The auction has been running for a month. End it and move on.

agree
 

unless Goldin is going to pull a rabbit out of a hat and he prob will....end it.

Well, there are 4 items ive been waiting on to try to win. This auction needs to be open and follow the normal closing rules. I can't recall any other industry leading auction house ever expierencing this. How do you not run it on a large server and inticipate this or even have a back up plan? I'll wait and see what they do.

Goldin isn't at fault here, unless you want to argue that they should've found and migrated to a better auction platform a long time ago. They were told that the hosted site could handle a high volume of traffic and transactions, but it clearly could not, now they have to rectify a huge mess.

This idea that shutting down auctions is somehow "good for business" is just weird. If you ask Ken Goldin (or Heritage last month or REA last year) if they'd rather have an outage or finish the auction as expected, no one's voting for an outage.

SimpleAuctionSite failed here, Goldin has to deal with the consequences. That's it.

Really? It happens a lot. Heritage just last month.

100% agree. There's NOTHING worse, as an auctioneer, than a platform failure. It is impossible to please everyone when something like this happens so you are stuck pissing off someone. I know NJ doesn't have auctioneer licensing so I don't know if there's any laws on the books, but here in PA (where we are licensed, tested and bonded) we are a fiduciary for our consignors, so that's the side I would have to err on.

Same crap happened the last Goldin auction. They had the same server issues when extended bidding began.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I sold my collection of Twins bats, plus some others, in the VSA auction 3 weeks ago, and they went down a couple times during the final evening. They extended it an hour and everything finished up that night.

So it seems a lot of auction houses are experiencing this problem.

VSA is another SimpleAuctionSite customer (the logo is in the footer on the homepage). This is the same platform that Goldin uses.

Reminder: don't blame the auctioneer, blame the platform.

Don't blame the auctioneer? Ever? Really? Do they have an IT Department? Does the IT Department study and stress test different platforms? Maybe I'm naive, but I think if you run an online business and your stems falls on its face you've dropped the ball.

Goldin sent out an email early Friday that said please don't wait to long to bid as they system might experience slowness near 10pm? Isn't this called being on notice that there are problems coming?


QUOTE=bcornell;1981850]VSA is another SimpleAuctionSite customer (the logo is in the footer on the homepage). This is the same platform that Goldin uses.

Reminder: don't blame the auctioneer, blame the platform.[/QUOTE]

Q: Do they have an IT department?
A: No

Q: Does the IT Department study and stress test different platforms?
A: See previous answer

Every auction house tells you to bid early every time they run an auction. That doesn't mean they anticipate problems, it's that they're trying to get more bids.

That’s weird. My wife runs a small consulting business on line bringing in annually a minuscule fraction of what a single high ticket auction item brings and we’ve had an IT consultant under retainer to assist with her website.



UOTE=bcornell;1981861]Q: Do they have an IT department?
A: No

Q: Does the IT Department study and stress test different platforms?
A: See previous answer

Every auction house tells you to bid early every time they run an auction. That doesn't mean they anticipate problems, it's that they're trying to get more bids.[/QUOTE]

Goldin doesn't have the expertise or the resources to do stress testing of the auction platform. And if he doesn't have it, what about smaller customers? Lee Behrens? Scott Brockelman? Are they supposed to do stress testing?

Does Simple Auctions even allow their customers to do stress testing?

Ford crashes a bunch of cars to find out the weaknesses of their cars, the individual owners don't.

Interesting reference from a guy named Studebaker... I have no idea if I have a point :confused:

Sounds like SimpleAuctionSite is NOT the company to trust in the auction business. AHs pay to have this service done for them. Not sure what percentage use them, but I'd be curious to what that number is. I do like the navigation of their site. However, not being able to perform when it counts, is HUGE!

This is correct. SimpleAuctionSite is incompetent, but site owners currently don't have any other choice besides CreateAuction.

Someone is going to come along with a better auction platform and eat both of their lunches. It won't require knowledge about sports collectibles; they'll just need to know how to build and maintain an auction platform.

There are many auction platforms besides those two. Just not utilized by the sports collectible houses. And yes almost all of them have had crashing problems, some much worse and affecting hundreds of auctioneers. You guys realize what a tiny percentage of the auction business is sports right?

I see the point here. If an email was sent indicating possible issues and not to wait to long to bid, then after the first train wreck on Saturday maybe the next notice should have been, better bid now (before the next extended bidding period on Sunday) because if the thing crashes again, we're going to just call it a day (auction over). Instead this is in limbo.

If anything comes from this, you would hope that all AHs will learn from this mess and come up with a plan B that doesn't lead to plan C. I think that's where the frustration is.

