Auction Length

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Posted By: <b>rob</b><p>What possible benefits are there to having any of these major auctions lasting more than 2 weeks? I dont understand the need for all these auction houses to go on for so long, to me even two weeks is more than enough time. Anyone have any good reasons?<br /><br />Personally, one week would seem about right, much like ebay, with the only real argument for being longer is people away on vacation or work I guess.<br /><br />Rob

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Posted By: <b>Cobby33</b><p>More time = more frenzy.

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Posted By: <b>Alan</b><p>More time gives the poor collector more time to acquire more money.<br /><br /><img src="http://vbbc.forumotion.com/users/17/23/61/smiles/136179.gif">

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Posted By: <b>Eric B</b><p>Alan, you are absolutely correct. Sometimes I see an auction I must have, and must scramble to acquire the funds.

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Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>Rob- that's a good question and sometimes I feel my three week auction lasts too long. I guess I can come up with a couple of reasons for the long duration: 1) everyone else does it, so I am following the crowd; 2) the problem with a one week auction is the possibility that your best customer is on a ten day vacation in Latvia, and has no internet service. With a three week auction everyone who needs to see it eventually will.<br /><br />But I will admit there is a long dry period in the middle where I only get a modest number of bids per day. My guess is nobody will shorten theirs.

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Posted By: <b>rob</b><p>I agree Barry, that seems to me the only logical reason extending it past a week, thats why two weeks seems about the maximum necessary. I just booked my flight to Latvia <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14>

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Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>I don't even know where Latvia is.

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Posted By: <b>leon</b><p>We are unique so are going even longer....all the way out to 22 days....(just kidding)...I think 3-4 weeks is the industry standard and as Barry says it gives everyone time to mull over what they want to do and make arrangements financially (not that I have ever had to do that)....Plus, again as Barry says, some folks could be away for a week and miss the whole thing. The other aspect is that auction companies work for their consignors and want to make/keep them happy. I am sure our consignors wouldn't want a 7 day auction as they want the highest prices possible and 1 week is just too short for the reasons mentioned above..Personally, with as bad as ebay has gotten, I see more and more sales/consignments coming to auction houses. regards

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Posted By: <b>rob</b><p>I agree there is a legitimate reason to go from one week to two, but I wonder if there is any data suggesting three weeks (or longer) brings higher dollars than two.