Not worth it
 

I was late to work today. The reason... I acted like a stupid teenager and stayed up way too late. I'm done with any auction that ends on a work night with crazy extended bidding. No cardboard is worth the mental anguish. And no, I didn't win anything. Tired of the crappy decisions to reward those that have the stamina or luxury of schedule to participate. I love Sterling and Heritage and several others, but I can't reward with them with my support at risk of my job and peace of mind.

Rant over.

I'm with you Mark!

Stonepony's auction competition now -2 . Keep em coming boys!!

But sometimes you gotta say WTF and go for it. http://i6.ifrm.com/2422/189/emo/beerchug.gif

You can say wtf all you want. I'm done with it. Most sellers and venues of goods take their customers schedules into consideration. With the closing decisions of these auction houses, it appears their target demographic is awake at 3:00 AM central time or live outside the country in a time zone that this closing is favorable. Since that is the obvious preferred time, why don't all Auctions, including eBay close at 3:00 AM? Because it's not. This foolishness can continue without me. There are far more cards out there than I could ever afford to buy. So I'm going to pretend that those ending times are just off limits to me. I will pick my fruit from a different branch.

As someone who is a teenager for 3 more days, I agree :D I don't understand why some auction houses still do this. I don't see why it would bring in anymore money. Just make everyone happy and have it end at a reasonable hour

The whole model is based on this asinine notion that as soon as I am outbid at 4:53 am on an item I am dying to get, all of a sudden I'm going to start pushing my pile of chips as fast as I can in other directions. Because lord knows once I have my money on the table I'm so crazed that I'll spent it somewhere.

Haven't done that once.

There have been many auctions that have closed at 5 am where I would have bid higher at 11:30pm and gotten the item (and everyone would have made more money on the other end) has it closed on a lot by lot basis.

Is there anything else you see in your life that is sold in such a ridiculous fashion. No. Absurd model.

If there is something I really really want, I will go to bed and set my alarm for 5 am. Get up and take a look at my emails. If I've been outbid I will think about it for a minute. And more times than not roll over and go back to sleep.

I just set a max bid early and forget about it. If I lose, I don't really care - someone else was willing to overpay for it and another one will eventually come along. I don't emotionally attach myself to anything I see, no matter how amazing it looks or how much it "speaks" to me.

I only had my eye on one HA card, which I lost, and one Sterling card, which I apparently hit the sweet spot on and won at my max bid.

I share your frustration. Being an east coast early morning working stiff, I have lost many auctions for this same reason. Max bid doesn't help, last guy up still can outbid me.

I use the "set it and forget it" method. If it hits, I'm good with what I bid. If not, I can live to fight another day. I get more than my share of stuff based on my card room and depleted checkbook. Some auction houses I'm more comfortable than others with leaving a proxy bid. I don't see them changing to an REA type format but that would be nice.

Same here and it keeps the emotional bidding/instant overpay regret out of it :)

^This!^

I've never understood why late auction endings bother people so much.

Bottom line is I won't bid with an auction house I don't trust. So if I'm willing to place a bid with an AH and don't feel like staying up I put in a max bid and go to bed. If I win I win and if I don't there's is always another auction right around the corner.

I set my maximum bid on closing night just before bed (10pm Eastern time, maybe 11pm if its a weekend) and wake up in the morning with a normal night of sleep.

Max bids don't really work if you're after multiple things, can't afford them all, and have to prioritize.

I don't think reasonable ending hours is too much to ask. AH's are reluctant to change simply because that's how it's always been done so all their data supports ending late. Kudos to REA for having the courage to make a customer service-centric change.

That said, Heritage's lot by lot closing seems to keep most items ending at a reasonable time.

I like the "set it and forget it" method too. Otherwise, I'm sure I'd let emotion get involved and decide to just spend a little bit more to get what I want. Plus, I need sleep!:D

Good point, Jeff. Typically I'm only seriously chasing one or two items per auction so I guess it's easier for me than others who may be interested in multiple lots but can only afford one or two.

