LOTG Auctions closing rules

[Golfpro10]

I like Love of the Game Auctions. I often bid in there auctions as they are beginning to grow. I have seen this issue brought up before. In my opinion they need to take a serious look how they close an auction. It’s after 3 am and the auction is still open. It gives the feel of trying to squeeze every penny. After 1 am just have each lot close lot by lot if there is no bid for 15 mins. It’s pretty simple. If you dont have your bid in by 1:15 am then you miss out. This waiting until 3-4am too see if you won or have to raise a bid or make an adjustment somewhere is excessive imo. Just my thoughts.

[Al C.risafulli]

Hey there!

Just happened to see this post, so I thought I'd chime in.

It's really a misconception that our auction is open til 3am.

90% of our auction is closed by 1am, and that's a pretty consistent percentage with each auction. At 1am, we close off every lot that has not been receiving bids.

The rest of the auction remains open for as long as bidders feel they want to bid. It's not us keeping those lots open, it's the people bidding on them. Since it's our job as an auction house to give our consignors every possible opportunity for their consignments to do well, we want to make sure that every bidder gets every opportunity to place the bids they want to place, and not to have them get shut out by a clock, or because a lot they were bidding on closed while they were trying to win a different item, or for some other reason.

The reality is that at 3am, there were a couple dozen out of 2100 lots that were still receiving bids. That's a pretty low percentage. We had an auction that was able to close out 90% of the lots by 1am with no issues, and then leave the remaining lots open as bidding dwindled down until there were just a few items receiving bids.

For folks not interested in sitting by their computer to watch the auction, we've got an auto-bid feature that allows you to leave a max bid and walk away (we do not shill our auctions, the auction house or its employees don't bid in the auctions, and we don't have hidden reserves, so you can trust this system). Also, you have the ability to receive outbid notices by text message so that you don't have to constantly refresh a screen all night.

Basically, we try and make it so that there's really no reason for you to stay up all night and watch this auction, unless you're actively bidding on one of the lots that is receiving bids!

Best,
-Al

[Golfpro10]

Hey Al. Thanks for the reply. As I said in my original post I like LOTG and most everything you are doing there. I would say I am not alone when I express my concern with the last items closing at almost 3:45 am. There are items after 1 am that are open that are not getting bid for multiple hours but are staying open. Basically all I am saying is if an item is open after 1 am its gets extended for 15 mins. If it gets a bid it gets extended for 15 mins. If it doesn’t get a bid it closes. I won one of your nicer large items today that didnt receive a bid for almost the last 2 hours. Just a concern that I wanted to raise that I have also heard from other bidders. Thanks again for the response and congratulations on the auction you had some amazing lots.

[Golfpro10]

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

Hey there!

Just happened to see this post, so I thought I'd chime in.

It's really a misconception that our auction is open til 3am.

90% of our auction is closed by 1am, and that's a pretty consistent percentage with each auction. At 1am, we close off every lot that has not been receiving bids.

The rest of the auction remains open for as long as bidders feel they want to bid. It's not us keeping those lots open, it's the people bidding on them. Since it's our job as an auction house to give our consignors every possible opportunity for their consignments to do well, we want to make sure that every bidder gets every opportunity to place the bids they want to place, and not to have them get shut out by a clock, or because a lot they were bidding on closed while they were trying to win a different item, or for some other reason.

The reality is that at 3am, there were a couple dozen out of 2100 lots that were still receiving bids. That's a pretty low percentage. We had an auction that was able to close out 90% of the lots by 1am with no issues, and then leave the remaining lots open as bidding dwindled down until there were just a few items receiving bids.

For folks not interested in sitting by their computer to watch the auction, we've got an auto-bid feature that allows you to leave a max bid and walk away (we do not shill our auctions, the auction house or its employees don't bid in the auctions, and we don't have hidden reserves, so you can trust this system). Also, you have the ability to receive outbid notices by text message so that you don't have to constantly refresh a screen all night.

Basically, we try and make it so that there's really no reason for you to stay up all night and watch this auction, unless you're actively bidding on one of the lots that is receiving bids!

Best,
-Al

As a side note for everyone. I have been chatting with Al a little bit and he is one of the most polished and professional people I have met in the hobby. We may disagree a little bit on how an auction should close but he has done extensive research on auction closings and he feels this is the best route for his consignors as a whole so I won't argue with that. I love what he has done at LOTG, he is one of the good guys and I can't wait to see what his next auction brings.

