Steiner Sports Auctions

[Dave Grob]

I had never registered or bid in a Steiner Auction unitl now. After 11 hours of "extended bidding", the auction remains open. Yes, I am well aware of the "15 minute rule" and how this works and I knew this was part of their set of auction rules, but it is typical for them to run their auctions like this.

Would love to hear from others, because if this is typical for them, this will be my first and last Steiner Auction.

Dave Grob

[jimjim]

I woke up this morning, and the auction was still going on. I couldn't believe it. I tapped out last night, as the items I was watching went up pretty high very quickly. Strange. Waymore than market value.

[jimjim]

I think the main problem with the auction is that they allow any person to bid on any item at any time, as long as the auction is open, even if that person has never bid on that item. I think they are doing that because previous actions have not been as robust as they had wanted and they are trying to bump up prices. Doesn't seem very fair to the prelim bidders.

[Dave Grob]

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

[jimjim]

They just announced that the auction will be ending at 6 PM. A mere 20 hours after they started last call. Really!?

[Dave Grob]

I contacted Steiner Auctions earlier today and even sent them a link to this thread to which this reply came:

“All of the points in your thread are valid and we'll taken and I will personally take a better look at what you mentioned for our other catalog auction and see how we can improve. Feedback like yours is invaluable in making our processes better.

You can contact me directly at anytime with any other suggestions you might have. I'll make sure to hop on GUU to express the same to anyone else”.

I guess he has this forum confused with the one run by Game Used Universe (GUU). You are as likely to see me posting there as you are to see me bidding in another Steiner Auction.

Dave Grob