Goldin Issues?

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

Could anyone else besides me able to control themselves and just stop bidding?

I have had enough. At this point its ridiculous.

Maybe we need to switch to a new auction closing format. The auction stays open until there are no bids on any item in the entire auction for a whole month. That way we can make sure that everyone who wants to bid has a chance to bid!

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by raulus

Maybe we need to switch to a new auction closing format. The auction stays open until there are no bids on any item in the entire auction for a whole month. That way we can make sure that everyone who wants to bid has a chance to bid!

At this point they might as well change the ending timer to read:

"Auction ends: WHENEVER WE DAMN WELL PLEASE"

[Johnny630]

How about Making this better for the people who participated in the auction before the auction was extended? Anyone who placed a bid in this auction gets zero seller commissions for the next three months. That seems like a nice gesture to take care of your bidders. Nobody wants to hear about free vault fees give them a zero sellers fee if they’re not already getting one.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

How about Making this better for the people who participated in the auction before the auction was extended? Anyone who placed a bid in this auction gets zero seller commissions for the next three months. That seems like a nice gesture to take care of your bidders. Nobody wants to hear about free vault fees give them a zero sellers fee if they’re not already getting one.

As they say in Italy:

In culo alla balena!

[oldjudge]

Why does it matter? If there is an item you want then bid to your limit and STOP. Then it doesn’t matter if the auction closes today, tomorrow, or a week from whenever. If you feel obligated to bid as long as the auction remains open then you are just the kind of sucker that auction houses love. Remember, there is no card that you can’t live without.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Why does it matter? If there is an item you want then bid to your limit and STOP. Then it doesn’t matter if the auction closes today, tomorrow, or a week from whenever. If you feel obligated to bid as long as the auction remains open then you are just the kind of sucker that auction houses love. Remember, there is no card that you can’t live without.

Jay, the reason it matters to me is that last night was the second consecutive Saturday I set time aside for OT. Will it end tonight? At this point I'm not confident in that.

[JimmyC]

Goldin auctions is all about making money as opposed to investing in technology…..they have always had issues with their auctions and accessibility….it’s 2022 - not 1996…..sorry, I will no longer consign or bid in their auctions - been burned too many times with their technology….or lack thereof….

[raulus]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Why does it matter? If there is an item you want then bid to your limit and STOP. Then it doesn’t matter if the auction closes today, tomorrow, or a week from whenever. If you feel obligated to bid as long as the auction remains open then you are just the kind of sucker that auction houses love. Remember, there is no card that you can’t live without.

Disclosure: I’m not bidding in this auction, so it doesn’t really matter that much to me, at least this time. We can also all agree that auction extensions are not unique to Goldin, as many others have extended their auctions in the past for any variety of reasons.

But, having said that…a few observations about why extensions tend to not be my fave:

It smacks a bit of bait and switch. And as buyers, none of us likes a good bait and switch.

It’s emotionally draining. If there’s a nice item that you’re bidding on, especially if you’ve been jonesing for it for a long time, then continuing to ride the roller coaster of the never-ending auction is no fun.

You worry that it will allow new bidders to discover the auction. We all hope that everyone else will miss the auction, at least for items that we really want. It’s why outing auctions is such a sensitive topic around here. The longer an auction stays open, the greater the chances that new bidders will enter the fray and bid up the price on everything that we want.

You worry that it will allow existing bidders to increase their bids. We’ve all been there before. We set a limit on how much we’re willing to pay. And then when someone outbids us, we take a little while, think about it some more, and decide that we’re willing to go a little higher. If this goes on for long enough, pretty soon the price has doubled or tripled. Since we all want to get the best possible price on our items, extending the auction very much increases the odds that the price we pay will go up, and not just a little.

There are very real financial ramifications. For those of us whose last name is not Zuckerberg, spending thousands, tens of thousands, or if you’re bidding on the Wagner, even millions on an item is a pretty big deal. And it would be nice for the auction to end so that we can finally know whether we won and need to scrape together the cash, or whether we can move onto the next. By perpetually staying open, the auction denies us the ability to move on with this aspect of our lives.

So for me, I’m not a big fan of auction extensions, even though this one isn’t a big deal for me, simply because I’m not bidding on anything.