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Posted By: Joann

Jeff,

That is something that is a little disquieting about Rob deciding when to end it, even if he uses great judgment. I'm just not sure what else would work though.

I will admit that I was very persuaded by the email he sent out this weekend. It said that some bidders will use bids on minor, cheap lots to hold an auction open, just to extend it so they can try to outlast someone on a major lot. If you think about it, under the current rules someone could literally hold the thing open indefinintely - weeks and weeks and weeks - just to try to get someone else to give up and commit money elsewhere.

So who sits in judgment of what is a manipulative bid designed to help win a 6-digit lot, and what is a legit bid by someone that works third shift and came home and bid on the one lot he wanted the very first second he could - even if that was 4 in the morning.

It would take a Solomon to try to figure it out, and maybe that's the best argument about the strict close-at-once format yet - that it can be so indefinite as to make some subjective intervention necessary.

Smarter people than me will figure it out, I'm sure. I trust that Rob used good judgment in deciding when to end it, but in the end there is really no way to know who got cut off. Or how much visibility into the bids Rob had available to him to make the decision.

Joann