More reasonable auction closing
 

Would it be impossible to have one of these big auctions end at 3pm EST on a Sunday, then have 5 hours of extended bidding until 8pm and then start closing items at 9pm one by one if bids in a 15 min interval? Realize not ideal for west coast people but seems like reasonable hours. Better than asking some working guy to be at his computer at 1230 Monday morning.

Yes this has been beaten to death in the past. Sure the usual people will have such a reaction. As they always do. Just frustrated. But I guess my wife is happy.

Hi steve agreed omg its crazy

Can’t imagine any business consultant in the world would study any industry selling any product and conclude “yeah, you will maximize profits by forcing a large segment of your clients to stay up to 12 midnight to close a deal …”

12:30? I wish I was only up until 12:30 last night for the auction. :)

ETA: just checked. Went to bed at 2:08 until I won my last lot. Today will be fun.

I went to bed at 2am last night and was up at 530. Look, this is going to sound so geeky, but there is a bit of a badge of honor staying up late on an auction night and feeling like a zombie the next day. Except its really sad telling people out loud why you look so tired.

I would love if auction countdowns started a bit earlier (and unfortunately East Coast folks are disadvantaged), but the late start is somewhat part of the "fun" in collecting.

Ruining my sleep is a lot more appealing than having to time my extended bidding on a Sunday afternoon when company is over.

I don't think so west coast ballers with the money bidding late.

Quite a few actually starts the extended bidding lot by lot closing at 9:00 and 10:00 PM EST, and end pretty quickly, usually within the next hour.

Just be happy the old days of the entire auction ending at once at 4-5:00 am...are long gone.

I lost my 1 item after I went to bed...oh well! Congrats Jeff!!

LOL, yes I always get that look as a 55 year old adult when I tell people I collect baseball cards. It is a similar look I give people that tell me they believe in psychics or bigfoot.:eek::D

I suspect that closing early like that the AH would lose more west coast bidders to things like dinner, family, activities, and work than they lose easy coast people unwilling to stay up a bit past midnight (or beyond for something they really want). As is always the case, one can put in ceiling bids and go to bed (which can be limiting for those who put in several but don't really want to win them all, I realize). Also as is always the case, no system is going to be perfect.

Would be nice, but unless all of them change, probably not happening.

Why not close Saturday night? No more worries about being drag-assed at work the next day.

Maybe the thought is too many people are out partying late on Saturday night.

Kudos to using an old-school word of "company" to describe friends who are visiting the house. Very 1970s.

Isn't this why a bidder should make his max bid early rather than thinking he'll get a steal? Just curious is all. I always put my max in on day one, then not have to worry, if I get outbid, so be it.

Heritage has a great ending and not sure they leave any money on the table, in general. I suppose, in theory, the longer an auction stays open the more money they get for their consignors but it is a "crazy" business model. Memory Lane, Mile High, REA and LOTG seems to go later than most.

Kudos to those who fought it out in the early morning.

If you're an auction house like REA consistently getting amazing prices, what's the incentive to change the system? My suspicion is that late nights promote irrational behavior.

Life never liked max bids as a final bidding strategy.

I feel like I am bidding against myself. Maybe not the rational way to think about.

I am so sick and tired of these late closing times. Who came up with this incredibly unfriendly business model?

To all the auction houses that utilize this method: I refuse to stay up for this. You're missing out on more of my money as a result. Bottom line, it's all just "stuff" and not worth screwing with my sleep over.

I too am not a fan. Seems like whoever can stay up the latest has an advantage, which is odd.

I'm not a fan of the late closings at all

Had to be at airport at 730 this morning.
Long week ahead of me and wasn’t staying up past midnight.

Day One
 

I’m with you, a Day One bidder. I know what I’ll pay, and maybe I’ll get a deal. If it goes over, I don’t want bourbon bidding for me at a late hour!

6pm to 10pm extended bidding.

10pm closing lot by lot.

Almost everything would be done by midnight.

Maybe late afternoon/early evening isn't so great for west coast bidders? IMO as long as they are doing fabulously well (see other thread) there's no incentive to change.

I learned the hard way long ago that alcohol and on-line auctions don’t mix. The one lot on which I bid seriously went while I was in dreamland. Disappointing but so be it. It’s the best way for me to maintain at least a modicum of discipline.

me too! to the tune of the antiques roadshow t207 red cross loudy!!!! OOPS!!!!

Re: More reasonable auction closing
 

I was "only" up until 1:30; won nothing and feel like crap today. Oh well...

-
East Coast gets the National every year, West Coast gets 3 hours more sleep on auction night.

Seems like a fair trade.

Agree... I like the current format. Everyone is in bed, with no distractions during "crunch time".

I never win much in the Saturday night auctions... that's the night we are always out doing something, and my ceiling bids rarely hold up. So Sunday is just fine with me!

