Legendary Auctions Extended Bidding
 

This is my first time bidding in at Legendary Auctions. I was looking at the rules and I noticed that they don't let people change directions if they are outbid after 9pm on ending night. For instance I have a bid in on a lot that is very similar to another lot. If I lose out on the one I am bidding on I would love to change my focus to the other lot (or another one that isn't even similar on my watch list) but that only works if I am outbid before 9pm Thursday.

Is there a reason it is done this way?

Do most people prefer this method or have you lost out on winning anything because of this set up?

I am not sure but I think you might be misunderstanding the rules. In order to bid on something AFTER their extended bidding you have to bid on it before the auction enters extended bidding. Once they go into extended bidding you can only bid on those lots you have bid on already. But you can certainly bid on all of the lots in extended bidding which you bid on previously, until the clock runs out of time. I think we have almost all lost out on something we wanted to bid on because we hadn't bid on it in regular bidding. This rule is thought to make people bid sooner. Hope this helps?

You described it how I understood it. I have limited funds. I am currently the high bidder on a lot (the only lot I bid on). If one of the previous bidders decides to outbid me on this lot after 9pm Thursday, then I can not redirect my bidding to another lot that I haven't bid on (because I don't want to over extend my budget and accidentally win more than I can pay).

It may be trying to get people to bid on certain lots sooner, but I like the idea of keeping all lots going in extended bidding for anyone who has placed a bid on at least one auction.

Well, very low, early marker bids on anything you "might" be interested in is what you might have to do. However, I have won a number of items with marker bids so you have to be careful there also. If that happens you can just take out a payday loan. :( Decisions decisions.....

I usually try to put a bunch of placeholder bids very early in the auctions to give me more flexibility. This strategy works better for auctions where all lots end at the same time rather than the 30 minute rule auctions like Legendary, H&S, and Heritage. You just need to make sure that starting price of the lot isn't so high that it might be the only bid on that item and win the lot if you're not prepared for it.

The marker bids may work at times, but I am not going to play roulette with my family's money. No loans will ever happen to pay for things... otherwise I may have to go change some answers on the poll currently going on if this hobby has been a negative.

I wish I would have put my initial bid on the rarer item instead of the more common one. The rarer item is more expensive and I didn't talk to my wife about it prior to the first item already had my money directed that way... maybe she will be okay with me winning both.

UGH! I just wish I could bid on a new lot later if I lose out later.

I won't derail this thread but some auctions, ours included, don't require marker/placeholder bids. All bidders can bid on all cards until the auction closes. However, that doesn't make people bid early.
There is no perfect solution for ending an auction. All of them have pluses and minuses.

I know yours does and Sterling does. Outside of Ebay, until now, those are the only two places I have bid. So when I saw this rule today when I was trying to figure out my bidding strategy I was saddened to see that I may lose out on something if somebody decides to be rude and outbid me into extended bidding. If I win my current lot I will be happy even having not bid on the other item, but if I end up not winning either and item two sells for less than I was willing to bid then I will be sad.

Hi- outbidding someone in extended bidding is not rude, it's completely part of the bidding process and standard in an auction.

putting in early "placeholder" bids as others have mentioned above, is the best way to put yourself in a good position to strategize during extended bidding. if you put placeholder bids in on the first day (or during the first few days) the lots are usually very low at that point and you'll most likely be outbid. best bet, try to preview the auction before bidding opens, and if you see something you are even remotely interested in, throw a bid in on the first day.

good luck, hope you win the item you want.

I don't know how it is with cards, but on the memorabilia side, my guess is that very few items in the Legendary auction will sell for the price they stand at right now.

Greg

I'm with a lot of guys on here with place holder bids. The day an auction opens throw in the first bid on something and you'll obviously get outbid sometime during the auction and you'll have a shot at it come extended bidding time. I do love the Legendary does it lot by lot, no waiting until 5am.

It is rude because I would rather know now that someone will be outbidding me. Doesn't mean it isn't strategy, but it feels rude. I would like to know now.

Also there are still many lots that don't have bids. There are items from auctions that end at times with no bids. So if you try and put a "place holder" bid in and you end up winning more than you can pay (or should allow yourself to pay) then that stinks. I understand the place holder comments, the idea isn't going over my head, but that doesn't always make the most sense. I once won more than I had expected because I placed bids for an auction that I couldn't be around for at the end figuring that I would be outbid on some and not others, instead I won almost all of them. I paid for it, but I will not allow that to happen again. My hobby is not strategy game playing with my money, I am a small fish in an ocean of money. I don't have the luxury of spending even an extra $100 on accident.

Being outbid in extended bidding is part of the auction world, it's certainly not look upon as "rude". i'm sure many others here will back me up on this...so, i guess either bid early on things you want, or stay up late to monitor whether or not you are outbid on a lot.

Again, i do sincerely wish you luck, and hope you win the lot you want.

Best-
MS

I don't like extended bidding either. I know its good news for the consignor. But it doesn't feel right to win an item in regulation and lose it to someone later.

Why stay up late if I can't redirect my bidding if I am outbid later in the evening?

BTW the one item I am bidding on is one of the few non sports related item in the auction, so the odds are that no one here is going to be the one that knocks me out.

