Robert Edwards Auctions STILL going strong at 8:15 AM Est!!!!
 

Anyone trying to swoop in and get something!?!??!! HAHAHAHA!! This is unreal!!

Yes I am but can't win a T206 auction to save my life even if I bid 50% more than current high bid. My expectations are therefore very low.

Everything seems to be strong. There is a Duke Snider rookie I am seriously tempted to hit the next bid, as that is the only thing at a remotely fair price on my list.

I went to sleep last night
 

with my hopes dashed of owning a cullivan fireside, and awoke realizing my hopes would be double dashed tonight. Fair is too nice condition of the type for me to own.

got the email

extended bidding starts at 9pm tonight. Starting with 10 minutes per lot. prices are going up. lol

gEEZ

I get that some people are really upset that REA decided to extent the auction until 9pm tonight but I will note that last night, after midnight and the system crashed, that even as other user users here were posting that they had access again at various times and that bids were being placed last night at various times, that for me personally at none of of those times was I able to access the auction at all let along place bids during extended bidding.

Im sure my experience is not unique and that while some people had access to the auction and to very limited extended bidding, other users did not have access to the auction nor access to extended bidding during these times. Maybe as some were sitting on the site, and hitting refresh they lucked into a small window that allowed them to access and bid but I can tell you from my own experience that was not the case for me.

Bidders can make up all kinds of excuses. The bottom line is that there were ample opportunities to bid during the windows that kept opening. So far, items in which there were no bids at any time after the original scheduled Closing are now increasing as a result if the new extension. In my case, it's not that the new bidders were shut out during the 10 minute clock time (though as noted they had windows), no one had bid at all after the initial closing time. It is now costing me, plus the Buyer's Premium. Frankly, REA is insured for loss and, if this is going to be allowed, the Buyer's premium should be waived in my opinion.

Or you can ignore the specifics in my post that detailed that I as a bidder had no opportunity at all to place any bids in any extended bidding session(s). That's the bottom line.

At 12:04 the first comment was posted here on Net54 that the auction site was slow or not responsive for people, this was when I was trying to place bids during the extended time. But I was never able to gain access again to the auction after 12:04 EST, not once, despite several attempts even when users were posting here that they had access and could bid. And I am sure I was not the only one.

Sorry this is costing you, but its obvious that not all bidders had the same opportunities in extended bidding beyond 12:03 EST. If the auction had continued as intended, you cannot possibly make assurances that no one would have placed additional bids on auctions you were winning between 12:04 and 12:10 EST.

It sucks all around to be sure.

It sucks, especially if I end up paying more for or losing the one lot I am still on lol, but under the circumstances they didn't really have much choice IMO. No win situation and make the best of it.

Do we know if the REA site crashed because of a malware attack or was simply overloaded because of the massive number of bidders during extended bidding?

Right, the servers went down just as the 10 minute per lot rule went into effect. So the fair (honest) solution would be for tonight, at 9:00 EST, the auction resumes at that point, with the 10 minute per lot rule in effect. Then you, and everyone who couldn't get their final bids in, would have their chance.

Suppose you're playing hockey and your team is ahead with 10 minutes left in the game. Some clown throws a fish onto the ice and pauses the game. What is the fair (and honest) way to deal with it? Most, if not all of us, would agree, you remove the fish, clean up the ice (in other words, deal with the problem,) and then reset the clock to right before the fish hit the ice. Right? I mean, that's obvious isn't it?

But what REA did is that, plus added an entire additional day to the auction, just to be sure the other team had ample time to score, again and again.

Which benefits them, to the detriment of honesty and fair play.

There is no great solution but the fact is the bidders are going to feel the adverse impact of the outage. Consignors can only do better with guys having a 3rd shot at overtime. REA needs to get this resolved and make sure it never happens again. On the other hand this is such a first world problem. Tells me that life here in the US is pretty good, in spite of it all.

