My B/S/T Live Auction Complaint

[jcmtiger]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

Recently there was a T206 Titus for sale in the Live Auction section of the B/S/T (very nice card BTW and congrats to the winner). The minimum bid was $40.

The first bidder opened it up with a bid of $75 ($35 more than the minimum). The next bidder stepped up and bid $100 ($25 more than the previous bidder). The next two bidders also jumped it in $25 increments, bringing it up to $150. All these bidders really stepped up to the plate with their bids.

Next, someone comes along and bids $151, just $1 over the previous bidder when the increments thus far had been $25. One dollar? Seriously? I'm not trying to call out the bidder, but I see this all the time in the Live Auctions. If this were a real auction and the bidding was going in $25 increments and someone bid $1 over the previous bidder, he would probably be laughed at and not taken seriously.

I realize that the bidding is going to slow down once the card starts to reach it's fair market price, but to bid $1 over the previous bid when the previous bidders had all been bidding in $25 increments is very petty IMO. It irritates me when I'm bidding on something and I jump the next guy by $10, $20 or more and some shmuck comes along and outbids me by $1. Does this bother anybody else (especially after you made quite a jump over the previous bidder) or is it just me?

Ok, rant over. Carry on.

No bidding rules bid what you want to.

Joe

[SMPEP]

Did the person who got overbid by $1 not have a chance to bid another $1 over the other bid?

The guy bidding $1 more took a chance.

Sometimes those payoff. Sometimes they don't.

Think the guy going $1 more would have been pissed if he lost by $1?

Cheers,
Patrick

[LEHR]

IMO if there are no set bidding rules in the auction then all is fair.

[drcy]

After reading the first two paragraphs, I was expecting the complaint to be something about the increments being too large.

Good plot twist.

[frankbmd]

Auction rules and formats at the discretion of the seller seem appropriate. I do understand the complaint and for higher valued items an appropriate incremental bid should be specified.

I have tinkered with the idea of allowing a secret (via PM) max bid option so that the auction would allow bidders not to be available at the end of the auction, which is not the norm here. One would have to have confidence in the seller, in this case me, for this to work. I also think that transparency of all bids after the auction is over would be helpful, so everyone could see how they won or lost. The seller would have to be available to post incremental bids for the max bidders particularly toward the end of the auction. This would eliminate the possibility of a $1 overbid sniping a max bidder toward the end of the auction. There would of course have to be an understanding that a single seller would not be able to handle bids with the speed of auction house or EBay software, but all bids would be timed and the true winner could be determined, with perhaps some time delay and when all the bidding is disclosed, it would be obvious to all.

If this post generates any interest, I would be happy to host such an auction of a card of some value to see how it works, both for the bidders and for me. Obviously it will require a bit more time on the sellers part and all sellers will not be interested in doing it this way, but some others might.

Let me know what you think, either here or by PM.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by jcmtiger

No bidding rules bid what you want to.

Joe

Understood. However, there are many unspoken rules in the B/S/T - just proper B/S/T etiquette. In this particular auction, I wasn't a bidder so it really doesn't affect me.

However, if I were bidding and I jumped the previous bidder by $25, and then someone came along and jumped me by $1, I would think it was discourteous and rude.

As I also said, that crap would fly in a regular auction. The auctioneer would probably give them a ridiculous look and probably wouldn't even acknowledge their bid.