Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

[Good Eye Sports]

Dear members,

Does it just happen to me or has others also experienced whenever you bid on an item the price always reaches your ceiling bid on the item that you won?

I've never confronted any of the auction houses about this but this happened again in this weeks Historic Auctions. To their defense I have not confronted them about this nor do I have any solid proof so I am not accusing them of shill bidding, but I would like to state the facts and hope to hear from others who might of had similar experiences.

In yesterdays Historic Auctions that ended at 9pm, I placed a bid on an item for max $704. At 4 pm, I was the high bidder at $440 with a total of 5 bids on the item. I saved the screenshot just in case, something fishy happens. Well I checked back this morning and guess what? I won the item for $704 with a total of 6 bids! That means someone bidded exactly $640 (10% less than $704) or maybe somewhere between $640-$704 if thats how the software works? But still...at $440 and with the item page clearly stating the next minimum bid at $484 wouldn't someone bid somewhere around that number before jumping that far up especially with the 15 minute rule implemented? This isn't exactly Ebay where you can "snipe" in the seconds!

This has happened to me several times with other auction houses but I never really cared nor did I make any preparations for an argument so I never made it an issue.

I like the item I won even at that price so I may or may not confront Historic Auctions about this but at the same time if something suspicious were to be happening, its something that needs to be addressed.

Although this post may sound so, I am not accusing Historic Auctions of shill bidding, I am merely stating the facts and would like to hear from others.

Thanks in advance,

Goh Nishiyama
Good Eye Sports
www.goodeye-sports.com

[MrOct44]

This auction was an odd one. It would seem to be that it was an auction essentially run by the ASI people. Is there really a James Brown as president? Maybe there is.

My issue was that I got all the notices that my items were outbid at 2:30 CT today. I am also shocked that even with a 15 minute rule that the auction kept going and going and going. They seem to have plenty of bugs to work out.

The bidding issue is always a challenge. We all ultimately trust the auction house. That's all we can do. Happy Holidays

[CollectGU]

***MODERATOR NOTE- POST EDITED- YOU MAY NOT MAKE AN ACCUSATION BASED ON A HUNCH. IT MUST BE FOUNDED IN FACT*** How does an auction house stay open from 9 PM the night before until 12 noon the next day? When I called they told me that people from Japan were bidding throughout the night and keeping the auction running...come on! I've never heard of a 15 minute rule lasting until 12 noon the next day, and certainly not at a brand new auction house with a limted number of items....***POST EDITED***..Also, no one answered the phones from 5:30 AM until 10 AM this morning as I tried all morning to see what was going on and tried them every 20 minutes. Last, I was the high bidder on the Jerry West jersey from 9PM last night until 11:00 AM this morning when miraculously someone placed a bid above mine (one hour before they said they decided they were going to forgo te 15 minute rule and close the auction), and it was not just a little above mine. I went and bid again DOUBLE my original $5,000 bid and STILL wasn't winning the auction. ***POST EDITED***..I spoke with the owner, James Brown, and he said he would have his IT look into this and get back to me, ***POST EDITED***

[MrOct44]

Isn't is amazing that none of the other major auction houses' auctions run until noon of the next day? They must have no buyers from overseas. All kidding aside, the fact that out bid notices took over seven hours to arrive is a problem. I also found the site hard to navigate. I could not go to a page to see what I was the high bidder on. Cudos to the auction houses that have invested in the technology to have a ten-minute rule on a per-item basis. There are too many auctions and auction houses now anyway. My advice would be to leave it to those that know what they are doing - the big houses.

[orangebowl]

I'm also baffled about the duration of this auction. I didn't place any bids, but when I got up at 6 AM CT this morning and was curious to see what certain items sold for, I was astonished to see that the auction was still ongoing.

CollectGU, I hope you get an honest answer and positive resolution to what happened. For an auction that had a scheduled closing time of 9 PM ET the previous night, no serious bidder would wait until the sun comes up the next morning to decide to outbid you.

I also received an e-mail at 2 AM telling me that the auction closed at 9 PM the previous night. The technological difficulties are almost comical in light of the fact that according to Historic's advertising:

"We have also made the process of bidding easier and less stressful. To accomplish this, we designed the most advanced website and online bidding system in the industry."

http://historicauctions.com/index.cf...elp.help&id=94

Not quite, I guess.

[whirl]

I also was amazed that this auction was still going at noon CST. I checked last night around 10:00 to see how many items lacked a bid and saw that there were around five pages worth. When I checked again late this morning there were none. I prefer those auctions which prohibit bidders on items unless they have bid on the item prior to closing. I saw no sense in staying up all night to baby sit the items which I wanted and put in several ceiling bids. Apparently my experience was better than some of yours because none of my bids was increased.

[stkmtimo]

I typically do not deal with any of the major auction houses but have started to lately. I have purchased from MastroNet - very courteous, professional and everything you could ask for. I have done some autograph business with Memory Lane and am waiting for my package to arrive on Monday as well as Vintage Authentics who I am also waiting on. We'll see how that goes. For some reason, I really don't trust Historic Auctions after hearing this but I can't really comment because I didn't bid in the auction and haven't done business with them.

Let us know what happens,
Tim

[Eric]

Reminder

If you are going to post something with an accusation, it must be based on fact which is provided. It cannot be based on what you think someone might be doing. Those are the rules of the forum, and irresponsible posts will be edited.

Eric
moderator

[sportscentury]

Reminder

If you are going to post something with an accusation, it must be based on fact which is provided. It cannot be based on what you think someone might be doing. Those are the rules of the forum, and irresponsible posts will be edited.

Eric
moderator

Eric,

Out of curiosity, how many "second chances" does a person get?

Reid

[trsent]

Eric,

Out of curiosity, how many "second chances" does a person get?

Reid

Reid, don't ask Eric, ask Mike Tyson, the king of the 2nd chance.