Heritage Auctions

[Jaybird]

Any response from Heritage? You can get out in front of it and just stop the house bidding. At this point this thread has been up for 2 days and has 2300 views. This can't be good for business.

Just stop the house bidding in the sports auctions. We'll let all the other memorabilia, art, movie poster, western, coins, etc. go for now. Happy to have just one arm of the company do the right thing.

Pretty please. Stop polishing the turd. Just flush it and start again.

[FourStrikes]

.

Originally Posted by Jaybird

Pretty please. Stop polishing the turd. Just flush it and start again.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Jaybird

Any response from Heritage? You can get out in front of it and just stop the house bidding. At this point this thread has been up for 2 days and has 2300 views. This can't be good for business.

Just stop the house bidding in the sports auctions. We'll let all the other memorabilia, art, movie poster, western, coins, etc. go for now. Happy to have just one arm of the company do the right thing.

Pretty please. Stop polishing the turd. Just flush it and start again.

Thanks for making me do a spit take on that last line...off to get a new shirt now.

[BigJJ]

This is not directed at Heritage; I respect Heritage as I respect many auction houses with similar practice.

In a perfect world, auction houses should not be bidding on their own items.

Here are a few BIG reasons why:

(i) It creates an incentive for the exact opposite result the CONSIGNOR seeks - as it creates an incentive for the auction house to achieve poor results at auction for certain items. The auction house may (i) not include all beneficial information in the description and/or may not describe the item as well, (ii) not place the item in the the catalogue or auction line-up as well, and/or (iii) take inferior pictures of the item. All to lead to little bidding - and to a relatively inexpensive pick-up for the auction house.

(ii) Ability to run-up the price on absentee bidders. Someone sends in an absentee bid for 10k, current bidding is at 5k - Can the auction house bid 9k? if they really would like the piece for 9k, but knowing that they will not win the item at such amount? It is arguably not shill bidding if they would genuinely like to acquire such item at such price. For an auction house to avoid purposely running-up the price of items, there would have to be blockout screens to recordings of such absentee bids - to the very top people in the department (the ones who place the bids on behalf of the organization); I doubt such blockout screens exist generally.

(iii) The auction house has 'insider information' with regard to the piece itself. It has knowledge about the particular lot that the public does not - provenance, additional background info. It is not a fair and level playing field for BIDDERS who are not the auction house.

(iv) The auction house has 'insider information' with regard to who has bid, and who is going to bid on a particular item via phone bidding, who has looked at the item and expressed interest. It is not fair to BIDDERS to have an auction house bidding with them - perhaps in an effort to bid them up, because of who they are in terms of wealth and collections, and pattern of bidding.

(v) Such bidding does amount in practice to a double, and secret, reserve.

(vi) Can the auction house renege on a bid claiming error? And be a continuing bidder despite non-payment.

Importantly, the fact that an auction house may tell you that they may bid against you, does not solve the above problems with such practice.

Pre-2009, credit card companies told us in small writing that if we defaulted on credit card payments, they would charge us whatever large annual percentage APR figure they arrived at, say 400%. That does not mean it was right, or fair, the fact they told us. Many cardholders just did not have places to go with better conditions. Now there are better laws governing such practice.

We are still in the Wild West with auctions. At some point, there may be laws against such practice, which benefits the auction house, but not its many forms of clients.

[jefferyepayne]

+1

jeff

[Jaybird]

[keithsky]

This isn't directed at any auction house and no one specific but I just find the word Auction House means just that, you are a company in business that auctions consignors items. You are not an Auction and Bidding House. If that is the case use that word in your title