Quote:
Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli
Hey there!
Just happened to see this post, so I thought I'd chime in.
It's really a misconception that our auction is open til 3am.
90% of our auction is closed by 1am, and that's a pretty consistent percentage with each auction. At 1am, we close off every lot that has not been receiving bids.
The rest of the auction remains open for as long as bidders feel they want to bid. It's not us keeping those lots open, it's the people bidding on them. Since it's our job as an auction house to give our consignors every possible opportunity for their consignments to do well, we want to make sure that every bidder gets every opportunity to place the bids they want to place, and not to have them get shut out by a clock, or because a lot they were bidding on closed while they were trying to win a different item, or for some other reason.
The reality is that at 3am, there were a couple dozen out of 2100 lots that were still receiving bids. That's a pretty low percentage. We had an auction that was able to close out 90% of the lots by 1am with no issues, and then leave the remaining lots open as bidding dwindled down until there were just a few items receiving bids.
For folks not interested in sitting by their computer to watch the auction, we've got an auto-bid feature that allows you to leave a max bid and walk away (we do not shill our auctions, the auction house or its employees don't bid in the auctions, and we don't have hidden reserves, so you can trust this system). Also, you have the ability to receive outbid notices by text message so that you don't have to constantly refresh a screen all night.
Basically, we try and make it so that there's really no reason for you to stay up all night and watch this auction, unless you're actively bidding on one of the lots that is receiving bids!
Best,
-Al
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As a side note for everyone. I have been chatting with Al a little bit and he is one of the most polished and professional people I have met in the hobby. We may disagree a little bit on how an auction should close but he has done extensive research on auction closings and he feels this is the best route for his consignors as a whole so I won't argue with that. I love what he has done at LOTG, he is one of the good guys and I can't wait to see what his next auction brings.
PS. I picked up a very nice item in his most recent auction and I can't wait to show the group in the coming days.