PS. I picked up a very nice item in his most recent auction and I can't wait to show the group in the coming days.

[rand1com]

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

Hey there!

Just happened to see this post, so I thought I'd chime in.

It's really a misconception that our auction is open til 3am.

90% of our auction is closed by 1am, and that's a pretty consistent percentage with each auction. At 1am, we close off every lot that has not been receiving bids.

The rest of the auction remains open for as long as bidders feel they want to bid. It's not us keeping those lots open, it's the people bidding on them. Since it's our job as an auction house to give our consignors every possible opportunity for their consignments to do well, we want to make sure that every bidder gets every opportunity to place the bids they want to place, and not to have them get shut out by a clock, or because a lot they were bidding on closed while they were trying to win a different item, or for some other reason.

The reality is that at 3am, there were a couple dozen out of 2100 lots that were still receiving bids. That's a pretty low percentage. We had an auction that was able to close out 90% of the lots by 1am with no issues, and then leave the remaining lots open as bidding dwindled down until there were just a few items receiving bids.

For folks not interested in sitting by their computer to watch the auction, we've got an auto-bid feature that allows you to leave a max bid and walk away (we do not shill our auctions, the auction house or its employees don't bid in the auctions, and we don't have hidden reserves, so you can trust this system). Also, you have the ability to receive outbid notices by text message so that you don't have to constantly refresh a screen all night.

Basically, we try and make it so that there's really no reason for you to stay up all night and watch this auction, unless you're actively bidding on one of the lots that is receiving bids!

Best,
-Al

Thanks for a thorough explanation. I still like the 11PM cutoff with each lot on a 15 minute close with no bids but if 90% end at 1AM then I guess that is acceptable.

Like others have stated, I really like your auction and integrity and it is impossible to please all consignors and bidders on every issue but overall LOTG does an outstanding job in the auction world. Thanks for that!

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by rand1com

Thanks for a thorough explanation. I still like the 11PM cutoff with each lot on a 15 minute close with no bids but if 90% end at 1AM then I guess that is acceptable.

Like others have stated, I really like your auction and integrity and it is impossible to please all consignors and bidders on every issue but overall LOTG does an outstanding job in the auction world. Thanks for that!

This would be my preference as well. I'd definitely prefer an earlier close time.

And I definitely agree with the second statement.

[ValKehl]

Al, I realize that you are totally wedded to your auction closing method, which I and others don't especially care for because of how long your auctions run into Sunday mornings. I think this issue would be significantly bettered if you would merely begin your auction-closing process 2 hours earlier, but keep the same time intervals - i.e., 9 p.m. EST becomes 7 pm, 12 midnight becomes 10 p.m., and 1 a.m. becomes 11 p.m.

Al, I assume you have already become aware from a post in the LOTG pickup thread that the 1921 Tip Top Bread card of Lefty Grove that sold for about $40K would have sold for more, perhaps significantly more, if an avid pursuer of it hadn't fallen asleep. And, I doubt that your consignor of this card is thrilled to learn this. Yes, I realize that a bidder can safely leave a max bid because your integrity is of the highest level, but you should realize that many collectors just can't bring ourselves to leave max bids. I am one such collector, and I was bidding on a gotta-have card; at 1:30 a.m. my tired 81-year-old body was about to fall asleep at my PC; so, I decided WTF and put in a max bid and went to bed; yes, I did win this gotta-have card.

[benjulmag]

My issue with an AH rationalizing a 3am closing time by saying a bidder can leave a max bid whenever that bidder decides he wants to go to sleep is that such a max bid might not reflect how high the bidder will really go once he/she learns he/she has been outbid. This concern is not mere theorizing, but reflects how humans function. There have been numerous occasions, this LOTG auction being the most recent, where I ended up bidding substantially higher than I originally intended. I believe it is a human trait for a person, upon learning he/she has been outbid, to cause that person to reconsider how high he/she will be willing to bid. In the end the person might not change his/her bid; but I believe in many occasions he/she will. That is why, whenever anybody asks me how high I will be willing to bid for an item, to respond by saying I won't know until I am faced with the prospect of being outbid.

In this most recent LOTG auction, I won the lot I did by staying up to 3am. The earlier max bid I placed, after which I went to bed, only to wake up before the auction ended, I ended up raising by several intervals once I learned I had been outbid.

I would respectfully ask Al to consider, as a previous poster suggested, moving the entire ending process up by 2 or 3 hours. That way the AH can give all its bidders the chance to bid on other lots once they have been outbid on a previous more-favored lot (something over the years I have done a number of times (and being grateful the closing format allowed me to do that)), but at the same time allow bidders to go to sleep at some reasonable hour knowing that the auction has closed.

