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.