Huggins and Scott Auction bid increments good for buyers, bad for consigners

[BobC]

Originally Posted by JustinD

Hey Glenn!

I think I would stick with the "under no premise" based on the statements second half of "at this second". I agree, most folks have a set budget and the OPs math is sound, but it's leaving out the all important psychology.

I think the more people you don't scare off prior to extended bidding, the higher chance you have of the psychology changing to the auction house's advantage. Those late night bidding wars are simply people getting caught in the excitement and lowering defenses. With days on the timer, that excitement is replaced with logic. This leaves out prospective bidders from extended bidding and lowers the chances of additional back and forth to extend time.

Opinion based on my observations and trying to use my psychology college work that I never use in my real job, lol.

Justin,

That is a great point. In the other thread about this topic, in the post-war forum, I even said that if AHs were really smart they should actually think about decreasing the bid increments the farther along they got into the extended bidding period. As you stated, psychology can play a huge part in bidding. It is a heck of a lot easier for a bidder to rationalize going an extra $10-$25 on something they already bid $500 on than it is to suddenly go say another $100. People bidding want to win, and rationalizing going an extra bid or two isn't that hard when the increment is seen as small compared to the overall bid.

Plus, anybody ever go to a real live auction and not see the auctioneer throw the bid increments out the window as the bidding was coming to an end? They aren't stupid, so why don't these AHs find someone to tweak the software to have a similar effect? Shouldn't be that difficult, yet no genius has thought of doing it yet. Heck there's even sign language for that. A live auctioneer has something at $600 and he/she's asking for $700, you make a motion with your hand like you're slashing your throat, and almost universally the auctioneer will give you the lead at $650. Or does nobody do that anymore and you have to be an old fart like me to even know what I'm talking about?