Chatted With Bill Goodwin Today

[oldjudge]

Personally, I like lots to close individually, but if the auction house wants to close all lots at one time, say that if not already closed the auction ends at 1 AM EDT. Personally, I don't think the format of the auction affects the final prices very much. It only affects the amount of sleep people get. Auctions end at 4AM or later because some bidders feel they can gain an advantage by bidding late. Take the advantage away and they will simply bid earlier.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Personally, I like lots to close individually, but if the auction house wants to close all lots at one time, say that if not already closed the auction ends at 1 AM EDT. Personally, I don't think the format of the auction affects the final prices very much. It only affects the amount of sleep people get. Auctions end at 4AM or later because some bidders feel they can gain an advantage by bidding late. Take the advantage away and they will simply bid earlier.

Yeap....bidders will bid within the system. We are adaptable.

[wonkaticket]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Personally, I like lots to close individually, but if the auction house wants to close all lots at one time, say that if not already closed the auction ends at 1 AM EDT. Personally, I don't think the format of the auction affects the final prices very much. It only affects the amount of sleep people get. Auctions end at 4AM or later because some bidders feel they can gain an advantage by bidding late. Take the advantage away and they will simply bid earlier.

+1

Jay, agree right now these things run till Amish barn raising hours as part of folks strategy’s in the hope that bidders will have fallen off to sleep or rolled out of frustration. It’s sort of really a low tech snipe strategy with the person on the other end acting as the “last second computer” placing the bid in the wee hours.

[z28jd]

Why not just change the 15 minute rule to 10 minutes, or less? End the initial bidding an hour earlier, put in a five minute rule instead, bids will run out sooner

[barrysloate]

Agree with Jay completely. Just put in the rules the auction will end around 1:00 AM and everyone will get their bids in and no money will be left on the table. People only bid when they are compelled to do so.

[Seiklis]

Originally Posted by z28jd

Why not just change the 15 minute rule to 10 minutes, or less? End the initial bidding an hour earlier, put in a five minute rule instead, bids will run out sooner

Yea that's the perfect solution, 15 minutes 10-12, 10 minutes 12-2 and 5 minutes afterwards...15 minutes is just too long at 3AM and someone will end up talking themselves into another bid.

Honestly I'd probably move the close time to 8 PM and make the countdown 5 minutes after midnight

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Seiklis

Yea that's the perfect solution, 15 minutes 10-12, 10 minutes 12-2 and 5 minutes afterwards...15 minutes is just too long at 3AM and someone will end up talking themselves into another bid.

Honestly I'd probably move the close time to 8 PM and make the countdown 5 minutes after midnight

If you had 1000 bidders, 200 of them probably wouldn't understand what you just said. Keeping it simple, whatever the solution is, would probably be best.

[Jlighter]

I've thought about this and have one possible solution.

Organize lots into random groupings. When one grouping doesn't have any bids after 15-30 Mins, all lots in that grouping close simultaneously. It would be purely random, as to make an incentive for people to bid earlier, any lot can close at any moment.

[Gradedcardman]

I've decided to move to Hawaii so the bidding is ending at midnight my time !! I love Hawaii !!

[murcerfan]

pajama people.

[murcerfan]

I like the format where each lot has it's own 15 min. extended bidding clock.
.....either that or old fashioned auctions of one lot at a time...going once, going twice, sold..... next lot.

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by z28jd

Why not just change the 15 minute rule to 10 minutes, or less? End the initial bidding an hour earlier, put in a five minute rule instead, bids will run out sooner

I think that's a great idea, though at some point I would reduce it to a two minute rule (to force bidders to literally stay glued to their computers). As to Leon's point that such a rule would be too complicated, I understand the logic behind that concern but feel bidders will figure it out. A middle-ground solution might be to start out with a two-minute rule.

