So...auction house endings....

[Doug]

The "will you make it to the end" poll during the auction was 29-26 for no, so there probably are some bids that aren't being placed by people that don't want to stay up all night. I hope someday there is a solution that works for everyone, but until then I guess I'll just have to keep going to bed with my max bids in place and hope for the best.

[Exhibitman]

I did not enjoy the endless bidding in REA. It gets a bit ridiculous, frankly, for 1500 lots to sit all night open for more bids, with everyone on pins and needles, simply because a few lots are competitively bid. If everything is open until the end, why bother having an extended period? Why not just set a firm closing time and be done with it?

Of all the systems I've seen thus far I've liked Heritage's the best. They had a firm ending time for the auction. If you were the sole bidder on the lot, it closed. All other lots closed 30 minutes after the auction close on an individual basis and only bidders who had put in a bid on it before the close could bid in the extended period. That way, if the lot had no more action after the initial close, it closed 30 minutes after the designated close time. If someone bid on it during the extended period, the lot extended again, but not the whole auction. I found that really helpful since I could watch my lots close in real time and on seeing which ones I got topped on, decide whether to make further incremental bids on other lots.

[sox1903wschamp]

Matt,

Thanks for clarifying that. As Jeff said, I am not sure the masses could understand this closing style but in theory it makes sense.

And I am not sure the auction would close sooner and could have the potential to go way past 3 or 4am if just one lot is vastly underbidded at 10am and the bidders "slow play" the lot through 25-30 bids after 10pm.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by sox1903wschamp

And I am not sure the auction would close sooner and could have the potential to go way past 3 or 4am if just one lot is vastly underbidded at 10pm and the bidders "slow play" the lot through 25-30 bids after 10pm.

Mike - I don't think that could happen - even if two competing bidders colluded beforehand to do that, what would stop someone else from coming in and becoming high bidder (especially if the lot was that undervalued)? (If that happened then only the underbidder could counter and the other fellow would be done.)

Actually I'd bet things wrapped up quickly with this method. To start with the pool of active bidders would only be those who were outbid in the last 20 minutes of the auction and it would dwindle from there as those people decided not to up their bids nor bid on other lots.

[sox1903wschamp]

Matt,

Okay, so the key here is only the underbidder has a shot....If your going toe to toe with someone and you are outbid and before you can place another bid, someone else who is qualified jumps in with another bid, then you are toast after 10pm even if 20 minutes has not elapsed. Correct?

[Matt]

As long as you were high, then you get 20 minutes to respond from the time you get outbid. In your scenario two guys bid $150 and the $200 on a $1k lot, correct? If I come in with a ceiling bid of $800, then they'd each have time (one from when I outbid him and the other from when his friend outbid him) to come back with a serious bid ($850+) to still play their game or otherwise they'd be done. I assume in your scenario they are doing this on one lot to keep open their chance to bid on some other lot at 2 AM? In what I just described, they'd have to make a choice once I put in my $800 bid.
The more important assumption is that there is no inexpensive "filler" lot in REA that's so cheap that is selling for 20% of true value which would open itself to your game; I'm OK with that assumption.

[sox1903wschamp]

I don't know. In theory it would make sense but it still seems too confusing. How would we know when were down to the final few or last 20 minute lot in a 1600+ auction?

For my two cents worth, I really prefer the individual lot closing format of the H&S and Legendary houses and you can still transfer your money around but you have to be on your toes as soon as the 30 minute format starts.

But very good brainstorming Matt and Tim!

[barrysloate]

Jeff- Rob only does have one auction a year, and if his were the only one ending in the middle of the night then point well taken. But there are an endless number of major auctions, perhaps 30 or 40 a year, and they all end too late. Just because some end at 2:00 AM instead of 4:00 AM doesn't make that a reasonable closing time. All the auctions need to find a way to compress the bidding and get to the end by say around midnight.

REA clearly needs a lot of time to process more than 1000 lots, many of them quite expensive. But why couldn't his twelve hour bonus period become an eight hour one, and end around midnight? It very easily could without any loss of revenue.