Memory Lane Auction - 15 Minute Rule Lasted Forever?

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Amongst the seemingly 30 odd emails that I get from Memory Lane every day in the days leading up to their auction and during their auction, I couldn't help but take notice the final 2 that I received TODAY, in which it was claimed that the auction that purportedly closed and began the "15 minute rule" last night at 11 pm EST was STILL OPEN TODAY AT ABOUT 4 PM. That's a record, huh? Boy, it's a good thing that auction received bids for 15 hours after the initial bidding closed or it would have been impossible for Memory Lane to get TWO emails to me and everyone else on their mailing list during that period. Is this a record for the longest amount of time for an auction to close?

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Posted By: John

Jeff,

I'm glad I wasn't the only one wondering that....wow that's some serious pots of coffee to stay in that one!

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Posted By: rand

In my opinion, i just don't get a good feeling from this auction house. I used to be a bidder and winner, i have heard alot of stuff that concerns me. I can't stand the ton of emails and i think i have seen the same cards over and over again. Some of the closing prices are just rediculously high. Maybe its just me, but i am not very confident when placing an autobid, it always gets run up somehow. I may be wrong, but the other auction houses, Mastro & REA, do not hound you some much.

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Posted By: David G

I must say, I was thinking the same thing this week. I am not sure how many e-mails I got from them but it was as many as three per day - and I haven't even bid on anything! I cannot believe that it is a good marketing strategy to continously spam your customers.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

I actually feel much better about the auction house even though we learned that one of the owners was jailed for his involvement in a massive fraud scheme that went on for years. Obviously many bidders feel the same way since Memory Lane recieved bids for so many, many, many hours after the close of the auction which enabled bidding to go on for about 17 extra hours! I mean, what a hot auction! Even after the revelations about the owner! Just shows you that if you have the bestest of cards people will just continue to bid against each other and raise the prices well into the next afternoon! I've never even seen Mastro or REA go so long even though their cards are thought to be much, much rarer! What does that tell you about Memory Lane?!

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Posted By: Eric Brehm

It looked to me like the auction ended at 7:30 AM EST yesterday. I received my preliminary invoice at 8:35 AM. Did they later re-open the bidding?

I placed some maximum bids (auto-bids) Thursday night that were one notch above my straight bid (so I could go to bed) and found the next morning that I had won the items for my straight bid.

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Posted By: Rob Dewolf

This was my first Memory Lane auction, and it likely will be my last. I bid on two items and had my limits topped before the 11 p.m. deadline for first bids. When I got up the next morning at 5 a.m. Eastern, the auction was still live, yet one of the items hadn't received a bid since 10:20 p.m. the night before. I checked back later and saw that bidding ended on everything at 7:30 a.m. or so. Then, as others have said, I received e-mails late in the morning that the auction still was live.

That's more than enough for me. Who needs any more element of doubt when bidding in an auction?

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Posted By: James Feagin

Many folks know my employment situation within the hobby, so I will say the following two posts are 100% absolutely my opinon as a collector. In choosing between which auction to bid on in the following two weeks, the fact that one has a 30 minute rule on each lot, and another has a 15 minute rule on the entire auction was a deciding factor. With over 1500 high-profile items, it is little wonder that the second auction house will keep the bidding going on for hours and hours and hours and eternity. I honestly don't have 7-9 hours on a Saturday to deal with that, especially if I wanted to bump some bids on a card I really wanted. With the first auction house, it is a much more limited time scope and it is exciting seeing the 30 minute time clock dwindle down, if I get bumped, then so be it. In the first case, it's nothing but uncertainty and at the end of the day, I know as much as when I started the process.

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Posted By: James Feagin

"What does that tell you about Memory Lane?!"

That they possibly -----??

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Posted By: JimB

It will be interesting to see how it shakes out with Mastro and REA since Mastro has a 30 minute per lot rule and I believe REA closes the whole auction at once and they are both closing the same night.
JimB

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Posted By: Dylan

You know what i hate about memory lane... That stupid song that blasts out of my speakers everytime i access their site!

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jim- they are actually closing on consecutive nights, but not the same night. Big factor in how one bids.

Mastro: Apr 26,27
REA: Apr 28