Auctions ending early to the chagrin of bidders

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I once put up for auction a large trophy given to football HOFers George Blanda & George Connor for winning a celebrity golf tournament. A Bears fan offered me a liberal price to end the auction early. I told him to bid instead, as his offer was higher than the trophy would go for. He won the auction at lower price (as I expected), but higher than I paid for the trophy-- so we were both satisfied. As a seller, my rule was to never end an auction early if there was at least one bid, so the dilema of whether or not to end the auction was not an issue.

Two reasons I never ended an auction early if there was a bidder was because I felt it was unfair to the bidders, and two I figured there would be a fair chance the jilted bidders wouldn't bid in my future auctions. A third (of two) reasons is I felt it important for efficiency's sake to have set rules before running an auction-- shipping, returns, end, etc. When everything about an auction is up for negotiation and debate (usually with yourself), you'll go crazy. If no ending an auction is the rule, it's one less thing to worry about.