So...auction house endings....

[asphaltman]

Well let me start by saying I went to bed at midnight EST last night...so I was not up until the reported 4am ending for REA. However, I love the Saturday night endings...

Curious on everyone else's thoughts? While I think ending the auction all at once instead of lot by lot can make for a long evening it's for sure better for consigners.

I also feel many of the other auction houses could benefit from weekend endings....Friday or Saturday nights....I'm not staying up til 4am no matter what...but I may push it another hour or two on a weekend as opposed to a Tuesday or Thursday night.

I also kind of enjoy waking up the morning after REA and firing up the computer to see if I am going to be in debt or not.

[Rob D.]

I've never understood why major auction houses choose to end auctions on weeknights, when they know the closing time will stretch into early morning hours. Heck, even if they think bidders are out doing things on weekends, the auctions end late enough that most people are home in time.

[Abravefan11]

I agree that ending auctions all at one is better for the consignors and also agree Saturday closings make more sense. My question is this.

If REA (and any other house) know there will be on average say 12 hours of extended bidding why not close the auction at noon EST? Is it too much to ask the PST bidders to be up at 9am on a Sat morning? Then it becomes less about attrition and fair for everyone.

I personally think all of these auctions ending in the wee hours of the morning is ridiculous. If someone can make a case for how that is better for the consignor I would love to hear it.

[asphaltman]

Tim-

Well to me it's definitely an advantage for consigners to have the auction end at once like Rob's. I know for me personally, if I'm going strong after one lot and have a max bid in, that if someone tops me at midnight I can then go to option #2 and put a bid in on my second choice if choice #1 has gone out of my price range. If the lots ended individually, then I may not have that option for a second choice after I'm essentially lost my first choice. (yes, barely coherent)

[Abravefan11]

Dave-

If you reread my post you'll see I agree with you completely. My issue is with when the auction closing time not whether it closes all at once.

[asphaltman]

Tim-

I've never understood worrying much about when the auctions finally end. I usually put in my top ceiling bid and let it ride and just wait til morning to see what happened. Now, can I do that with every auction house? Nooooooooo.

[Mrc32]

Originally Posted by Abravefan11

If REA (and any other house) know there will be on average say 12 hours of extended bidding why not close the auction at noon EST? Is it too much to ask the PST bidders to be up at 9am on a Sat morning? Then it becomes less about attrition and fair for everyone.

I wasn't a bidder but I did watch closely this auction, and I must say the point made here is the one I most want to see an answer for. End it around noon and the do the extended bidding.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Mrc32

I wasn't a bidder but I did watch closely this auction, and I must say the point made here is the one I most want to see an answer for. End it around noon and the do the extended bidding.

My guess is that the answer is that starting earlier won't help. People hold their bids and put them in as late as possible which causes a bad perpetuating situation. Last year ended at 3:15 so this year, everyone knew there was no way Rob would end before 3 and the auction was pretty active, even on some major lots at that time pushig the close to 3:45. I expect next year is going to be even worse - the auction ended at 3:45 this year, which means next year people will hold their bids until 3:30 which, if history repeats, will mean that it will end at 4:15 and so on...

This may end up being good for us east-coasters as in a few years, we can just wake up at 6 and put our bids in then.

Edited to Add - Barry said "There is no practical way to offer an incentive to bid early, such as a small discount" I think either 19th Century or Clean Sweep does in fact do this.

[pirateball]

I too prefer the Saturday night close (and I also love the recent bids feature), but after watching the bidding until the bitter end, I wonder if ending the auction earlier in the day would really have any impact on the ultimate closing time at all. The REA bidding was pretty steady throughout the night, and it still seemed like a battle of attrition between the bidders and sleep.

Perhaps a hybrid approach could be used:

1) At 3:00 p.m. a person can continue to bid only on lots that they've already bid on. If bidding stalls for 15 minutes, then the auction can be closed, but that's not likely to happen.
2) At midnight (or whenever) individual lots that haven't had a bid for 15 minutes can start closing.

I understand the arguments about needing to keep all lots open so that people can move from one lot to another if they don't want to keep bidding on their first choice (like what appears to have happened with the GCM lots Saturday night), but this might also encourage more bids on the secondary lots to keep them open, or more aggressive bids on the top lots because the second choice isn't available anymore.

Finally, it would be interesting to know how many different lots were bid on after, say, midnight to know how big of an issue being able to bid on second choice lots really is. For example, if 90% of the lots were set by midnight, then it might not be as big of an issue as we think. I wonder if Rob could comment.

For us bidders, though, best solution in the meantime is probably No Doz and a clear calendar Sunday morning.

[Doug]

Couldn't they just put an end time on the extended bidding? If the auction ends at 4 PM why can't they just say extended bidding ends at midnight or something like that?

[terjung]

Saturday night was the right way to go for Rob. The best part about the auction though (aside from the content) was the "recent bids" feature so that you could watch in real time how it was unfolding. If nothing else, it prevented the "why in the world won't he end this thing already" type of comments since you could see exactly why it was staying open... competing bids on Doyle and the George C. Miller set for example.