I only consider it rude in this auction type. Now I am interested in a poll on what type of auction ending does each person prefer:
A) Extended for anyone to bid until there are no more bids in the entire auction for a certain amount of time
B) Extended for only previous bidder of any lot in the auction until there are no more bids for a certain amount of time
C) Extended bidding only for bidders on lots bid on by that bidder until there are no more bids on that lot for a certain amount of time
D) No Extended bidding, all bidding on all lots end at a pre determined time.

I love the sincere honesty of your post.

I think we overanalyze the auction houses' strategy. They are trying to maximize bidding, and one great way to do that is to make it 'fun' for the bidders.

Not saying the late-night lot-by-lot strategy should be fun - only that it is for some people and gets them to bid when they probably shouldn't. On big nights where I am interested in lots of items, I settle down with a bottle of red wine and a movie, and have a great evening. If I want to be smart about things, I figure out my ceiling bid way in advance, place it and walk away. But I'm rarely that smart.

In the last Legendary auction I was unclear about when the 30 minute rule began. I was coming home late from work thinking I would get back just in time for the 30 minute rule to begin and found that a lot I was planning to be aggressive on was closed. I guess I will have to read the rules more closely this time.
JimB

I do not really get what the two hour limbo period is for. Why not just state that the 30 minute clock will begin at X:XX pm.
JimB

My thinking is that if they wanted to maximize bidding (from at least me) they would open all the lots to me since I bid on at least one lot. If get outbid on that one lot in extended bidding then they lost out on my money being put towards another lot. Sterling has gotten more out of me because of this. I got outbid later in the evening so those funds got put towards other lots that hadn't hit my max for that lot, but combined with my previous bids it would have hit my personal max overall.

I am new to legendary, so what do you mean by "two hour limbo"?

I always have an image of some frantic bidder who had been blown out on the items he really wanted placing bids against me in extended time just so they can say they won something, when they don't even want what they took from me.

getting outbid in extended bidding..
 

Yes, it is extremely rude to outbid me. Please do not outbid me in extended bidding tomorrow.

I was the high bidder on the Devore OM in the last LOTG and some people had the audacity to outbid me while I was away having dinner. The nerve of some people.

I will clarify that when I say rude... it is more like the way the auction is set up that would make it feel rude. I have been outbid in extended bidding before, that doesn't bother me. With the way Legendary is set up it makes it a very annoying thing for someone to wait until extended bidding to outbid someone, because that person now has no way of going for something else that may have been farther down their priority list, yet still within their range of willing to pay.

I like auctions where an individual lot closes if no bids are received within 15/30 minutes. I can then put that card in the bank (or not) and move on. I then have been able to apply much of my "left over" bid money to other lots. Sure I can lose out more quickly too, but I'm not scrambling on a whole bunch at once in the end.

I don't like auctions that don't allow you to bid extended without a prior bid where the item got no action. Goodwin had nearly two hundred Famous & Barr cards in an auction last year listed separately with $100 openers. This was right on the cusp of what I thought the cards would sell for after BP, so I was reluctant to put placeholders on dozens and dozens of cards when I would have really only been able to afford about 10-15. Sure enough, even though these were basically fungible commons several that I wanted went completely untouched and thus frozen while others I wanted went higher than I was willing to pay. In such a scenario I would have gladly entered late bids and won many at the minimum, and assume the consignor/seller would have been OK with that. Instead, these cards just went unsold and I won fewer than I wanted for less (total) than I was willing to spend. Had I put placeholder bids on all cards I wanted and hit most or all of them, I would have come out of pocket way too much for the balance sheet.

Bottom line, zero bid items should automatically be allowed to go to extended bidding--what's the downside?

Yes, that's why you have to put in 'marker' bids early, on anything you think you might want. I've had a couple of times where my marker bids almost won more than I could afford, so you need to have a good idea of market value.

That 'limbo' period has hurt me a couple of times. Very common now to have a 1-hour window where only previous bidders can bid, then the 30-minute rule starts immediately after. I don't like it, but it's just another technique for getting more bids.

You could always contact the auction house after the fact and see if they'll let you purchase them at the minimum bid

Just bid the 1st day and you should be fine. The starting bids are always way lower than the bids will end up

Joe

So, you get outbid in extended bidding on item 1 and choose to go after a card you had not bid on during regular bidding (item 2) If I was the only bidder on that item (item 2) and you come in and outbid me during extended bidding after you knew you couldn't win item 1, isn't that then even MORE rude to me? Please put yourself in the other person's shoes for a minute. How selfish of you!

Seriously??? This is ridiculous! As others mentioned, bid early and give yourself the flexibility to bid on those other items during extended bidding. Be happy if you are the only bidder before extended bidding begins so you won't have to worry about guys like you who divert their funds elsewhere at the last minute! Rude, hmph!!!

All I know is that this mentality really rubs me the wrong way.

Thanks for outing the auction.

This exact same thing happened to me, I ended up buying the card from the winner... Being a west coast guy, I don't like the individual lot closing structure. I feel like they're robbing us of our time zone advantage. :)

Jim- I'm with you. That dead zone from 9:00 to 11:00 makes no sense.

Matt, I feel the opposite - I can go to sleep earlier than the East coasters.

But my secret bidding strategy makes it all a moot point :)