Live Auctions?

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Posted By: Joe D.

I was waiting to bid on something in the Philip Weiss Live auction... and it goes right to the "listing ended".

Did I miss something? I had no opportunity to bid.

I guess I don't know how these live auctions work.

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Posted By: Max Weder

The auction started at 10 am EST, but Ebay live had trouble all day. I eventually gave up following the auctions, and went out and raked leaves.

Max

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Posted By: Joe D.

does that mean it ended at 10pm?

I thought it was starting at 10pm. And thought the countdown for minutes left was --- minutes until auction start.

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Posted By: Steve Dawson

I always thought the same thing...that the listed time was the start time. I sent an email to ebaylive last week and was told that the listed time is 12 hours after the actual start time. This is because it's actually the end-time, and since there's no way of knowing when a live auction will end, they have arbitrarily set it at 12 hours after the start of the auction.

I was also watching a few items in the Weiss Auction and could never get through due to ebaylive's continual problems today. I know a space-related auction was going on today, and they cancelled it and rescheduled it for tomorrow because of the problems. I don't know what Weiss did or will do, if anything, for us ebayers.


Steve

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Posted By: Paul

I left several bids very early. I've checked ebay and the Philip Weiss website and have absolutely no idea if I won any of them.

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Posted By: Brian

I have tried bidding in this auction a number of times and find it among the most user-unfriendly. I thought it was my computer ineptitude, but judging from the comments, maybe not. Perhaps someone from Philip Weiss auctions will read this, and things will change....until then, I will probably pass next time.

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Posted By: leon

If making something easy is one way to garner the highest bids I think they failed miserably. I am not sure why auction houses think ebay is the best way to advertise these and then have such poor operations to handle them. I could see doing it for the exposure but make it easy.....

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Posted By: DD

I was at the auction, and Phil and his staff handled the difficulties in the best way they could. Ebay live had a systemwide shutdown for about two hours; all of their live auctions were affected. This had nothing to do with the auction house. Once it came back up, the auction resumed, and ended at about 8 pm. If you were patient, there were several bargains to be had.

Would you want to cancel and reschedule an auction that you spent months and thousands of dollars to promote?

I have also used eBay live to bid from home and find no difficulties. All you have to do is read when the auction starts, and be online at that time. It's obvious that all of the items will have the same start and end time indicated.

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Posted By: leon

I know I and many others would have bid had it not been difficult. Why wouldn't they just follow most auction houses and have a real online bidding system, on individual lots? They would have brought in much more money. They might have handled it well in person but they would get more audience if they did it differently. If I were doing an auction today it would have to be online and if warranted, live too. The fact that ebay had problems AND they sort of "partnered" with ebay means they had problems too. I am positive they would have generated more revenue had it been done differently. Also, this is not their first time to do an auction like this. You would think they would learn. Maybe I am missing something so if I am, I am open to be enlightened. best regards....glad there were some great deals....at least for the buyers

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Posted By: Joe D.

I think my issue with the process (as a rookie)... was the confusing and mixed message I got from eBay itself.

I pre-registered for the auction... and I put the particular lot I was interested in - in my watchlist.

When I checked that lot yesterday (which as I now I understand it was actually during the auction) - I was not put in a position to bid or watch the live auction in progress... instead I was greeted with a 'time left' and a 'place absentee bid'.

Why would I place an absentee bid during an in-progress auction? Not knowing the process, I assumed that the auction did not start yet.

If there was absolutely any indication on that page that the auction was in progress... and a 'click here to bid' - I would have bid.

Why not give an actual indication that the auction is in progress? Anything that mentions a start time - anywhere?

I would bet a great many eBayers would be more apt to bid if it was easier to do so.

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Posted By: Brian

The point is that eBay live was not the only problem...you cannot even check auction results in a straightforward way. That being said, and even with all the problems, they still managed to do quite well. I managed to somehow find the auction results at one point, and some items went for much higher than I expected (a T206 Chance, a Goudey Ruth). Some probably went for less than expected.

