When is the high bid NOT the winning bid? At Hunt's!

[scooter729]

This is at least the second time (possibly the third) this scenario has happened to me at one of Hunt's live auctions.

When online bidding ended on Friday night, I was the high bidder on the lot seen below, at $375 (screenshot from my account). I had a ceiling bid of $500.

Live bidding took place on Saturday, and when I looked later on Saturday, I saw the item sold for $375, so I assumed I was the winning bidder.

When I didn't receive an invoice, I called Hunt's. I was told that in fact I was NOT the winning bidder, that someone in person won the item for $375. I asked how this was possible, and was told "human error" happens in their auctions sometimes and it's inevitable it will happen from time to time.

Seriously?? I'm amazed that Hunt's can continue to get quality items consigned to them, with missed bids like this and small / missing scans on its lots. It's 2016 - this shouldn't be happening.

An investment into a new website could pay itself back quickly from the missed bids alone - if this has happened to me 2-3 times, I'm sure it's happened many other times. I typically enjoy their diverse offerings in their auctions, but their live bidding format is horrible, unless you're there in person, I guess.

Scott S@r!@n

[T206Collector]

I had a major bidding problem with Hunt's in February. Sometime before their February auction they required additional references to permit bids over $5,000. I had never seen that, so when the auctions I was bidding in hit $5,000 I was prohibited from bidding any further. Calls to Hunt's to rectify the situation during extended bidding went unanswered. I lost the auctions, and the items sold for (perhaps much) less than what they were going to sell for had I been allowed to keep bidding. In fact, I had won a similar item in Hunt's only a couple of months earlier, with a bid well over $5,000.

Still ticked off about this.

[Snapolit1]

I entered two or three "winning" bids at their All Star Game auction and somehow none of them went through. When I wrote to them asking "what up" zero response. Off the list.

[khkco4bls]

Plus the consignor losing money

[autograf]

I was at the live auction. They have added that LIVE 'Invaluable' bidding into their mix. They had some problems with it and I think it slows down their live auctioneer some. There were issues with a couple of the bidders in the live auction on the floor and a couple items were reopened that were already supposedly sold. But I don't think it happened on more than 5-10 items. I won a single item with no real issues that I could tell. It was the least attended of any of the live Louisville Slugger auctions and I've been at all. They've consistently whittled this auction down to be strictly memorabilia and autographs which is disappointing. They used to have some cards in the auction and a couple years had great card contents. It's a great venue for an auction and we are pretty centrally located to quite a few large metro areas. Oh well, it was a quick day. The auction used to start at 9am and wasn't finished at 5pm. I got there at 1030 and left by 3pm. I did some bidding prior to the live auction. I think they continue to pull out items to go into the monthly auctions, so these live auctions have been dwindled down significantly. The All-Star game auctions have become their true premier auctions. And their website continues to be substandard when Simpleauction and Createauction have fantastic interfaces for the majority of auctionhouses out there. I think the live format probably still has a place out there but it must be incredibly difficult to manage with an online presence.

[Leon]

I would be pissed if I ever consigned to them, which I haven't and won't. I still have a craw in my side when he/they targeted local dealers of the Hunt/Philly show and told them if they set up at other local shows they wouldn't allow them at theirs. I will never set up at a Philly show for that reason.

[Bpm0014]

I've also had some problems with Hunt's. They have some wonderful items though. But same deal.... At least 2-3 occasions.....

[packs]

How does "human error" play into an automated bidding system? Something doesn't add up there.

[keithsky]

Their website is terrible for auctions it's like going back to the 1980's or something. You would think with the amount of money they generate and the quality of items they get they would have a better website. It usually seems like there is only one picture that they post for each lot. Well if you are looking at a game used item for instance you want to see different views of the item and they post one and when you even go to enlarge it it doesn't get very large to even be able to see if there is any flaws in the item or any issues with the item. I have looked at game-used bats in their auctions and they take one picture of the whole bat. Very seldom a picture of the knob which is very important or close up of the label. They're willing to send you a picture of the item and a close up if you email them and I'm always thinking well if you do that for me why wouldn't you just do that on the auction page so everybody could see it. It's like they don't want to take the time to promote each item and make it nice and have clear pictures. Hurry up and put a few word description and take a crappy picture and get to the next lot. As a consignor it's terrible to try and sell your item with only one picture if multiple pictures would help sell it. I put a bid in the live auction for a Nellie Fox information card I think lot 5 and I know I was high bidder but it must not of went through and I lost it and it wasn't worth it to complain to them after the auction was over.

