Legendary's Clock All Messed Up

[calvindog]

Matt, you were the only one who had bid on the lot prior to 11:30? It sounds like the software allowed a new bidder to make their initial bid after the auction was supposed to end but before the "new" ending was imposed? Bob, perhaps you can address this. How could your software allow such a thing? Is this a glitch in the software or did someone from Legendary override the software to allow such a thing to happen?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Matt, you were the only one who had bid on the lot prior to 11:30? It sounds like the software allowed a new bidder to make their initial bid after the auction was supposed to end but before the "new" ending was imposed? Bob, perhaps you can address this. How could your software allow such a thing? Is this a glitch in the software or did someone from Legendary override the software to allow such a thing to happen?

No - I was the high bidder going into the 30 minute rule at 11 PM. At 11:30, when 30 minutes passed with no other bids, the lot should have closed to me, per their rules. Others had bid in the lot previously, but not during the 30 minutes. If I really needed the lot, I would have stayed up (I would not have left a max bid).

[calvindog]

Well, that's a relief, I'd hate to think that someone at Legendary was manipulating the auction in an inappropriate manner.

And Matt, you knew that the auction was extended for just a half hour so you had to know that there was a chance that you'd be outbid, no? Of course, there were no glitches up until 11:30 pm from what I've been told so why did the auction have to be extended past the scheduled closing time anyway? In essence, Legendary got the benefit of a 30 minute clock twice.

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Well, that's a relief, I'd hate to think that someone at Legendary was manipulating the auction in an inappropriate manner.

And Matt, you knew that the auction was extended for just a half hour so you had to know that there was a chance that you'd be outbid, no? Of course, there were no glitches up until 11:30 pm from what I've been told so why did the auction have to be extended past the scheduled closing time anyway? In essence, Legendary got the benefit of a 30 minute clock twice.

win anything Jeff? American League Pub Co. Detroit/Cobb was a sweet & rare postcard!

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Bicem

win anything Jeff? American League Pub Co. Detroit/Cobb was a sweet & rare postcard!

Jeff, Doug banned me from his auction. I only hope that some kind soul who won that card as well as the Rose PC Chase in that big lot would sell it to me.

Did you get anything?

[oldjudge]

The problem with the auction, as I understand it, was that the clocks were not resetting when new bids came in. I think Legendary did exactly the right thing both to protect consignors and to allow competitive bidding. The first half of the auction had some extremely stong prices (a surprise in this economy). It will be interesting to see how things go tonight.

[eb548]

OLD JUDGE>> Being that you are an old "judge," you should realize that following rules are important even when circumstances arise.

Answer this your honor..Why do we bother having a set time for an auction to end? Why bother with rules? An irresponsibile act such as forgetting to reset a clock is an unexpected event? An unexpected event is a snow storm, hurricane, a downed server.

Im not here to start anything nor am i here to whine contrary to popular opinion. If indeed someone did not reset the clock than i understand legendary thought it necessary to take measures to rectify their screw up. Whether i agree with the measure taken is not being contested. It is that there were terms and conditions for these auctions that all of us had to accept in order to bid which dictated the rules we all need to abide by. Legendary and any auction house has a responsibility to abide by them as well and should have taken all steps necessary to ensure they are followed. They did not in this case. This was very much avoidable and should not become the norm where an auction house can extend bidding because of any excuse and as a bidder you "just have to live with it."

I do not post frequently nor am I a long time member here. But i have read a lot of concerns (not whining) that people (not whiners) just want a straight, fair, and honest auction when bidding. It is not too much to ask. I am not calling out legendary in particular because I do not know them well enough and this could very well have been an isolated instance and from now on they will be more careful. But i do see what has been happening in the auction industry as a whole and it is not good for the future.

[eb548]

Im an auctioneer (real estate) and understand that they have a responsibility to their consigners. However first and foremost, they have a responsibility to abide by the terms and conditions of the auctions aka "THE RULES". If the auction says it ends at 11 oclock with a 30 minute rule to follow, these are the rules. These rules set the parameters for everyone. If we do not follow these rules than whats next for these auction houses and what do we have rules for?!?! Its bothers me when i see things like this happen...it just keeps hurting the hobby and integrity of some of the major outlets that we buy and sell cards through.

[oldjudge]

If you are an auctioneer then you should realize that when unexpected events happen during an auction adjustments must be made. What Legendary did was perfectly understandable and appropriate. Some people like whining just for the sake of whining,

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by calvindog

And Matt, you knew that the auction was extended for just a half hour so you had to know that there was a chance that you'd be outbid, no? Of course, there were no glitches up until 11:30 pm from what I've been told so why did the auction have to be extended past the scheduled closing time anyway? In essence, Legendary got the benefit of a 30 minute clock twice.

That's true, the auction was actually extended by the additional 30 mins a few minutes before 10:30 (central time) which was the original scheduled closing time. So even w/o the 30 mins, someone could have been planning on bidding at the very end on your lots anyway.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Matt

No - I was the high bidder going into the 30 minute rule at 11 PM. At 11:30, when 30 minutes passed with no other bids, the lot should have closed to me, per their rules. Others had bid in the lot previously, but not during the 30 minutes. If I really needed the lot, I would have stayed up (I would not have left a max bid).

It's unfortunate that the clock messed up. Auctioneers mainly work for their consignors. Legendary did exactly what they should have done in this instance, imho. If any auctioneers want to speak up I think they will concur. best regards

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Leon

It's unfortunate that the clock messed up. Auctioneers mainly work for their consignors. Legendary did exactly what they should have done in this instance, imho. If any auctioneers want to speak up I think they will concur. best regards

The system was not down - it was still accepting bids. There was no reason to extend 30 minutes as they fixed the issue several minutes before 11:30. I'm sure all consignors would like every auction to have a surprise extra bidding period after the first one was to end. In that sense, I'm very certain they did right by consignors.