REA Clock?

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Posted By: Al Simeone

Barry,
You now must set the bar for Barry Sloate Auctions and send Rob coffee and danish and it must be there hot and first thing in the morning at his office. Send a message to Rob that you are a GIANT in the industry and two can play that game!! LOL

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Oh, Barry, I expect the same care and feeding.

In fact, you can send over my two cards I will be winning tomorrow.

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Posted By: Matt

Wow! Rob Lifson is certainly first class.

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Posted By: bruce Dorskind

Three points


At 1;45 AM we were high bidders on 4 lots that had not moved in more than 3 hours

We awoke at 5:45 AM to learn that we only won one of the lots.

Rob is a world class in every way. His first obligation is to the consignor. Nobody comes
close on rare card prices- and Rob runs a whistle clean auction.

If we were consigning we would want to obtain the last nickel. The REA system accomplishes
that objective.

In all wars, sleep is a luxury...and that includes the war for ultra rare cards. So be prepared to battle
to the end or be prepared to surrender.

Finally, in this thread two collectors noted smarter people than I. The proper phrase is
smarter people than I ( or in our case smarter people than we)


Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

"The proper phrase is smarter people than I ( or in our case smarter people than we)"

Now, this might be the funniest thing I've read on 54 in the last month. Nice one, Bruce. Self-deprecating humor goes a long way with me.

-Al

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Posted By: barrysloate

Al- I don't think Rob is a coffee and danish kind of guy. However, I will send him an avocado and bean sprout sandwich for his lunch.

And Bruce actually used the pronoun "I" in his post. Bruce, I am proud of you. You crashed through a barrier!

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Posted By: Jay

Barry--Yes, but it was "We will gouge the eye out of anyone who gets between us and the card we want."

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Posted By: barrysloate

We'll take it one baby step at a time.

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Posted By: Anonymous

We slept in shifts.

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Posted By: Jay

"We slept in shifts"---That is the funniest line I've heard in a long time.

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Posted By: Rob D.

My nomination for funniest line in this thread: In all wars, sleep is a luxury ... and that includes the war for ultra rare cards.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Rob, getting that Star Candy Cobb didn't leave me feeling like I had been through a war but I was very sleepy. And when my kids jumped on my head at 630 am, just two hours after I went to bed, I did feel as if I were under siege.

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Posted By: Rob D.

Jeff,

If it's any consolation, Sir Edward Wharton Tigar no doubt was looking down at you Sunday morning and smiling.

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Posted By: Robert Lifson

When I sent the courier service to Barry’s house with his auction winnings on Sunday night, there is a part of the story that made the whole thing a lot funnier to me: When I gave the package to the messenger service, I told them to be sure not to call ahead, to just show up at Barry’s place with the package unannounced, that it was sort of a joke and that Barry would be surprised. When the messenger got there around 9:30 (and I think Barry will agree that even though the courier was a professional, he looked like he lived in his delivery van), he was naturally knocking on the door and ringing the bell to deliver the package. I wasn’t expecting to hear from the courier service at all, but around 9:40 their central office called me to tell me that Barry (who had no idea what was going on) appeared to be really annoyed that someone was knocking and ringing his bell, and that he opened his window and yelled at the courier something like "Get otta here! Scram! Stop ringing my bell" and things like that onto the street to get rid of the guy. In Brooklyn – in retrospect, maybe anywhere - when someone rings your bell at 9:30 at night that you are not expecting and don’t know it is very unwelcome. They didn’t know what to do. I thought this all sounded really funny, but I was also naturally concerned (I just didn’t think of this potential problem), and told them to go ahead and call Barry on the phone and tell him that it was a special delivery from Robert Edward Auctions. They called back a few minutes later and told me that he had the package and had signed for it but they were very concerned that he did not find my joke - an unannounced delivery - very funny, and they were hoping he would be more amused after he opened the package. Maybe it’s just me, but the image of Barry opening his window on Sunday night and shouting out onto the street for the delivery guy, who is trying to deliver his auction lots, to stop ringing his bell and to get lost struck me as very funny and classic. I don’t know if it happened exactly like they told me from Barry’s perspective, but that’s what I was told, and it really was like a Seinfeld moment. I had to share this with the board. Thanks for being a good sport, Barry!

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Posted By: Matt

Rob - GREAT STORY.

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Posted By: Dave F

Well, that could have only happened to Barry. Since it seems the rest of us were up all hours of the night Saturday night, we would have all been in bed by about 9:30 last night..lol.


Rob-
There was the initial screwy thing with the shipping cost that I know at least I got and one other person got that had $1000 shipping...maybe Barry paid that and you just felt so bad that you went ahead and got the cards to him for that reason?

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Rob, for future reference, Barry's nighttime schedule is as follows:

4-6 pm: Early Bird Special dinner (at Del Boca Vista if possible)

6-8 pm: Warm milk and the viewing of two Seinfeld episodes in preparation for bedtime

8:02 pm: Unconscious in bed

In the case of a late ending REA auction, Barry revamps his schedule to allow for the watching of a third Seinfeld episode and an extended bedtime of 8:30 pm. In short, your courier is lucky he got out of that mess alive.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Hey Rob- I tried calling you this morning but got the answering machine.

First and foremost, thank you for the very kind gesture. I didn't handle it well but here's my end: I live in a brownstone apartment building and often someone in the building will order take out food, and when the delivery man arrives he will ring all five doorbells because he doesn't speak English and has no idea who ordered the food.