[scooter729]

How does "human error" play into an automated bidding system? Something doesn't add up there.

The way it was described to me on the phone, once all automated online bidding ends on Friday night, a person then takes the high bids and manually executes those against live bids on Saturday.

So the human error would come into play if the person responsible for bidding as the high bidder from the online sessions doesn't enter bids vs. live bids. And it sounds like that happens regularly. Not good.

[jefferyepayne]

I kinda halfheartedly bid on Hunt stuff. Their web site is absolutely horrible, I can't figure out if I won or lost half the time, and they aren't good at sending reminders when their auction closes.

Even when they have stuff I really want, I tend to put in placeholder bids and then forget about them as they don't follow up very much.

jeff

[Bugsy]

I have had significant issues with them in the past as well. I no longer bid on any of their lots.

[pherbener]

On the positive side, I've won a few items through them that weren't described accurately and went for well below market price. Not good for the consignor though! I would never consign with them!

[clydepepper]

I've never bid on any of their auctions and, based on what I've read here, I never will.


Feel free to pass that along to them if problems persist...there's too much competition out there to settle for that kind of screw-up. IMHO




f

[BeanTown]

On the positive side, I've won a few items through them that weren't described accurately and went for well below market price. Not good for the consignor though! I would never consign with them!

Just curious... what items were not described? Maybe that's part of their lure is to show lousy pictures and have basic descriptions. I bid on a couple of lots and only one time did the live auction not take my bid as I was too slow.

One reason why the above posters problem happened was he might have had an auction limit and the software didn't accept it. Christies had the same feature as when a lot whet over a certain amount, I couldn't bid if I wanted too.

[pawpawdiv9]

I looked at this auction a lot, bidded a few times. My most critique is no reverse/back images. And the descriptions are a bit weak.
I noticed that I have to use Firefox to be able to bid, my IE wont allow it.

[whiteymet]

I had a different experience with another MAJOR auction house in an auction that ended recently.

I was bidding on a lot for a friend who was not registered with the AH.

He was watching two lots but could only afford to win one. He bid on both to get started and when bidding exceeded his comfort level on one lot, he had me bid higher on the second lot. We were the high bid most of the day. As it got further along he asked me to up his bid to his top price.

He was high bid at $7500 and asked me to up it to $8000 because his limit was $10K with the BP. I went online and THOUGHT I had raised his bid. I did not check to see if I got a confirmation.

When the auction was over and the lot sold for $8000 we thought he won. But NO!

When I called to inquirer I was told you can not raise your own bid one increment. I had never heard of this before. I was told it was how the system was set up and that there had been other instances like mine in the past.

Anyone else run into anything like this?

[pherbener]

Just curious... what items were not described? Maybe that's part of their lure is to show lousy pictures and have basic descriptions. I bid on a couple of lots and only one time did the live auction not take my bid as I was too slow.

One reason why the above posters problem happened was he might have had an auction limit and the software didn't accept it. Christies had the same feature as when a lot whet over a certain amount, I couldn't bid if I wanted too.

The most recent one was a lot of Misc. Yale items. It included a rare image of Hobey Baker. Would've probably sold for 3-4x if it were labeled correctly.

[slidekellyslide]

I used to love their monthly internet/phone auctions. I would clean up. It was like Christmas, you would receive lots that were so poorly described there would be tons of stuff that wasn't even listed in the lots. Nowadays it's hard to win anything in those auctions, I can see why people still consign to them even though their website is like something from the mid 90s.

[AustinMike]

When I called to inquirer I was told you can not raise your own bid one increment. I had never heard of this before. I was told it was how the system was set up and that there had been other instances like mine in the past.

Anyone else run into anything like this?

Fred, I think there are at least 2 or 3 AHs and probably more that have the same system. I've noticed when placing a maximum bid in some AHs, I can only place a bid one increment above the current high bid, or 3 increments above, or 5 increments above, etc. If I want to bid 4 increments above because that is my preferred maximum bid, I can't. In order to do that, I have to let someone else put in a bid 1 increment above the current high bid. Then, my options are 1 increment above that (or 2 increments above the original high bid), 3 increments above that (or 4 increments above the original high bid), etc. I think it's a pretty screwy system but what can you do?