Auction Bid Regret
 

With the REA auction ending tomorrow night I began to think about past auctions, not just REA but any auction but not eBay, where I wish I would have pulled the trigger and bid again. What I mean is there that item(s) that we gave up on bidding higher and just went to bed knowing that we were the under bidder , this does not include setting a max bid and then going to bed and waking the next day to find we lost it by 1 bid, but rather just throwing in the towel and after heavy thinking just went to bed knowing we were the under bidder and then regretted the next day not adding another bid to try to win that item. I have 6 from over the years that haunt me, there are a few more but these are the main ones:
1. Dickey Pierce's scrapbook with his auto from REA 6-7 years ago
2. "Lefty " Williams pay check from Lou Lipset 11 years ago
3. Hank O' Day and Frank Grant signed sheet from last year in Lou Lipset's
4. Eddie Gaedel signed album page from Mastro
5. Sol White letter from The Halper Auction
6. Vic Willis HLS and signed business card from Mastro.
I don't know if this thread will take off but let's see what happens.

Error ...wrong page . Sorry meant it for autos , but this could apply to any category.

I moved it to the autograph side but you are correct, it could be for anything. I know I have had (non)bid regrets for cards, many times!!

Thanks for moving it, I was trying to move it but had no success.

You can't let that bother you, simply because - even if you hadn't placed your absolute, top, max, yes-Regis-this-is-my-final-answer bid - you don't know how high your opponent would have gone had you continued bidding.

.......or how high the auction house would have bid against you.

I always wonder this when I bid in the auction houses if they shill. I'm curious what the members on this forum think about this.

Biggest regret is not buying a poor (but presentable) T206 Wagner 10-12 years ago. Next would be not buying a decent Plank around the same time.

I never considered Mathewson letters affordable, but looking back, I also wish I had purchased one of them when they were less costly.

Also wish I had bid more on the Van Oeyen photo lot 12 years ago, although my understanding is that the eventual winner wasn't going to stop bidding.

I believe the house bidding is legal, especially if they disclose it in the terms and conditions. Think of it as the house bidding on behalf of the consignor to move it closer to the reserve. Because if the house didn't bid and it didn't get to the reserve, well, there's no trade anyways. But the house is also aware that by doing that, they are risking scaring away the top bidders.

As long as their rules say they can bid then there really is no issue. I still don't really believe in it but as long as it's on the up and up...probably not a big deal.

For the record, my little auction company has rules against it and we won't do it. But if other AH's have rules permitting it, then I go in knowing and keep that in mind when bidding....

As long as it is reveled in the rules, no problem. My main point was against the auction companies that shill bid just to raise the price, then it's not a fair or honest auction.

Yes, and we have seen the consequences of that, and they aren't pretty....

As someone who speaks with quite a few AH principals I can safely say they know they could be subpoena'd for records at any time. I am not saying shilling never happens, but I don't thing it's too common.

For the last few years I've been bidding in the annual Early American Coppers live auction, which is in fact taking place this Saturday May 3. Rule #9 in their catalog reads:

9) Consignor may bid or place a reserve bid on their own coins. Any coin repurchased by a consignor will be announced as a pass. Principals of the auction may consign or may bid on coins in the sale.

What can you do. In short, anything goes. Anything anybody wants to do they can do. But I know it going in, it's transparent.

This is garbage, I'm sorry. What kind of a fair event is that? In other words, you either overpay for something, or don't get it? Why would a consignor NOT bid up their own stuff and get a "pass" if its not going for either what he wants for a profit or what he needs?

I have suspected this in an antique/collectible auction I've attended a couple times, but this isn't explicitly stated.

Basically, a moving reserve.

I can understand the appeal of such a policy to consignors (and for cheats, it's always a 'policy') - I sold an item at a hammer price of $3,100 and would loved to have bid it up to $6,000 and paid the buyers premium to get it back - but we all know the effect of reserves on straight auctions and it isn't a good thing as far as stimulating bidding.

I usually more regret things I WIN! :rolleyes:

Scott and Scott (sounds like a father and son law firm),

No doubt that rule sucks in so many ways. At least it is not done under the table but out in the open. I will say this, however: there is no perfect auction system, and I do applaud the auction houses, such as REA and others, who very specifically engineer rules to protect the bidders from any kind of shenanigans. But there is a downside, and that is consignors do at time get hammered and really have no protection whatsoever. When I ran my auctions I tried to do whatever I could to protect the bidder, and had a software system where consignors were locked out from bidding on their own lots. But I also got that occasional unwanted call from an unhappy consignor who thought his material did poorly. It will happen. I realize when one consigns to auction he is assuming risk; he can't always expect all his lots to hit a homerun. But he really has no protection at all.

I don't know what the fairest system is. Maybe allowing reserves is fairer, but as an auctioneer I wouldn't want to be returning a large percentage of my consignments without collecting any fees.

And let me add that the OP asked the question about bidding regrets, and we're now way off topic. My apologies.

Yep, as long as it's up-front, as a consignor you choose the format that works best for you, and as a bidder you keep all the rules in mind when bidding - as you say, there is no perfect system. As a consignor who has only consigned twice, my new policy is to rarely consign and to just keep working on my own selling techniques. My thinking had been that rare (or unique) items should do better through someone like REA, and I still believe that - I have a few items that I'm sure Rob could get more for than I could on my own.

Okay, I'll throw us back on topic - another autograph regret I have is simply not going through the mail back in the 1970's. I loved getting autographs back then, and I liked mailing off for stupid stuff like trick cameras and maps :), but it never crossed my mind to mail off for autographs. Huge missed opportunity.