More reasonable auction closing

[bcbgcbrcb]

Hake’s closes all of their auctions exactly like Steve suggested with extended bidding starting at 9pm and lots closing individually using the 15 minute rule. It’s been that way for about 4 years now. You’re welcome…..

[Republicaninmass]

Based on prices no way.

You'd have to be inebriated to bid 45k on a trimmed mantle. Regardless of your diagnosis

[BRoberts]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Hake’s closes all of their auctions exactly like Steve suggested with extended bidding starting at 9pm and lots closing individually using the 15 minute rule. It’s been that way for about 4 years now. You’re welcome…..

Thank you, Phil! Thanks for all you do to make this hobby better.

[raulus]

It does seem like this discussion largely comes down to a question of whether the closing mechanism is a feature or a bug. Do you love the thrill of the chase, and enjoy a late night bidding like a drunken sailor against other drunken sailors? Or do you prefer to check out at 8pm and get a good night's sleep?

A big part of it probably also comes down to how badly you want the stuff that you're chasing. If you have to have it, and refuse to accept the possibility of defeat, then you probably are willing to sacrifice some sleep to make it happen.

If you're a bit more ambivalent, then maybe you submit your max bid the day before the auction ends, and then check back in on Monday morning to see whether you won anything.

I suppose there's also the question of whether you can afford to win everything that you put a max bid in on. And if not, then you're stuck staying up late and needing to manage it all in real time.

Just thinking about it makes me start to wonder if all of this effort is really worth it, for the honor of paying gigantic sums of sweet, sweet cash in exchange for cardboard. I guess that depends on your own calculus and value system. Of course, I say that now, simply because there haven't been many auctions of late with much that it is very tempting to me, at least at the prices going down. Often I'm only mildly interested in a few bits, and typically the prices have exceeded my appetite by about a week before closing, so I can check out early. But if some great stuff comes along that I can't live without, then all of a sudden I'll go to great lengths to make it mine.

Of course, being a left-coaster, the average auction doesn't require that I sacrifice as much sleep as is required of the east coast crowd. So there's also that.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by raulus

It does seem like this discussion largely comes down to a question of whether the closing mechanism is a feature or a bug. Do you love the thrill of the chase, and enjoy a late night bidding like a drunken sailor against other drunken sailors? Or do you prefer to check out at 8pm and get a good night's sleep?

A big part of it probably also comes down to how badly you want the stuff that you're chasing. If you have to have it, and refuse to accept the possibility of defeat, then you probably are willing to sacrifice some sleep to make it happen.

If you're a bit more ambivalent, then maybe you submit your max bid the day before the auction ends, and then check back in on Monday morning to see whether you won anything.

I suppose there's also the question of whether you can afford to win everything that you put a max bid in on. And if not, then you're stuck staying up late and needing to manage it all in real time.

Just thinking about it makes me start to wonder if all of this effort is really worth it, for the honor of paying gigantic sums of sweet, sweet cash in exchange for cardboard. I guess that depends on your own calculus and value system. Of course, I say that now, simply because there haven't been many auctions of late with much that it is very tempting to me, at least at the prices going down. Often I'm only mildly interested in a few bits, and typically the prices have exceeded my appetite by about a week before closing, so I can check out early. But if some great stuff comes along that I can't live without, then all of a sudden I'll go to great lengths to make it mine.

Of course, being a left-coaster, the average auction doesn't require that I sacrifice as much sleep as is required of the east coast crowd. So there's also that.

Yes, I think it comes down to priorities. Put me in the "prefers a good night's sleep" category. Something about staying up half the night and morphing into an adrenaline junkie in order to acquire a piece of cardboard just kind of gives me perspective - like, "maybe I should just not spend this money anyway.." I've actually been more impulsive on auctions that end at a reasonable time.

For me to stay up and go the distance into the wee hours, them item needs to be BOTH something I really, really want AND a good value. (Which almost never happens at the big auction houses, at least on stuff I'm interested in.)