There are people that probably bid early on Sunday in anticipation of another mess occurring and now they're just going to get bumped on their high bids and push the bids towards their max ceilings.

In hind sight, it might have been better to open the Sunday bidding as normal bidding for two hours and then start the extended bidding. As far as the extended bidding is concerned - what ever happened (close clean or shut down due to server issues), happened. Finality on Sunday, period.

Bidders would have had more than enough time to put in initial bids and perhaps larger ceiling bids if they really didn't want to get shut out prior to the close of the auction.

It's easy to play armchair quarterback...

So if you are high on a lot now you say CLOSE it down, auction over. If you are under bidder and ready to snipe and wait to the end, you say follow your rules for closing procedure. Goldin should open up for one day which includes regular bidding and then extended time. This will make consignors feel good, and allow all bidders a chance. No one should lose/win because of technical issues.

When are we going to hear what the plan is? We have been in pause mode for over a day

People make plans. An auction house can't publicize a closing date, then start changing things because they aren't paying to have an adequately powered company service their auctions. There was an item I really wanted in the Heritage auction 2 weeks ago. They had lots divided into three groups, some closing Thursday, some Friday, some Saturday. My lot closed Friday and went smoothly (and I won my lot,) leaving the rest of the weekend free for other plans, which was important because I had an invitation to my buddy's fishing cabin in Wisconsin that weekend.

My point is, had the auction house delayed closing for another day, or two, it would've tied me up the entire weekend. That just isn't acceptable.

You can blame the people who run the auction software, and I get that, but bottom line, if it is YOUR business, then take the responsibility to come up with a game plan that works. Do what Heritage did, by closing lots on different days. Maybe divide it by sport (baseball one day, basketball the next, etc.) or category (cards one day, memorabilia the next.) Have smaller (but possibly more frequent) auctions. Hire a company with more robust servers.

It's happened enough times to enough different auction houses that all should be aware of the problem. In my opinion, it's the full responsibility of each auction house to be able to run and close their auctions on schedule. Otherwise it isn't fair to bidders or consignors, or their families.

And the bidder on the Trout card thought he was getting a steal at 525K (excluding bp) :)

The inconvenience of having an auction end while you have plans.. the nerve of some people!

Online auctions are great, just put in your highest bid and hope. Imagine way back when, like a whole 20 years ago when you had to go in person or use the telephone. A landline at that!

[QUOTE=Snapolit1;1981853]Don't blame the auctioneer? Ever? Really? Do they have an IT Department? Does the IT Department study and stress test different platforms? Maybe I'm naive, but I think if you run an online business and your stems falls on its face you've dropped the ball.

Goldin sent out an email early Friday that said please don't wait to long to bid as they system might experience slowness near 10pm? Isn't this called being on notice that there are problems coming?

If Goldin sent out an email saying to bid early as they might experience a slowdown really sounds like they were expecting a problem...just saying...

The heads up on slowness leapt off the page to me, because I have never heard an auction house say that before:


We strongly recommend that you do not wait until 9 pm to place initial bids. Despite our best efforts, the system may get slow due to volume right before 10 pm
– So please bid now!





[QUOTE=chalupacollects;1982101]

On the bright side, saying our auction was so record breakingly popular it broke the system is not the worst publicity in the world for an AH.

If you have bid in the auction, check your email
It was sent yesterday at approx 740pm
As a back up, a mail merge is being sent from our controller frank Dinote to all bidders and consignors in the auction this morning .
It details closing procedure,
If you are not a bidder with a current bid in the auction, you did not get an email as you are not eligible for extended bidding. We are limiting traffic to the website during extended bidding. For anyone who says “ but I wanted to get an initial bid in” the auction ran for 36 days And was extended Saturday night Just before extended bidding was about to begin. An email was then sent out explaining it would be delayed until Sunday and once again told people they have 19 hours extra to get initial bid on, and emphasized do it NOW. If someone with all of that going on still decided to wait until 5 minutes before it entered extended bidding to try to get an INITIAL BID IN Sunday unfortunately that was bad planning and against our advice.
Please check your email if you have bids placed in the auction. If you did not, we are taking drastic steps to reduce all traffic to the website during extended bidding period so the bidders in each closing session can bid quickly and seamlessly without any slowness or delays . Thank you

The real beneficiary here is Hunt Auctions, now relieved of their laughing stock status.

How's this for timing, while I was chuckling at this comment, I got an email from Hunt saying their June auction is open.

Looks like Simpleauctions is owning up to their inaffectiness for handling traffic to their web platform. Don't think I've ever seen an AH try to limit the amount of people coming to their website. Goldin was put in a bad situation from this, which was out of their control, it sounds.

Ha! Strike while the iron is lukewarm.