Sleep? I mean WTF? Have plenty of time for sleep when we're dead! Stuff sleep into your purses.

LOL True.

It has been awhile since I have seriously bid on a card in a major auction. It is just too late for me. I don’t do max bids unless just after one card because then I might win multiple and only had the budget for one.


Phil, you can have National on West coast if the auctions end 3 hours earlier.

Chad

Bidding
 

I put my last bid in at 12:37 and went to bed at 12:53. While I was waiting to see if my bid would get topped, I looked through the auction and a great number of lots had closed by 12:20. I would be curious what the actual stats are. The one auction I feel comfortable putting in my maximum early is REA. However, I do enjoy the thrill of bidding on an item after midnight and waiting to see if have to stay up another 15 minutes or not.

It ain’t changing. Use the max bid feature.

No idea how old you are ….. but at a certain age sleep is everything.

It's funny that for those of us within a certain age group, 15 or even 10 years ago we made some coffee and thought nothing of staying up till the wee hours bidding in these stupid auctions lol.

Phil, when did Chicago get moved to the East Coast? :)

I put in a limit bid and went to bed at 10:30….and won for below my max. It is possible, guys.

Ha! Everything past the Rockies is East Coast to me.

Hake’s closes all of their auctions exactly like Steve suggested with extended bidding starting at 9pm and lots closing individually using the 15 minute rule. It’s been that way for about 4 years now. You’re welcome…..

Based on prices no way.

You'd have to be inebriated to bid 45k on a trimmed mantle. Regardless of your diagnosis

Thank you, Phil! Thanks for all you do to make this hobby better.

Feature or bug?
 

It does seem like this discussion largely comes down to a question of whether the closing mechanism is a feature or a bug. Do you love the thrill of the chase, and enjoy a late night bidding like a drunken sailor against other drunken sailors? Or do you prefer to check out at 8pm and get a good night's sleep?

A big part of it probably also comes down to how badly you want the stuff that you're chasing. If you have to have it, and refuse to accept the possibility of defeat, then you probably are willing to sacrifice some sleep to make it happen.

If you're a bit more ambivalent, then maybe you submit your max bid the day before the auction ends, and then check back in on Monday morning to see whether you won anything.

I suppose there's also the question of whether you can afford to win everything that you put a max bid in on. And if not, then you're stuck staying up late and needing to manage it all in real time.

Just thinking about it makes me start to wonder if all of this effort is really worth it, for the honor of paying gigantic sums of sweet, sweet cash in exchange for cardboard. I guess that depends on your own calculus and value system. Of course, I say that now, simply because there haven't been many auctions of late with much that it is very tempting to me, at least at the prices going down. Often I'm only mildly interested in a few bits, and typically the prices have exceeded my appetite by about a week before closing, so I can check out early. But if some great stuff comes along that I can't live without, then all of a sudden I'll go to great lengths to make it mine.

Of course, being a left-coaster, the average auction doesn't require that I sacrifice as much sleep as is required of the east coast crowd. So there's also that.

Yes, I think it comes down to priorities. Put me in the "prefers a good night's sleep" category. Something about staying up half the night and morphing into an adrenaline junkie in order to acquire a piece of cardboard just kind of gives me perspective - like, "maybe I should just not spend this money anyway.." I've actually been more impulsive on auctions that end at a reasonable time.

For me to stay up and go the distance into the wee hours, them item needs to be BOTH something I really, really want AND a good value. (Which almost never happens at the big auction houses, at least on stuff I'm interested in.)

It's how we've done things since day one. We start extended at 10pm. At 10:15 anything without a new bid closes and we're lot by lot from there on in. Since 2018. Very rare to go past midnight. Occasionally one item has a fight that goes on for a few hours but that's the exception not the rule.

As a bidder, I hate the super late-night, entire thing closes at once auctions. As a consignor, I love it. Having everything close all at once gives bidders the chance to shift without items having already closed like in a lot by lot format. This leads to extra bids, even in the wee hours.

The consignor is the customer.

There's definitely a delicate balance though (probably moreso for a smaller company like mine) While my fiduciary duty is to my consignor, I feel the best way to serve that duty is to make a buyer friendly auction process. The more comfortable and happier the buyers are the better the results will be for my consignors.

To the extent this whole late closing process is founded on some assumption that buyers are holding $X,XXX in their hand that they are hell bent to spend, and will quickly push their entire stack of chips on to another item in the middle of the night if necessary . . . I just never got that. . . . . . Doesn't ring true to me.

1119. Nightsnagging
Any West Coast bidder using the two or three ‘extra’ hours to score auction wins as a huge portion of his competition lies asleep in bed due to the time difference.

See also: Discounting Sheep - a mocking way to describe the money you’ve saved as your competition was too busy getting some shut-eye to bid in the auction.