The way auctions close?

[ElCabron]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

Union? No.

Boycott? Sure.

The only way things are going to change in this hobby is if collectors stand up and say ENOUGH. Put your money where your mouth is.

jeff

I thought you just clarified that that's NOT what you meant to say. Which is it?

-Ryan

[doug.goodman]

You guys realize that if the auctions "closed" at noon, the extended bidding times would still last until the west coast went to bed, right?

The only way that auctions are not going to last "forever" is for them to have a definitive end time, ebay style.

Ultimately, extended bidding gets more money for the items, generally speaking.

Ending the entire auction at the same time gets more money for more items, generally speaking.

The only people complaining about the late hours are buyers, I don't see any sellers complaining, or did I miss something?

[Jobu]

Extending credit is an interesting idea for AHs that want to risk the headache, though I think that credit should come with an immediate 50-70% downpayment that is forfeited if the balance is not paid. If the buyer doesn't come through then the AH then owns the item and can sell it in the next auction, or offer it to an underbidder, with the downpayment as a cushion against future price uncertainty (and a penalty for the person who doesn't pay his debts).

As for closing times, are there any auctions that enter extended bidding on Sundays around, say, 8 PM Eastern? Sunday evenings are the peak Ebay time because that seems to be when people have the least going on in their lives. If you entered extended bidding at 8:00 EST, closed lots individually, and ran 30 minute intervals for the first hour (8:00-9:00), 15 minute intervals for the second hour (9:00-10:00), and 5 minute intervals from 10:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Pacific until every lot ended I think the vast majority of the lots in the auction would be over by 1:00 AM EST/10:00 PM PST, no? Sure, some people on the West Coast would have to miss dinner on Sunday night but it is a lot easier to skip dinner on the West Coast to bid than it is to skip sleeping on Sunday night to bid on the East Coast.

Edited to add: I have little experience with AHs so I apologize if that second paragraph was stupid.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by ElCabron

I thought you just clarified that that's NOT what you meant to say. Which is it?

-Ryan

Hi Ryan! Sorry for the confusion as there's two threads running through this topic that I'm not doing a very good job of separating. I am boycotting Legendary because of their fraudulent activities. Not boycotting auctions that are closing all at once. While I don't like the fact that some auctions close in the dead of night, fraudulent behavior is in a class all by itself.

In hindsight, I should have just left Legendary out of the lot by lot conversation as it just muddied a healthy discussion on auction ending times.

jeff