Auctions End Too Late

[jhs5120]

It's just unfortunate for the consignors who are the ones ultimately losing money.

I imagine an empty auction house with one person awake at 2:00am sniping all the lots he wants. Imagine if this was a physical auction.. Would you leave the auction open until 2:00am? No.

It prevents "bidding wars" from occurring - that's a fact.

Every AH owner, bidder and consignor will agree that back to back bidding wars bring in the most money. I bid, you bid, I bid, you bid, I bid, you bid. That's what brings in the most money. It needs to be back to back, you can't have an hour, two hours or five hours in between the bids.

With auctions ending at 2:00 AM it's I bid, (you wait until 2:00AM) you bid. There were a lot of bargains last night because of it.

Edited to add:
I know auction houses can't disclose this, but it would be interesting to see who is bidding at 2:00am. If it's all West Coast collectors then it's an issue between time zones, if it is all dealers and notable resellers, then those bidders are just taking advantage of a broken system.

[seablaster]

Put me down for lot by lot endings in our straw poll.

Ending times going into 5-6 am EST range is unreasonable.

[x2drich2000]

One of the more interesting ideas I've seen from an auction house is the changing buyers premium. All the lots close at the he same time, but as the evening goes on, the buyers premium for new bids gradually increases. By doing this you encourage earlier max bidding (if you put in a max bid early and someone else bids late causing your bid to automatically increase you still get the lower buyers premium, but if they end up winning they pay a higher premium), but still give the option to keep bidding open.

DJ

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

As a bidder, this is how I bid. I've got a budget, and sometimes I'm interested in more than one item in the auction. With auctions that close lot-by-lot, I lose the flexibility of being able to re-allocate money within my budget to other lots as I get outbid. I have won numerous lots in auctions this way over the years, and thus I prefer auctions that close all at once.

-Al

This was my thinking on why I wasn't for lot-by-lot when B-L first used this, but I have since changed my mind because the "flexibility" is a myth. There is no flexibility if you are unable to stay up. When I lost out on one of my lots I would have switched my bid to another card in LOTG, but I wasn't awake when it happened at 1:15am Central. So either way my money didn't get reallocated.

[GaryPassamonte]

Why not run sports auctions using the live internet lot by lot format used by most antique auctions? Internet bids could start about a week or two before the live auction. The live auction could start at a time convenient for both coasts and be over in a matter of hours. This format is fair for everyone and has a defined beginning and end.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

Why not run sports auctions using the live internet lot by lot format used by most antique auctions? Internet bids could start about a week or two before the live auction. The live auction could start at a time convenient for both coasts and be over in a matter of hours. This format is fair for everyone and has a defined beginning and end.

This sounds like how Bagger's does it.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by jhs5120

It's just unfortunate for the consignors who are the ones ultimately losing money.

I imagine an empty auction house with one person awake at 2:00am sniping all the lots he wants. Imagine if this was a physical auction.. Would you leave the auction open until 2:00am? No.

It prevents "bidding wars" from occurring - that's a fact.

Every AH owner, bidder and consignor will agree that back to back bidding wars bring in the most money. I bid, you bid, I bid, you bid, I bid, you bid. That's what brings in the most money. It needs to be back to back, you can't have an hour, two hours or five hours in between the bids.

With auctions ending at 2:00 AM it's I bid, (you wait until 2:00AM) you bid. There were a lot of bargains last night because of it.

Edited to add:
I know auction houses can't disclose this, but it would be interesting to see who is bidding at 2:00am. If it's all West Coast collectors then it's an issue between time zones, if it is all dealers and notable resellers, then those bidders are just taking advantage of a broken system.

+1 on bidding wars. It would be interesting to see an auction house end lots the old fashioned way, with a real hammer, though not so old fashioned as it would be streamed live online.