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by Golfpro10

...It gives the feel of trying to squeeze every penny...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doing that is kind of what a consignor wants from their auction house, isn't it?

And I'm a guy whose bids were almost all on items that didn't close until the very end.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doing that is kind of what a consignor wants from their auction house, isn't it?

And I'm a guy whose bids were almost all on items that didn't close until the very end.

Another nice benefit of living in California. NJ, not so much.

[perezfan]

I love their closing method. Wish the others would follow suit. Auctions with the "lot by lot" closing method make it impossible to switch over to other lots, if your limit is exceeded on the current item.

The "lot by lot" method is detrimental to consignors too. Lots of money gets left on the table that way. I personally hate that format.

[Leon]

Please obey this rule near the top of every page in bold letters. Thanks in advance.

" If you write anything concerning a person or company your full name needs to be in your post or obtainable from it."

Originally Posted by Golfpro10

I like Love of the Game Auctions. I often bid in there auctions as they are beginning to grow. I have seen this issue brought up before. In my opinion they need to take a serious look how they close an auction. It’s after 3 am and the auction is still open. It gives the feel of trying to squeeze every penny. After 1 am just have each lot close lot by lot if there is no bid for 15 mins. It’s pretty simple. If you dont have your bid in by 1:15 am then you miss out. This waiting until 3-4am too see if you won or have to raise a bid or make an adjustment somewhere is excessive imo. Just my thoughts.

[aljurgela]

I figured that I would voice my distaste for the method. It just seems odd to me that an item that gets a couple of bid from 9PM to 3AM is still open.

In my case, there is a card that I am leading and then someone bids against my Auto bid at 11PM or so, so that it will not close in the first round and then does not bid again until I am asleep (say 2:30AM).

Now in fairness they did go over my auto-bid, so I probably would not have won, but I am fast asleep at 3AM so even if I want to bid one more increment, I did not.

I also "miss" items on the individual clocks of some auction houses when bidding on many items, but for some reason that bothers me less than the bid against me while I am sleeping.

Anyway, seems like I am in the minority and most seem to like LOTG auction format. I was glad with REA went away from "whole auction at once" and have fully embraced the individual clocks.

Just my take.

btw... Al Jurgela is my full name

[Golfpro10]

Originally Posted by aljurgela

I figured that I would voice my distaste for the method. It just seems odd to me that an item that gets a couple of bid from 9PM to 3AM is still open.

In my case, there is a card that I am leading and then someone bids against my Auto bid at 11PM or so, so that it will not close in the first round and then does not bid again until I am asleep (say 2:30AM).

Now in fairness they did go over my auto-bid, so I probably would not have won, but I am fast asleep at 3AM so even if I want to bid one more increment, I did not.

I also "miss" items on the individual clocks of some auction houses when bidding on many items, but for some reason that bothers me less than the bid against me while I am sleeping.

Anyway, seems like I am in the minority and most seem to like LOTG auction format. I was glad with REA went away from "whole auction at once" and have fully embraced the individual clocks.

Just my take.

btw... Al Jurgela is my full name

I agree with this of course. And thats my push back a little bit with the way the auction ends. People are saying its great for a Cosignor because it stays open longer. I would argue so many people are asleep which probably limits the chance of any bidding wars. As a cosingnor thats your dream situation. FOMO kicks in. Heat of the moment and a bid war breaks out. That is unlikely if you know an item is going to stay open until 4 am. The goal as a bidder in that situation is to wait until 4 am and take out the persons max bid at the last possible second and hope they are asleep and no chance for a bid war. I will say this again. I think Al does a great job. LOTG is gaining market share and deservedly so. I just think he could tweak how it closes a little bit. Just my opinion.

[Snapolit1]

I don’t think I could stay up to 3:30 am if Sydney Sweeney was driving over to my house with a bottle of champagne.

[Golfpro10]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I don’t think I could stay up to 3:30 am if Sydney Sweeney was driving over to my house with a bottle of champagne.

Hahahaha 😂😂. I literally laughed out loud. That was great.

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I don’t think I could stay up to 3:30 am if Sydney Sweeney was driving over to my house with a bottle of champagne.

I definitely could.

Another reason I don't care for the entire or partial auction closing late night is that even if I'm comfortable using max bids, I personally don't sleep well not knowing if I won an item or not, especially on something rare and/or expensive.