Heritage Auctions - Boston Garters

[nolemmings]

The outcome is not going to change-- the individual card winners will get their cards.

I am not taking sides, and would emphasize that this all falls on Heritage for not clarifying the rules and/or adjusting its software to allow for the type of bidding that Powell believed was in effect. Still, I believe the ship has sailed, and it does not matter if the AH has not sent out the cards.

If I were a winner of one of the 12 I would be pissed if they changed it now. Had I known I was foreclosed from bidding a half hour or whatever earlier and that my efforts to win my lot were basically a nullity, I could have used that tens of thousands of dollars (or more) to go after other cards I wanted that were still active at the time. Instead I'll take nothing and like it?

IMO the rules as they played out were not unconscionable. Bidders are for the most part at the mercy of others to get to the finish line in an auction set up like this one. "Winners" of the individual lots have to hope that others bid up the remaining cards in order to actually exceed the set chaser, and the latter has to hope that there is competition for his lot so that he can keep bumping his bid. Not an ideal format and not necessarily fair, but I can see it as a reasonable interpretation of the rules.

Just out of curiosity, suppose the Complete set lot never went to extended bidding-- that Powell put in the initial bid and that when initial bidding ended, it was greater than the aggregate 12 singles. Is it the view of this forum that he should have won then and there-- that none of the 12 individual lots would be subject to extended bidding? If so I understand your logic, but could only imagine the outcry that would have generated.