Poll: Auction House Closing Method

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by Eric72

+1

I actually was looking thru the no bid items in LOTG the other night while waiting for the end and saw a couple items that I thought to myself "oh darn, that's kind of cool, sorry I didn't notice it before 9 pm".

[vintagerookies51]

C. All items have a set end point and close at that time, like eBay. I'm never usually going for multiple items

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

As an aside, I'm not a fan of "you must have initial bids placed by [insert time here]". Any bid should be accepted at any time before the actual closing time.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

As an aside, I'm not a fan of "you must have initial bids placed by [insert time here]". Any bid should be accepted at any time before the actual closing time.

If you think auctions run long now...

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

As an aside, I'm not a fan of "you must have initial bids placed by [insert time here]". Any bid should be accepted at any time before the actual closing time.

Yea no, auction night is chaotic enough without free for all rules.

[aljurgela]

i just do not feel like it is fair to "give the last look" to someone up at 3AM.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

As an aside, I'm not a fan of "you must have initial bids placed by [insert time here]". Any bid should be accepted at any time before the actual closing time.

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Yea no, auction night is chaotic enough without free for all rules.

Some auctions are already running in a way close to this. Sterling lets you bid on any lot in extended bidding as long as you bid on at least one lot before extended bidding starts.

Clean Sweep lets you bid on any lot in extended bidding if you bid on at least 10 lots before extended bidding.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by jayshum

Clean Sweep lets you bid on any lot in extended bidding if you bid on at least 10 lots before extended bidding.

You still have to bid on a ton of lots prior to the initial timer running out. It's rare I can find ten lots of interest in anyone's auction, let alone a minimum of ten before I'm "rewarded" with the "permission" to spend more money.

[Sterling Sports Auctions]

This is always interesting and I love to read the feedback.

To me though the question needs to be asked in two different questions. One as a consignor and one as a buyer. As a buyer most of the time you want to pay as little as possible. As a consignor you want to maximize the value.

Both are necessary to make an auction successful but without consignments you have no auction so that weighs heavy into the rules of an auction.

My personal experience being on both sides have obviously been a factor in the rules of Sterling. One big pet peeve of mine when I was a bidder was not being able to bid on all lots in extended bidding. I always had a limited budget, if I was outbid above my level and look back and find lots that I would have bid on because they were not a priority in regular bidding in case I would win the items I were heavily interested in. That is why Sterling has the WHOLE auction available to bid in extended bidding.

The closing for Sterling changed about 4 or 5 years ago to make sure the auction does not close at 3-4 am set. On closing night At 1am I reserve the right to close the auction at anytime. I send out an email at that time to give them fair warning that it may close at any time not within the 15 minute rule. I will start resetting the timer to around 3 minutes to give bidders that were out bid time to react. Generally the auctions close between 1:20 to 1:30 am set.

Lee Behrens
Sterling Sports Auctions