What a stupid thing to say. If you want people to bid early, why do you have extended bidding? Your customers planned, for 36 days, a bidding strategy that included the extended bidding THAT YOU TOLD THEM WOULD HAPPEN.

we have extended bidding
do not understand your post
WE HAVE EXTENDED BIDDING
someone posted the email we sent out explaining how extended bidding will take place, we have extended bidding.

post of email in easy to read text
 

we were not going to post this, but since a user did and its difficult to read in their format, here it is in plain text. this went out ONLY to those who bid and consigned in our auction. to put a scope on this, at some points we had 50,000 people trying to access the site. The purpose of this plan is to drastically limit the traffic to only those with qualifying bids during the extended bidding period, and break it up over 3 nights so its even a smaller amount per night. We believe the below is very self explanatory. We want to close the auction, give the bidders a chance to participate in extended bidding, and never be in this position again where we need to worry about bringing too much traffic to our website. We want virtually unlimited traffic to be able to come to our website, if 100,000 people want to bid at once, we want to be able to handle it and we will not open another auction until we are confident our provider can handle that. now to the email that was sent.

To our Spring Auction Bidders,
Thank you for bearing with us during the recent software and server issues.
Please note: At the bottom of this message is a note from our software and server provider, Simple Auction Site.
Once again, we apologize for the issues that occurred during the weekend. This e-mail will give you details and instructions on how our Spring Auction will close this week. We have moved the auction to a cloud-based system for the auction close. Also, we are taking precautionary steps to reduce traffic to the site during extended bidding and will split the auction into three separate closing dates (Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday):
Lot #'s 1-350 will open for extended bidding Wednesday May 20 at 9pm EST.
Lot #'s 351-842 will open for extended bidding Thursday May 21 at 9pm EST.
Lot #'s 843-1830 will open for extended bidding Saturday May 23 at 9pm EST.
The auction will re-open in extended bidding with 30 minutes on the clock at 9PM EST those nights as the auction failed during that time. Normal extended bidding rules will apply.
If you have not bid on a lot that ends that night, you will NOT be able to login to the website or see any lot during extended bidding period. If you attempt to log in and you are not eligible to bid in that session during extended bidding, the system will tell you that you are not allowed into the auction. If you are bidding in the session and have not bid on a lot you will only see that lot from the catalog page and you will not be able to go to the detail page. This will greatly reduce traffic on the site during this period. In addition, these drastic measures are being put into place to ensure a smooth and seamless extended bidding period and auction close where you will be able to bid quickly and without delay.
E-MAILS WILL BE SENT OUT ONLY TO THOSE ELIGIBLE TO BID IN AN INDIVIDUAL SESSION THE MORNING OF AND TWO HOURS PRIOR TO THE SESSION START.
It will include the aforementioned detailed bidding instructions.
Please also note with respect to our Spring Auction
1) You will not have any shipping and handling fees on your invoice.
2) We are proud to report that the auction has currently raised over $125,000 for charity including Mambaonthree and CamCare Foundation for Covid-19 relief and the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Thank you everyone for your participation, understanding and support as we work through these technological issues. Arrangements have been made for future auctions to take place on a different, larger, cloud based platform and we will not encounter these issues. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused and look forward to an exciting and successful conclusion to this auction.
Sincerely,
The Goldin Auctions Team

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL
IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION PLEASE EMAIL KEN GOLDIN DIRECTLY ken@goldinauctions.com




We at Simple Auction would like to apologize to Goldin Auctions and all of its bidders and consignors for the recent issues that have occurred. Simple Auction provides the software platform as well as the servers for Goldin Auctions (as well as over 150 other auction companies) and takes full responsibility for the issues that took place over the weekend during the past auction. The issues that occurred rest solely with Simple Auction.

We were aware based on conversations with Ken Goldin that the traffic and volume would be tremendous and we did all that we could to be ready for the volume of traffic for this event. Based on this information we did appropriate load testing and other things to mitigate any problems, and represented to Goldin Auctions we were prepared to handle the expected volume. We obviously failed and we again would like to apologize Goldin Auctions and its customer base over the weekend, and again, we sincerely apologize.

We are working diligently with Goldin Auctions on a solution that will ensure a smooth and seamless close of the auction and also new uninterrupted solutions for future auctions. Expect details on this to be announced within the next twenty-four hours and we guarantee a smooth close of Goldin Auctions' Spring Auction this week. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

Bob Freedman
CEO
Simple Auction Site

I think thats the best thing to do under these circumstances. Thanks for allowing extended bidding to occur where everyone has a chance.

Extended bidding
 

I know you have extended bidding, but when you are chastising people for not bidding withing the first 36 days, it sounds like you are blaming them for not doing so.