My conclusion: the only way to have a real chance in a live auction is to be a phone bidder or to be present at the auction

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Posted By: DD

Leon,
Computer difficulties can affect any auction house. If your phone line or cable connection goes down in the middle of let's say Mastro or REA, what do you do then? The eBay live failure was an unfortunate problem.

One thing to do with any live auction house is to schedule phone bids in advance. Phil had 6 or 7 phone lines going on some of his lots, but only a couple on the baseball stuff. Even if you had to leave your house to do something else because of the delays yesterday, most people have a cell phone, and you could have bid, even if you were elsewhere.

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Posted By: cmoking

Where do you find the auction results? I was high on a few lots when they close internet bidding, I still have no idea if I won or got outbid. No emails, no way to check in my online account.

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Posted By: PaulPaulPaul

I am in the same situation as cmoking. I was high bidder on a few lots at the close of internet bidding, but cannot find the results anywhere. During the auction, I was able to watch auctions open and close live through ebay. Ebay then listed the actual final winning bid. But it seemed like the lots I bid on never opened or closed. And, for all the lots I bid on, the winning bid is listed as ten bucks.

If anyone knows the results on the E92 Matty, D304 Matty, or E98 Lajoie, please let me know. Thanks.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

A good number of the Live auctions are in-person auctions with eBay bidding tacked on. There's no doubt this causes some logistical problems. I've bid in a few Live auctions, and was never certain how it worked-- I just place bids and see if I won or not when it was over. I have looked up lots I bid on and could see how the bids went and who were the bidders. I did win in a Weis auction, and was satisfied with merchandise and shipping, so have no complaints against this seller.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

It is very tough to get registered for many auctions. I've been shut out of several because of registration difficulties.

The bidding system sucks. I've checked prices at auction sites directly during auctions and found in some cases (specifically with Heritage) that the minimum/reserve in the auction at the web site exceeds the ebay minimum bid. I saw a card with a $600 ebay live minimum on the Heritage site with a $1,000 opening/reserve/ In other words, the ebay bidders were wasting their time if they thought that they could bid anything close to the opening and win the item. The total lack of real time feedback on the ebay live auctions also makes them an exercise in frustration.

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Posted By: Phil Weiss

I have read and appreciate all the messages left on this board, as a matter of fact I will be using them in the event I have to take any legal action regarding this incident. For 20+ years I have been in the auction business, I have always tried to offer nice material and have people able to participate easily in my auctions. This Saturday was the worst auction experience in my companies history. Eighty lots into our sale Ebay auctions site went down, they do not allow auction houses access to contact potential bidders to offer direct bidding through the auction house. My comment to all that could not bid is simple, instead of relying on the computer for bidding, why not phone in bids, mail in bids, come to the sale or set up for phone bidding.
The problems with the sale were totally out of my control, however if someone really wanted to bid they had the opportunity as did many to call and place their bids directly. I would be disappointed to see people not participate in future sales as a result of this, if you call our gallery you will find us more than helpful in taking your bids.
Please continue posting comments so that perhaps I can forward them to Ebay. Perhaps this might help them listen and become more customer co operative. Thanks Phil Weiss

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Posted By: Rich W.

I must say I have participated in Phil's auctions as a live bidder and having left bids. I have always received the utmost in customer service from Phil and his staff. I have won a couple things for well under my left bid.

And being a longtime ebay seller, I can vouch that ebay is not the most customer friendly behemoth on the planet. I have had limited success with ebay when I have encountered a problem. Most times, ebay has a stringent interpretation of there rules, and there is no variation from those interpretations. And this includes when their system goes down during my auctions.

Rich W.

