[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by BobC

Read posts #170 and #214. Both seem to indicate that the extra day did foster additional bidding in some cases, and that is just from among the forum members that actively post on here. However, I would think the preponderance of REA bidders are not all active posters on here, and so the chance that even more instances of additional bidding on some other REA lots resulted from that added day are likely, I'm guessing, pretty darn high.

So, those two posts I referenced do seem to indicate that it is an indisputable fact that the one-day extension in this specific REA auction did lead to some additional bids. Now does that mean that such a bidding extension also resulted in additional bids in every other auction that has ever occurred where the bidding got extended for at least one additional day for whatever reason, no. But there is also no reasonable way to ever be able to prove or disprove that in every single instance.

And there is also no exact, agreed upon definition as to what constitutes a "significant" difference in an ending auction price. So, to make any such a statement that something is an indisputable fact, or not, when one of the determining parameters is such a subjective, and not objective, measure, is totally inappropriate. You can't indisputably prove or disprove anything that is a subjective measure.

That there were additional bids proves nothing. The same bids might have come in had there been no glitches and the auction stayed open until its natural close the previous night. To get technical, you need to compare the outcome with the "but for" world, not the actual world.