Auction question - Own it now option
 

I wonder if any AH has tried a combination auction / own it now format. List an item with a own it now price of $X, opening bid $Y. Make it so that the own it now only stays active for 24 or 48 hours and that no one can place bids until the buy it now option disappears. Obviously the buy it now price would need to be pretty significant to appease the consignor. In cases where someone wants to pay strong and risk overpaying to lock something up for the certainty of it, I wonder if economically this could work.

Not sure if they still do it but eBay used to do something similar. The buy it now option would disappear once someone placed a bid.

I think that defeats the meaning of the word "auction" though...

They did, but the opening bid was something absurdly low (ie, 99 cents) so the bidders always bid quickly just to make it disappear. That make work better with a higher opening bid.

You can still add the Buy It Now on Ebay, regardless of what the opening bid is. The only requirement is that the Buy It Now price needs to be at least 30% higher than the opening bid.

When selling or buying I like seeing a buy it now price even in an auction setting. It might defeat the purpose of an auction but I am not sure that matters if both buyer and seller are happy?

BTW, I am sure I have done an "auction + buy it now" format listing in our BST area, many moons ago.

I see it at charity auctions now. Is a bid sheet but if you want it you can just buy it as an option. Works well but maybe more so in a charity context people are just happy to pay a number and get it.

Saw an eBay listing last night.

Starting bid $399

Buy It Now $599

So I guess it does happen.

There are millions of those kinds of listings on ebay. My guess is Steve (the original poster) was talking about having the option other places too which makes some sense to me *but maybe not many others.

wont happen
 

the Big Auction Houses would never do that , as to require that vast knowledge of valuation for some of the more unique items is not logistically possible, also it leaves the door wide open for possible deliberate low pricing and insider trading , and who ever heard of AH doing anything unethical
the thing is when a scarcer item goes up for auction their estimate of value is sometimes as low as 10% of actual hammer price or even lower , But all the big AH have a large buy it now section .

Memory Lane was doing “I Own It Now” Auctions for a while. But I think they’ve stopped using that format. Haven’t seen one in a couple years or so.