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Posted By: leon

I knew you were an infrequent board member and do read the board. There is no doubt you run a fine operation. With that being said is there anyway you can make bidding similar to some of the other larger auction houses so it's easier? Honestly, (I have no reason to lie) I would have bid had it been on line and easier. I could pick a dozen auctions, several are going right now, that I have bid in but it seems whenever one is associated with the ebay live feature it's more complicated. Right or wrong the perception can be as bad as the true issue, if there is any. I know you said we could pick up the phone or come there. Well, picking up the phone is pretty easy (on line is even easier) but coming there is sort of a stretch for most folks. If I want a card valued at $500-$1000 I doubt I would travel too far (100's of miles) to bid on it. I have only heard good things about your company and had 2 board members ask me for a reference for you and your auction, in the last week. I gave you a 2 thumbs up, of course, as far as honesty and integrity. One person called me late the last night of the auction and was very confused on how to register and bid. I told him I didn't try as I was confused a little bit too. Maybe I am a little old fashioned but I don't have any trouble bidding in about 2 dozen auctions a year....all of them start out on line, except for Barry's. (hi Barry). I have a personal relationship with him so it's very easy. I am not sure about ebay's responsibility and liability but my guess is they have some pretty strong contractual caveats to be able to defend themselves. I probably know where you can find a good lawyer if you need one though . Best of luck and please take this as good, honest, constructive criticism. I would love to bid in your auctions in the future.....best regards

corrected spelling

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Posted By: Joe D.

Phil,

My big suggestion would be to have more info directly in each listing.
--List the start time of the auction in the item listings. As well as a "during the auction - go here to bid". eBay does not do this... and for the regular eBayer who finds an item in a search... it would be a lot easier for them to bid if they knew when or how. I am guessing a simple couple of lines of info can handle this and can be copied and pasted in each of your listings.

Unless I am mistaken, the benefit of going with eBay is to capture the masses of bidders. Yet, their current system weeds down the masses to a select few who understand how to bid in the 'live' system.

Without better info in the listings, I would say you are losing most of the eBay benefit and are probably better served to run your own auctions on your own website.

Just my opinion.

Regards,
Joe

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Posted By: Larry

I have been a consignor and bidder for over twenty years with this auction house and have NEVER been dissapointed with Mr. Weiss' service, integrity or knowledge. Phil Weiss has expertise in many collectible fields and especially in customer friendly
service.

I was at the auction and saw first hand the frustration and anxiety caused by the e bay live not working. I left bids and went home after two hours and I live an hour away and he still suspended the live auction. The problem was fixed and then kept reoccurring but by then, he could not stop the auction, there was over 700+ lots! There was a lot of people at the auction live in spite of delays and there was ample phone in service which was never too busy, there was many times where the e bay live worked then went down again, I saw it over and over.


This unfortunate situation to Phil Weiss' Auctions could not be the fault of the auction house, only e bay and their technical department. I strongly feel that Phil Weiss Auctions should be regarded as one of the industry's most reliable and personable auction hosues around, not the biggest, just one of the best.

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Posted By: Richard

I still don't know if I was the winner on any of the auctions. As King and Paul said earlier, there are several cases where it looks like I was the high bidder at the end of ebay bidding, but the final auction price for the item is $10. I cannot find any auction results on the website and have no idea if I won or not. The website it horrible and I could never get the auction listing link to work.

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Posted By: Steve M.

Adam, I too see the problem between Ebay and Heritage. Certain lots show on ebay as having zero bids yet when you go online with Heritage there already are several bids.

A little OT but one of my pet peeves with a couple of auction houses is that when registering they ask for three references (which I am more than pleased to provide) but then ask for the phone numbers of the references and block registration if you cannot provide them.

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

BARRY:

In your upcoming auction, will there be any "internet" bidding.... or is it only through telephone and e-mail like Lipsett does it?

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Posted By: rob

hal,

you can bid on Lipset's auction online...just dont bid on any lot I am bidding on please.

rob

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Posted By: barrysloate

Mine is telephone and email only. I have this morbid fear that if it crashed the last night I would be completely lost. I know my baseball cards but a computer to me is like an alien from outer space.

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Posted By: robert

I too tried to bid several times, but wasn't sure what I was doing wrong.

I'll try again next time Phil.


Robert A.