As a consignor, I am glad there is an opportunity for everyone who wants to bid on my lots to get a bid in. As a bidder, I wish that the lot I was winning at 11:59 PM, and which did not receive more bids before 12:10 AM, had closed at that price and I had won it. But also as a bidder, I am glad that the other lots that I was bidding on, which I was not high bidder at 11:59 PM, and which I couldn't get a bid on before 12:10 AM, are still open.

It will cost me more to win these lots...but only if I decide to keep bidding. No one is making me bid. I would not be happy if I had a ceiling bid that kept getting pushed up today. But as someone said, that could have happened last night if the auction ended as intended and everyone had a chance to bid. But in terms of submitting new bids, I don't have to if I don't want to.

REA can do whatever they want, but I don't think waiving the buyer's premium will help. Say you are bidding on a lot at $5K ($6K with premium). They waive the premium, so if you win you pay $5K. But the premium is now waived for everybody....so someone who is willing to go to $6K will just bid the card back up again (knowing they won't have to pay a premium). If anything it will just extend the bidding because now every lot has been reset 16.67% lower (if I did the math correctly).

The other option would have been to start the 10 minute clock at, say 1:00. But that would have been unfair to the people that had to go to sleep.

I do have one suggestion. The entire 9:00-midnight period is useless. There will never be an REA auction where there is no bid on ANY lot for 10 minutes in that time period. It should go straight to a lot-by-lot close at a designated time (and I think 15 or 30 minutes would be better than 10).

Edited to add: I had not thought of Mark's idea of re-starting the auction at where it was when the problems began. I guess now it is too late because so many more bids have come in...but if feasible, that would have been a good option.

Private company - you'll only know if they decide to tell you.... they're under no obligation to disclose that information.

I just received notice that I was outbid on an item. How is this possible if the auction doesn't open back up until 9 EST tonight? WTF?

I'm still up on the lot I thought I'd won last night, although it's already cost me a few hundred more. This was really a no win situation for REA and any smart AH is going to extend in an event like last night to take care of the consignors. Without quality consignors you have no auction. It sucks as a bidder but it is what it is and REA is still my favorite AH to deal with.

My understanding is that is what is planned (from the email sent by REA) -

"As a result of a service interruption last night during the auction closing, the auction is extended and will close tonight, Monday, April 25 at 9 PM EDT. In lieu of extended bidding, the auction will go directly into the 10-minute lot-by-lot closing at 9 PM EDT."

I think the time between last night and 9 pm tonight is useless.

It's open all day today. My max bid got pushed up this morning too. They used the outage as an excuse to add an entire day to the auction instead of just starting from the point where their site crashed.

Nice, huh?

It is open now to all bidders who previously bid. No one can bid on a lot they haven't already bid on but it is open otherwise, per their rules.


Mark, I can guarantee you this was not a planned situation. It is a nightmare for auction houses when these things happen.
.

Perhaps they need to stagger the close to two or three nights when it comes to 3500 items? Or make the 10-minute feeding frenzy into 30 minute one?

"Nightmare?" They will profit nicely from this nightmare.

Not saying it was planned, but they sure found a way to take advantage of the situation.

The '39 DiMaggio Play Ball hadn't received a bid since 9pm on 4/22..... until about 10 minutes ago when someone just bid on it.

amazing!

Sorry, to be clear, I meant that their auctions should always close this way, not just the one today because of the outage. You need to get a bid in by a certain time. Then at a certain time, it's all lot-by-lot. There doesn't need to be a period where all lots are open if a bid is placed on any lot.

I have never understood why the 3 hours between 9pm and midnight. After 9pm it should go on a 10 minute close if no bidding on an individual lot within this 10 minute period. Also with this many items, a 2 day auction format would help.

WOW well I guess that's why they say get your bids in early.

I'm biting my tongue so hard on this one.

I have not been here for long but has there ever been a post you have made where you were not whining and complaining? This is a hobby chat board and you are always upset. I hope your life outside of the hobby is ok but does not sound like it based on this post.

