Trust me, no one has analyzed our intended market more than us. We are comfortable the way the auction currently ends, and we're glad that it's effected positive change by bringing at least five other auction houses to change their timings with the goal of eliminating 4 AM and 5 AM closings. When we switched the ending method in 2016, it was a revolutionary move, and it had to be done in a way that accomplished what we wanted (more bidders awake) and what the bidders wanted (a reasonable hour).
Last year's Super Bowl ended at 10:14 PM EST. Last year's World Series Game 7 ended at 11:58 PM EST. We view REA as the Super Bowl or Game 7 of auctions, and I know a lot of collectors feel the same way. Many people are happy to stay up to watch these events to their conclusion, and those that aren't just read about them in the morning. If there's a "have-to-have" item, we offer numerous options to ensure that a bidder does not need to be glued to his computer or even awake to pursue it. The auction can be accessed from almost anywhere thanks to modern technology. There's no need to plug into a landline or boot up a PC just to place a bid.
I see Heritage cited a lot--the earliest you can win an item in their catalog auctions is 11:30 PM EST--and that's if there are no bids during extended bidding. If there's competition dragging out the 30 minute clock, it could go several hours.
In last fall auction, we processed more than 800 bids in the final 30 minutes...that's more than 26 bids a minute, or an average of one bid every two seconds approximately.
To date in this auction, we've processed 25,589 bids in the three weeks we've been open. That's about 51 bids an hour, day and night, all day, every day, for three weeks. Those are real, concrete, not made up "frenzy" statistics.
There are other auction houses dragging auctions out until 4 AM with bids coming in every 13 minutes. Those are the auctions that should be looked at and made to consider serious change to modernize things.
This auction we have collectors from the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Spain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Hong Kong, South Korea, China, Malaysia, and Singapore involved in the bidding. That's a lot of time zones, each of which presents a different perceived advantage or disadvantage. We have farmers who are up at 3 AM and prefer the old method better, and we have factory workers who will getting off the line at 10 PM and love the new method. There will never be a perfect time for everyone.
I want to be sure that there is no misinformation spread or misunderstandings about how this auction will close. It is the same way that all of our auctions since October 2016 have closed.
The deadline for initial bids is Noon EST Sunday.
The auction will continue for several hours beyond that. We utilize a 15 minute rule, but the truth is that it never even gets remotely close to running out on our auction.
After 6 PM EST, we can close it at any time.
There will be at least one Fair Warning email sent out in advance of the close with specific timing information based on the activity we are monitoring. Beyond that, there will be no notice.
The auctions utilizing this method have closed between 11:30 PM EST and 11:58 PM EST. There is no guarantee this will be the case this auction but those are data points to consider.
In the event that we cannot or do not shut it down manually, the auction will close automatically at Midnight EST. That has never happened.
Good luck to everyone participating this weekend, whether you're awake at the end or not.
Brian