Steiner Sports Auctions
I will preface these next comments with the fact that I can remember a time, when for auctions I would get a catalog, fill out a bid sheet, and then either fax or mail it in. At this time there was also the concept of extended bidding. This concept of extended bidding was executed primarily by phone bids. Later this began to be accomplished by on-line bids as well.
The concept was a good one, because at the time it provided a last or late minute outlet for bids. The purchase of sports memorabilia is largely an impulse purchase as none of us really NEED these items. Our interest in bidding is piqued more when we feel we are risk at missing the item or losing out. In short, the more time you give someone to think about an “impulse purchase”, the more time you give them to convince themselves “it’s the other guy” who is paying the silly above market price.
Take this auction format for example and look at the bids and bidding patterns, making special note of the items with no bids or only one. At the time I am writing this, this is just over 700 lots, or almost 1/3 of the auction. By leaving this auction opened ended for such a long time, they have done nothing to stimulate the notion in the mind of the bidder that “I have to get in on this now.” Some of their starting prices are also a likely factor in this sluggish and anemic bidding. While they may, and apparently are picking up incremental bids, the number of low to no bids is the number they should be most concerned with as those items represent time effort and cost to produce, yet yield no return.
This no return yield also has second and third order effects, beyond simply absorbing resources. It creates the perception of “you can’t sell”, so this is going to likely turn off future consigners. I would suggest that they conduct a professional development seminar of their staff by watching the movie “Money Ball”. It’s not about the home run numbers, but about getting on base and scoring in aggregate.
Dave Grob
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