100% was not the intent, and have edited and I apologize to you . Poorly worded

I put my min. bids in before extended bidding on Sat. but with this huge clusterf*** I'm not bothering logging in again, what a mess! I really hope Goldin puts every dollar possible into making sure this never happens again

Ouch. I was too confused to revisit the site and get my bids in pre-OT. I always schedule a few hours before extended bidding.

Sorry, I've got no idea why any collector would wait until hours before an auction to put in an initial bid. You go in early, with a bid that doesn't tie you to buying the item at anything less than a steal of a price, and for taking that course you get updates from the auction house, an opportunity to pick and choose what you bid on in extended bidding, or just sitting tight until the last wee hours to snipe the one piece you feel worthy of taking your hard earned.

Any complaints for getting shut out is damned stupid.

I'm a consignor to this auction and the breakdown in bidding to cleanly close I believe is going to substantially hurt me.
That bugs me, but understanding what has occurred at least has me understanding where fault lies, and clearly that is with the server.

Given all the issues with this auction, I thought this was really funny:

I got a postcard in the mail today (May 19) from Goldin Auctions for this auction which was supposed to end May 16.

I always set a reminder to bid the final day, that is simply how I create my schedule. I find it boorish to insult the way someone else bids. Talk to 50 collectors and you are likely to find 50 different methods.

I sure hope you are the person I've been bidding against on the one item I really want!

I hope everyone goes out and has a wonderful evening out Saturday evening!!

Wow, 50,000 viewers...that seems like a huge number to me. I guess there are tons of memorabilia folks in the hobby. I always assume I'm bidding against like 9 people for what I collect.

BTW, I looked today to check my bids, and could not find them. I looked at my hard-copy catalog to see that I think I'm on Thursday. As a bidder, I'm sort of still interested, as a consignor, I would think it was all terribly interesting and dramatic. GL with the auction, gang...Rob

This message went out to all bidders, even those who did NOT bid in Spring Auction.
this explains the limited view at the moment.
and yes, 50,000 is a lot of people trying to access the site at once. That is what having your company name on a crawl on ESPN during the NFL draft will do, among other things.

Here is the email that went out in case it went to your spam.
We are currently migrating to a new cloud server tonight. As part of that process, at some point tonight the site will be down for thirty minutes to an hour.

The auction is closed to initial bids.

If you have bid in the Spring auction, when you log in you will be able to see the lots in the session/s you bid on. We split the auction into three separate sections (Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday nights) temporarily to reduce traffic and allow smooth extended bidding). The auction has been divided into 3 separate auctions. To see your bids you will need to login to your account, and go to "my account" page. Use the Auction selection drop down list on the my account page to view each of the 3 auctions. For instance if you are bidding on lot #400 you will need to select the auction entitled Spring 2020 Premium Auction - SESSION #2. To see lot #900 you will need to select Spring 2020 Premium Auction - SESSION #3.

Those that have bid in the auction, you were e-mailed procedures and rules for the closing. Prior to the extending bidding period, you will receive an e-mail with a link and instructions.

If you have not bid in the Spring Auction, you will not be able to see any lots until the auction concludes on Saturday night. These steps are in place to mitigate traffic to our site during auction close/extended bidding period and limit it to only eligible bidders for each session.

We appreciate you bearing with us while we migrate to a more powerful server to allow for the heavy traffic this auction has received. Future auctions will be conducted with normal closing procedures with a cloud server system that can accommodate the robust user base and high traffic that goes to our site on a daily basis...
especially during auction closing time. We thank you for bearing with us and being patient.

You're free to bid however you like.
When you fail to get a bid in on time with a 30+ day auction however, the fault lies squarely with you and no one else.
Simples.

Can't even look at the auction as it ends because I have not bid.
Everything about Goldin is a disaster with this one.
I have logged in to their website for the last time.

If you log into your account, you will see results from session 1 until 6pm EDT at which point you will see a preview of session 2
If you login and go to “ my account” page and “ select auction” you can drag down and see your bids in session 2 or session 3
If you have consigned you can see ONLY your items in the current session.
We do not like that this has been done, and it’s a pain in the ass, but the steps are in place so traffic is mitigated on the site and when the auction is done, We and all our users will be off the platform and never deal with it again. However, if you look at the results and number of bids and prices realized in session 1, it seems the people that wanted to bid have managed to bid. Thank you for bearing with us .

Im not sure what is considered high traffic for an AH. Is there a chance your platform was bombarded by BOTs most likely originating from outside the Country?

We confirmed there was a cyber attack last night that was caught and stopped. It did slow system down around 920. Precautions put in place, was on phone myself with server company and cyber security. Not discussing more at this time, but someone out there definitely wanted to mess with this auction.