Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintageclout
Hi Leon it’s JoeT. Personally, I hate “lot by lot” closing. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve fallen short in a huge bidding war, with it too late to revisit the remaining lots I was also interested in because they closed. True, the auction ends earlier, but I rather trade a single night of good sleep for a great memorabilia piece any day of the week! Also, from a Consignors perspective, I can only imagine the number of bids the lot by lot closing format costs the Consignors. I always felt it is the auction house’s #1 responsibility to do whatever it can to maximize bids via marketing, presentation, bidding process, etc. Simply stated, no consignments = no auction business.
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Joe T.
I could not disagree more, the lots ending one by one with a hard close see much more spirited bidding(unless it's a somewhat commodity type of lot) and usually result in higher price than the ones that close at 5am with only 1 or 2 bids past the initial closing. The lot by lot forces competition, which many bidders want to avoid and stay up all night to try and bid at the last second.
Having ran and more importantly bid in 100's of auctions, it almost always costs me more on an item when I confront another bidder and we get into a bidding war for 30 minutes to an hour when the lot is closing with 10 or 15 or 30 minute bid windows, instead of one of us "sniping" the item at 5:00 am when the other was probably the high bidder and went to bed. The last scenario is what costs consignor's money.
Invariably auctions that close lot by lot, see the items get to their market value much quicker than one that last all night, as the bidders know that they have to get their bids in and compete to win, which in turn results in higher prices to the consignor.
Scott