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

It's clear that many of us, myself included, would have bid in this auction but were unable to, or simply gave up due to confusion, even before ebay's technical problems. While I have not dealt with Weiss auctions before it seems clear from the responses here that they are a good company. IMO they would do well to either go 100% ebay or avoid ebay entirely.

I think a "hybrid" auction that it is both live and online is problematic. I participate in ebay auctions reluctantly because their auction increments are b***s***. In any legitimate online auction you can "own" a ceiling bid and know that you cannot be outbid by one dollar or one cent, you must be topped by 10% or some other logical and published increment. Ebay to me is a video game with prizes. I see no reason why an auction company would align themselves with ebay even if they use their own auction increments.

An online non-ebay auction is another thing. Or a phone and email only auction. Either of these is straight forward. A combination of ebay and live seems to create problems and confusion.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Companies hook up with ebay because they know that maybe a hundred people will show up for a live auction and maybe two million people are out there searching online. It's a good idea to have that many people see your material, but I agree that ebay live is hard to navigate, and even when you get it it happens quickly and what you see on the screen is always a second or two behind what is happening on the floor, and in two seconds a lot happens in a live auction.

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

Exactly right, Barry. Ebay gives you millions of extra eyeballs (assuming two per person). But at what cost?

The people on this forum are proven frequent buyers of vintage material, and savvy enough with computers to buy what they want. I've never seen a post on this forum in which the poster said "I tried to bid in a Mastro, REA, Clean Sweep, Lelands, Huggins & Scott, etc. auction and couldn't figure out how so I gave up." Nor I have seen anyone post "I tried to bid in a David Bryan or Scott Brockelman auction (both exclusively ebayers) and couldn't figure out how . . ."

Any strategy which ultimately elimates many of your best customers needs a re-think.

Being a Luddite myself, I'm looking forward to Barry's auction!

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Posted By: barrysloate

Luddite couldn't describe it more accurately.

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Posted By: cmoking

I had never heard of Philip Weiss auctions until I saw their listing on ebay. Knowing how I have no clue how the Live Auctions works, I googled them, and then called them. That turned out to be the best thing. I could bid via their website, and not only that, my winning bids would be charged at a lower rate than if I had won them via ebay's system.

So, although I didn't use ebay's system, the fact they had the listings on ebay helped them by gaining a customer, and helped me by letting me see what cards were for auction.

That's probably the way I'll use ebay's Live Auction from now on, unless or until they improve it. I called Philip Weiss this morning and got my list of wins. 5 nice cards that I've been looking for a while...at fair prices IMO. They were very nice on the phone and professional. I'm very much looking fowrad to the cards!

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Posted By: Paul

I participated in the auction through the Philip Weiss website, rather than through ebay (lower buyer's fee). I left my bid several days in advance. The Philip Weiss website did not allow me to follow the auction live, which is an area of improvement that I would suggest. But that my require costly software or hiring a person to input the constant updates, so I certainly understand if they choose not to.

As with everyone else, my real frustration came with ebay. I could watch the auction live, then I couldn't, then I couldn't figure out what was going on, and clearly incorrect final bids of $10 were reported on many, but not all, of the lots. For that reason, I was frustrated at the end of the day not knowing if I had won or lost. If it wasn't for the ebay aspect, I probably wouldn't have expected to be able to see instant results, so I wouldn't have complained on this board that I didn't know if I had won or lost.

This morning, I received a very nice call from someone at Philip Weiss' company informing me that I had won the E98 Lajoie for a price I considered to be a real bargain. She also looked up the other lots I had bid on, and told me that sadly I had lost. When you put aside my expectation of being able to find out results instantly, this was certainly prompt and courteous customer service.

Paul

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Posted By: Scott S

My conclusion is this... Second time I've been burned via " live auctions " through E-bay.. Also the LAST!!!!! No more for me!

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Posted By: paulstratton

In reference to Lew's auction...I just got back from his house and you can definitely bid online. Truly amazing stuff he has, not just in his auction. Makes me feel like I have a starter collection. Stay away from my lots!