Posted By:
AaronI'm on the left coast, but also disappointed, Hal. I had hoped from Robert's auction rules and follow-up postings the auction would end around 11:00 PM PST at the absolute latest (and I was hoping for closer to 10:00). If you factor in the original 1:00 PM PST closing time for initial bids, the REA auction has had a whopping 10 hours of extended time and still going. That's actually way more than a typical Mastro or Lelands auction and basically asking bidders to stay on guard for an entire day. Not to mention the fact that despite promoting the opposite, it looks like this auction has turned into another battle of attrition over who can stay up the latest.
Between this and the basically nonfunctioning site (unbearably slow load times, and that's if you can even get the page to load, which I've been having trouble with since early this morning, which led me to give up on some lots), I think Rob needs to do some serious tinkering with his auction format and certainly his website needs a major overhaul.
While I think the world of REA and Robert Lifson, and I'm sure he's done staggering business today (which would account for the website debacle), I think today's event was a poor experience for most collectors if their experience has been anything like mine. I can't imagine consignors are going to be too happy either, knowing bids may have been left on the table because of frustration with the site's failures.