This prioritization is what always got me. I am not suppose to be a buyer anymore (though I have certainly fallen a few times). When I was more involved, though, I had to prioritize.

I once I mentioned something about this type of thing in a thread on the board. I stated how hard it is when you get outbid on something your put as your first priority but now unable to bid on the backup stuff because I didn't place any initial bids. I was told essentially that nothing ever sells for the Minimum Bid so I should just bid on everything I want with place marker bids. Turns out they were wrong and I won my priority with the MB and a few of my backups never got bids, had I taken the advice I could have potentially ended up in the hole.

I understand the pain.

If you live on the East Coast like I do, we lose 3 hours to the West Coast guys. I place my high bid before I go to sleep and just let it ride. When I wake up the next morning, I am met with all the outbid emails. I notice the outbids are always around midnight or early morning. I am in dreamland but the West Coast guys are still up and ready to bid.

AH's are out to make money and not to please everyone.

It's an unfair advantage to West Coast collectors. REA is smart - they recognize the value in treating every dollar equally, regardless of geography. Every "set it and forget it" is a sleeping bidder who might be willing to bid yet again if he was awake when he gets outbid. I think AHs are losing money on that system.

Probably true, but you've got to draw the line somewhere. If they found some way to equalize the time difference and make it equitable across the board, we'd all be complaining about the new convoluted system designed to milk every bidder for every penny.

Personally, I bid one bid increment over what I really want to spend and go to bed assuming I'm not gonna get it. If someone wants to way over pay and snatch it from me, then its all theirs.

I also use the bid my max and go to bed method. Only on a rare occation for a rare card will I stay up.

I was late for work today also not because I was up late bidding but shut alarm off and thought I'd get out of bed in another minute. Lol. Hate starting my day off late

Anyways, I haven't bid on live auctions in a couple years. I remember my first live auction that I bid on. I didn't understand the rules and was confused. I had bid on an item and thought that if nobody bid on that item within the time frame that that single item would end. Come to find out that the ENTIRE auction kept going was stupid to me! I won the auction and there weren't any more bids in extended bidding but had to wait all night to figure out if I won.

I think REA has found a way to equalize the time difference by ending their auctions at 11 p.m. On Sundays. I don't think it's convoluted and haven't seen many complaints, except from the usual suspects who complain about everything in the hobby.

+Exactly. This is all by design. There is no card, memoriablia, autgraph, etc worth losing my sleep. The entire AH process is set up to shill buyers and cover the tracks with blind bidding. It's too bad, because I would bid on a few items if I could snipe.

Based on the number of repetitive items I see shuffled around these AH's, I would guess 30% of the sales are fake.

That's almost always what I have done with major auctions. The only exception was in 2007, when I stayed up to guard my maximum bid on the 1923 Lections Babe Ruth, which I won, so it was worth it.

Happy collecting,

Larry

Been beating this drum for years now. There is no evidence that late night actions result in better $$$ results.

I'm bidding more and more in auctions that either close lot by lot or end at a reasonable hour. I want to reward them with my business and hope others do to.

Glad to see at least a slight trend in this direction from the auction houses and hope it continues.

jeff

Some stuff I collect is unique (game used jerseys and bats) I try to set my alarm and wake up early to make sure I win. Im not happy about it but when I get the item in hand, its worth the hassle.

REA has it figured out, no more 4 am for me as a set of twins came into life a couple years ago. I do wish REAs closing night was Saturday instead on Sunday but that no big deal when they close at 1130.

SO anyone interested in actually GOING to an auction??? :)

Going to an auction
 

I go to a lot of auctions. It is interesting that at live auctions they sell one item at a time and I have never had to stay up until 4 am until all of the bids are in. They seem to do quite well for their consignors. When people say the extended bidding is good for consignors, I say that is BS. You can't bid when you are sleeping, unless you leave a max bid.