REA is open

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Not directed at Ryan, but after countless discussions it's abundantly clear that no matter what closing format is used, there are going to be people who dislike it.

So true.

With the sharp midnight closing, there likely was money left on the table. On one of the lots I was bidding on, after I was topped at the 11:59 (and therefore faced with the reality, not the hypothetical, of being topped), I tried to get in one more bid, but lost out by two or three seconds.

There have been countless discussions how to have the best of all worlds -- to get maximum dollar for the consignor yet at the same time allow bidders to keep bidding on ALL their lots until the entire the auction closes, yet to do it in a way where one can get to sleep at a reasonable hour.

I've often wondered why the following method hasn't been tried (unless the software doesn't exist):

1. Start extended bidding at the earliest reasonable hour (REA's is 6 pm, which is earlier than other AHs do);
2. With each succeeding constant time interval, say, one hour, to reduce the period after which if a bid is not received, the auction closes. So if the time interval is 15 minutes at the start of extended bidding, to reduce it by, say, 3 minutes every hour. Then, when it is down to 3 minutes, to reduce it by one minute each hour. When the interval has been reduced to one minute, all remaining bidders will need to be glued to their computers/devices as if the bidding is live, and I suspect the auction will end very quickly.
3. Accompanying this would a redesign of the list of a bidder's items so as to always show on the top and in a different font/color those items that have been topped. This will address the difficulty that bidders who are watching many lots have in noticing which lots have been topped, a concern especially relevant as the bidding interval gets down to one minute.

Needles to say, there are an infinite number of ways to implement the above concept in terms of when extended bidding begins, time period after which bidding intervals decreases, how much to decrease the interval, etc. But my point is that while there may never be a closing method that satisfies all, I'm not persuaded the hobby has yet to hit the ideal method.