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Posted By: Eric Brehm

As a bidder, I prefer Individual Lot Closing since I am usually only interested in 2 or 3 lots and I can figure out what I am ultimately going to do before they all close. Then I can go to bed. (Although even with this method the bidding on each item can drag out for multiple periods.) If I had a large number of lots to juggle, and a budget that could only accommodate a certain number of them, I might feel differently.

As a consignor, I would probably prefer Simultaneous Lot Closing, but I would make the decision which auction house to consign to based on many factors other than the closing method they use. And I think it is unclear how much difference it really makes in terms of prices realized. Many have said they got locked out of items that they returned to when they gave up on something else, only to find them already closed, while others have reported falling asleep before putting their best bids in during a long auction that remained open as a whole. Who knows how that all really shakes out.