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Hake’s closes all of their auctions exactly like Steve suggested with extended bidding starting at 9pm and lots closing individually using the 15 minute rule. It’s been that way for about 4 years now. You’re welcome…..

It's how we've done things since day one. We start extended at 10pm. At 10:15 anything without a new bid closes and we're lot by lot from there on in. Since 2018. Very rare to go past midnight. Occasionally one item has a fight that goes on for a few hours but that's the exception not the rule.

[Rhotchkiss]

As a bidder, I hate the super late-night, entire thing closes at once auctions. As a consignor, I love it. Having everything close all at once gives bidders the chance to shift without items having already closed like in a lot by lot format. This leads to extra bids, even in the wee hours.

The consignor is the customer.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

As a bidder, I hate the super late-night, entire thing closes at once auctions. As a consignor, I love it. Having everything close all at once gives bidders the chance to shift without items having already closed like in a lot by lot format. This leads to extra bids, even in the wee hours.

The consignor is the customer.

There's definitely a delicate balance though (probably moreso for a smaller company like mine) While my fiduciary duty is to my consignor, I feel the best way to serve that duty is to make a buyer friendly auction process. The more comfortable and happier the buyers are the better the results will be for my consignors.

[Snapolit1]

To the extent this whole late closing process is founded on some assumption that buyers are holding $X,XXX in their hand that they are hell bent to spend, and will quickly push their entire stack of chips on to another item in the middle of the night if necessary . . . I just never got that. . . . . . Doesn't ring true to me.

[JollyElm]

1119. Nightsnagging
Any West Coast bidder using the two or three ‘extra’ hours to score auction wins as a huge portion of his competition lies asleep in bed due to the time difference.

See also: Discounting Sheep - a mocking way to describe the money you’ve saved as your competition was too busy getting some shut-eye to bid in the auction.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

To the extent this whole late closing process is founded on some assumption that buyers are holding $X,XXX in their hand that they are hell bent to spend, and will quickly push their entire stack of chips on to another item in the middle of the night if necessary . . . I just never got that. . . . . . Doesn't ring true to me.

That's exactly how it happens.

Let's say I have 6k to spend and I have 10 cards with initial bids ranked in order of importance, now I know 6K is not going to buy those 10 cards, that would be a fantasy, but maybe that 6K buys 2 or 3 of those cards, or maybe just 1. Sometimes its none by the end of the night.

I won't really know that until 9pm PST when the serious bidding takes place and we are closing on a lot by lot basis, sometimes you know that by 6pm PST with the initial surge of bids and can delete some of the 10.

So, for example, I'm down to 3 cards at 9pm at 2K each, one goes to $2500, now I'm down to 2 cards, one of which may be the $2500 card but I have to cut 1.

2 cards at $4500 with $1500 left in the budget, next cut is all in on one card and increasing my bid to win up to 6K or the big goose egg.

That's my experience but YMMV.

[UKCardGuy]

I have to take exception.. you haven't experienced a late night auction until you bid from the UK. . 9pm closing time = 2am UK time. Normally, I have to just put my best bid on a few items and go to bed.

But on the rare occasion where I'm chasing a card that I "have to get", I've set an alarm to wake up at 4am to check on things in extended bidding.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

That's exactly how it happens.

Let's say I have 6k to spend and I have 10 cards with initial bids ranked in order of importance, now I know 6K is not going to buy those 10 cards, that would be a fantasy, but maybe that 6K buys 2 or 3 of those cards, or maybe just 1. Sometimes its none by the end of the night.

I won't really know that until 9pm PST when the serious bidding takes place and we are closing on a lot by lot basis, sometimes you know that by 6pm PST with the initial surge of bids and can delete some of the 10.

So, for example, I'm down to 3 cards at 9pm at 2K each, one goes to $2500, now I'm down to 2 cards, one of which may be the $2500 card but I have to cut 1.

2 cards at $4500 with $1500 left in the budget, next cut is all in on one card and increasing my bid to win up to 6K or the big goose egg.

That's my experience but YMMV.

Yeah, but this logic makes just as much sense at 6PM as it does at 9.