid on pre-war cards for 15 minutes. That's < half of the full 1700.

I suspect that when the end-at-same-time method was devised auctions were much smaller. Maybe they've outgrown that method and divvying up the endings by category gets back to that scale.

J