You are saying life is great right now. Life isn't great right now. When a grandparent on fixed income is in tears for having to choose between heating their home or putting gas in their car because their bills have gone up so much, then forgive me if I don't agree with your assessment that life is "great" right now.

Cards Please.......

The hardest part for me is I was done bidding set my limits which I said I would not go over. Wake up to find out there is a new day of bidding.
Now I am trying to control my temptations and try and not bid again.

Agreed. He called me a whiner and asked for an explanation. I gave him one. This is a sore subject with me.

Back to cards folks, here's one I wish I would have kept from years ago...

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=23165

I'm Sorry Robert I do wish you the best and pray for good things to come your way.

As far as I know, the site crashed around 12:05 AM and resumed back to normal around 12:25 AM EST. Why couldn't REA just extended the time from midnight till 12:30 AM EST and then closed the items on their 10 minute rule after that? To extend this auction another full day, is totally unfair for the bidders who followed the regular auction rules. You know who comes out ahead here by doing what REA did? True, it is REA's auction and they can do what they want, but do you think this is fair to the high bidders who bid as high as they can go for the item they bid on? For a professional auction house that REA runs, this was handled in an unfair manner.

They tried to do that but the ten minute clocks were not working they kept resetting even with no bids on the lot..

Everything on my list is pretty stout right now. Tack on the 20% and it is stratospheric. I wonder if they will do free shipping this year?

I surely did not ask for an explanation but I knew we would hear one. Anyway, again this is a hobby chat board. Everyone here is lucky to be able to be upset that a multi million dollar auction is delayed 24 hours and that we get to chat it up over vintage cardboard. That you need to focus on negative stuff all the time seems like a lot of effort. I hope you find some peace at some point. And I am being serious.

One of the most irritating things for me is that this was not unforeseeable– it has happened before, even to REA. Yet there is at least the appearance of chaos and no plan on what is happening or how to deal with it. Just throw a bunch of half-assed fixes at the problem and eventually waive the white flag, bumping an already long auction nearly another full day. Sellers benefit–both consignors and AH make more money, and bidders take it in the shorts. Rinse, repeat. We will see it again. If they want to appear truly apologetic, they can reduce their BP and thereby pay a price for this nonsense.

Plenty of good suggestions here–let’s see if they implement any of them going forward. Spread ending times over days, particularly where the subject matter is so diverse. I can appreciate multi-sport collectors, but seriously, why tie up your servers with people bidding on Lou Gehrig and Luka Doncic in the same final minutes. 30 or even 15 minute extended bidding is better than 10. End on Saturday for the working people who need to get up Monday. Explore lot by lot at some point. It just shouldn’t be a recurring problem anymore.

Ok, gotcha. I see I misinterpreted what you wrote. And for the record, I agree with you.

I agree 100%. What I found especially odd is that, on one lot in particular, I had the high bid for the entirely of the extended time and half of the ten-minute extension. The moment they went back online again, the high bid showing was 20% higher than my previous high bid. How did that happen?

I'm tempted to bid some more, but the whole situation has given me second thoughts.

Just curious. Has anyone today had internet connectivity issues and-not necessarily meaning this is connected to REA-previously bidding in the auction?

I've noticed no change since the day began...no difference in my consignments...no difference in my bids...although i was outbid on some items overnight.

If these repeated breakdowns were negatively affecting the bottom line of auction houses you can bet the problem would have been fixed already. This is a win win for everyone involved in the transaction except losing bidders.

Once an item I was up on and the system crashed, once up again I was not ahead anymore. Nice card but not worth 50% over VCP.

and winning bidders in many cases

Internet has been fine for me all day but numerous times now, including just moments ago, after logging into eBay and looking at cards in my watch list, when I hit the back button, it re-asks me to type in my password.

I've tried the CDN and U.S. versions as well as through Leon's links above.
Each and every time I get the same thing? :confused:

Unlikely it is connected to the REA problem but just thought I'd throw that out there.

Almost seems like REA has frozen time until 9PM tonight; then the gates opens . . .

Yeah I'm sure they're thrilled when it happens.

LOL that was funny.