At 9:00 last night I got undressed (I know, a grisly sight at that) and hopped into bed to watch some TV before I hit the sack. When the guy came at 9:30 (I believe he was mentally challenged) he sat on the doorbell, and when I yelled out the window asking who it was, he yelled "delivery" so I thought it was someone else's food order. The ringing didn't stop and then the phone started going. Living in Brooklyn, you don't want to let a stranger in at that hour. But he finally said "delivery from Rob Lifson" and it started to make some sense. I then had to get dressed again and go down to get the box.

When I opened the package there was a note apologizing for getting the cards to me so late. That was even more baffling, since this was the fastest I ever received any package. Then it hit me that I posted at 7:00 AM joking that my cards arrived from REA.

So he did a really good thing that did go over my head. So sorry for my cranky demeanor, and thank you.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jeff knows me well.

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Posted By: Matt

Perhaps a penalty for bidding after a certain time is the solution. After trying a scaled down version of this in his last auction. Steve is implementing this with Clean Sweep - after 1:30 there is an additional 5% BP and after 2:30 AM it's 10%.
Before he implemented it there was concern of "sniping" at 1:30 AM - I wonder how it shook out.

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

Just got my lots from REA. Broad daylight. FEDEX. No food included. I was fully clothed. But I'm in California, not Brooklyn. About 60 hours after the auction closed. Thanks, Rob!

Barry, can you get flounder delivered - or have you been banned?

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Posted By: Anthony N.

Bruce, he could, but you're just out of the delivery area. Perhaps you can use Adam's address- or his janitors closet?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Bruce- I'm on the north side of the street, so no flounder.

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Posted By: Jay

That Steve Verkman is one altruistic guy. He wants to help to get bidders to bed early so he is providing a financial disincentive to bidding late. Hold on, what happens with this additional money. Hey Steve, how about donating it to the board's unofficial charity--The Painted Turtle.

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Posted By: Steve

You know that I respect you totally as one of the most knowledgable collectors but on this, I really have to disagree with you.

The amount of money is extremely small and the effect of this has been to make the auction end about an hr to an hr and a half early and more importantly, almost 99% of the lots were closed by 1:30 AM EST. In other words, the extra buyers premium factored into a VERY small number of lots and bidders. If I was looking to make this a profit engine, I would simply raise the buyers premium for the entire auction and then I would likely create ALOT more money but my goal in this case is to end the auction earlier for two basic reasons, not in any order: (1) It is getting really tiresome having auctions go as late as 5 AM, which they have, (2) It is almost always the same small group of people that keep the auction going back 130 AM and (3) I feel lots will get the highest price in a competitive bidding environment, not one in which the underbidder/potential bidder has been asleep for 2 - 4 hours... - Steve

PS Jay, if you ever bid on a lot after 1:30 AM EST, I will donate the late night bidding supplement on it to a charity of your choice!

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Posted By: Matt

Steve - can you speak to how the volume of bids was at 1:29 AM?

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Posted By: Steve

Matt,

It was busy but not crazy; a small percentage of lots had bidders sparring after 1:30. Also, keep in mind that max bids are NOT subject to the extra premium ever, so that allows for many items to be settled earlier.

Our auction is typically very, very busy from 10 PM to 1 AM and it starts to slow down after that - Thanks Steve

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Posted By: boxingcardman

Schedule the auction to end at 6:00 and end it at 6:00. No extended bidding, no overtime, no 15 minute rules, just end the thing on time. End it ten lots at a time in ten minute increments, if you like, so that if a bidder loses out on an item the bidder can go after something else, but just stop the madness.

Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc

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Posted By: Jay

Steve--Right back at ya big guy. However, you can't have it both ways. If the amount of money is meaningless then it won't prevent people from bidding late and you have accomplished nothing. My guess is that we are talking about, at the least, a few thousand dollars which would be a nice charitable donation on your part.

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Posted By: CoreyRS.hanus

Boxingcardman,

That's what Alan Rosen did in the '80's when his auctions were THE hobby events; he ended precisely at a set time (I believe 10pm). People would be calling like crazy to get in last-minute bids and many bidders ended up supremely disappointed when they learned they were topped and had no opportunity to put in another bid. The amount of consigner money Rosen left on the table had to be quite significant. I think any auction house that tries to repeat what Rosen did is destined to fail for the simple reason that it will not get consignments. If I had something to sell, I sure as heck would want my lot(s) to remain open until all bidders had the opportunity to both learn they have been topped and reflect upon whether to raise the new high bid. Anything else would remove that human element that often leads to stratospheric prices--a re-evaluation of a lot's value caused by information that others value it more highly than you.

I recognize people can have strong views discussing the merits of lots closing individually versus the entire auction closing at once. But either system IMO is far superior to just picking a time and saying the auction is over independent of the level of activity at that moment.

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Posted By: MVSNYC

what a great story (Barry & Rob)...i was laughing out loud, reading it...

Rob- congrats on another amazing auction...i too received my package today, simply outstanding service!

Regards,
Michael Sarno

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Posted By: barrysloate

Rob and I had a good laugh over it too.

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Posted By: Matt

Got notification from FedEx that my winnings will be here tomorrow; Rob is certainly going above and beyond. Thanks!

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

I received mine on Tues; I'm already waiting for next year's catalogue.

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Posted By: John

Barry was this the same courier REA sent you, because my REA pcakage showed up today with my card and the courier was really very nice??

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Posted By: barrysloate

I never would have behaved the way I did if it were her.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Barry, I don't think Brooklyn has delivery people like that.

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Posted By: Rob D.

For the record, neither does Columbus, Ohio.