[oldjudge]

With all due respect, I don't think a two or five minute rule works. The period is too short to allow people with a lot of bids to adjust them and heaven forbid they need to hit the bathroom too. I think the best solution is to close lots individually. Otherwise, if I were running an auction and I wanted all the lots to close at one time I would use a 15 minute rule, but I would say that the auction would end at some point between 1AM and 1:15AM EDT, regardless of the bidding. The end time in this period would be based on a predetermined time that only the auctioneer would know, and would be different for every auction. With this system you would avoid everyone trying to "snipe" at 12:59 because the auction might go to 1:15. However, because the auction would end at a random time between 1:00 and 1:15 it makes all bidders get their final bids in at some time around 1:00. Now, let's say the random end time that only the auctioneer knew was 1:04. At 1:00 and ten seconds bidders would notice that the auction had not ended. They could thus safely assume that they had until at least 1:01 to bid and thus could sneak in an extra bid if they wanted. This would repeat itself at 1:01 and ten seconds, at 1:02 and ten seconds and at 1:03 and ten seconds. However, at 1:04 it would end and anyone trying to be cute by holding off bidding would be closed out.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

With all due respect, I don't think a two or five minute rule works. The period is too short to allow people with a lot of bids to adjust them and heaven forbid they need to hit the bathroom too. I think the best solution is to close lots individually. Otherwise, if I were running an auction and I wanted all the lots to close at one time I would use a 15 minute rule, but I would say that the auction would end at some point between 1AM and 1:15AM EDT, regardless of the bidding. The end time in this period would be based on a predetermined time that only the auctioneer would know, and would be different for every auction. With this system you would avoid everyone trying to "snipe" at 12:59 because the auction might go to 1:15. However, because the auction would end at a random time between 1:00 and 1:15 it makes all bidders get their final bids in at some time around 1:00. Now, let's say the random end time that only the auctioneer knew was 1:04. At 1:00 and ten seconds bidders would notice that the auction had not ended. They could thus safely assume that they had until at least 1:01 to bid and thus could sneak in an extra bid if they wanted. This would repeat itself at 1:01 and ten seconds, at 1:02 and ten seconds and at 1:03 and ten seconds. However, at 1:04 it would end and anyone trying to be cute by holding off bidding would be closed out.

I have to agree here. I think a 2-5 minute rule would be difficult as would auctions ending individually. I can't imagine bidding on 10 itesm trying to track the ending time of each auction - or even having multiple screens up with the countdown timers showing.

Z Wheat

[nolemmings]

I really don't see how having the lots ending individually, in lot order, is difficult to track or unfair to anyone, especially if there is a good 5 minutes in between. I rarely have bids on more than 10 items I really want. I am not so challenged as to be unable to track or know for weeks in advance when I need to pay attention to those particular auctions ending-- I doubt anyone here is either.

What Goodwin and most other auctions do now is no different than the ebay seller who has several auctions all ending at the same time, only here they keep hidden that ending time. Several such ebay sellers have been criticized as leaving money on the table because unsuccessful bidders do not have time to adjust and bid again on other items. How many here have come up empty or not won as many cards as they would have wanted because of this practice--leaving money in their pockets that they would happily have spent?

[benjulmag]

The one point I agree with is that whatever rule is put in effect the end result should be to maximize the total dollars the auction grosses, as opposed to maximizing bidder satisfaction. I have never felt closing each lot individually does that because many bidders are interested in more than one lot. If these bidders have limited funds (a situation that applies to the great majority of bidders), a bid on one lot might be contingent on having given up on another lot.

Or, to say it another way, I do not believe ending lots individually maximizes the return to the consignors.

I think it would be worth experimenting with a rule that reduces the 15-minute rule to something less, for example a 10-minute rule that after a certain hour (say, two hours after extended bidding begins) reduces to a five-minute rule. I would also begin the extended bidding at an earlier hour (say, 6PM) and see what happens. Maybe it will be the case the auction will end at a reasonable time and bidders when polled will not be complaining they did not understand the rules or did not have time to get in their bids.