Auction House Strategy

[ousooner_85]

Ken, auctions with a 15-minute rule like yours make me a passive bidder. Even with a 3 a.m. hard close, I'd remain a passive bidder. By passive bidder, I mean I'll place a bid and go to bed (and assume that when I wake up the next day, I'll have been outbid). I'm looking forward to Heritage's auction this coming Friday because I'm bidding on six lots that close individually. Not only will I know what I've won and lost before bedtime, but I'll be an active bidder. I'll be on my computer, following each lot, bidding appropriately, and changing my strategy as bidding activity progresses. If one lot gets out of my price range, then I'll throw my resources elsewhere and increase my odds of winning other lots.

This isn't just beneficial to me as a bidder, but I believe it can help consignors. Consider this scenario: In your auction, I'd bid $1,000 on six lots and go to bed. All six could sell for $1,100. If I'm actively bidding, I might bail out on four lots when they hit a grand... but, I might spend $1,600 or more on the two lots I ultimately target. So, two bidders stand to earn $500 more each because I was an active bidder able to reallocate my spend. It's fair to ask, "Why not place $1,600 max bids on all six lots, go to bed and take your chances?" Well, if I somehow won all six, that would blow my budget out of the water. By being an active bidder, I can get aggressive on certain lots and stay within my overall budget.

All of this is a long way of agreeing with Mark. A 3 a.m. hard close, to me, is no different than keeping the entire auction open until no lot receives a bid.

Exactly what I was trying to say. As it stands now, I bid go to bed and wake up for my fate. Other auctions I'm active and certainly more aggressive.

[CPuente57]

Exactly what I was trying to say. As it stands now, I bid go to bed and wake up for my fate. Other auctions I'm active and certainly more aggressive.

I'm also like this as well. I don't have a huge budget, so I can't throw up max bids on 3 or 4 different items I'm interested on the off chance I win them all so I usually pick one, put the most I'm willing to go and wake up and see that I lost, but also see I could've won one of the other items I wanted. I'd be more aggressive if it was changed to a lot by lot basis

[Phil316]

Interesting proposal guys. I like those ideas as a bidder.

As a consignor I would not be so thrilled to see a change. Especially since Goldin Auctions already has a proven track record with the current system. No denying if you want to get the highest price for your item you go to Goldin Auctions. Not sure they should change the format. Personally I would not mess with a good thing.

[lakeerie92]

Interesting proposal guys. I like those ideas as a bidder.

As a consignor I would not be so thrilled to see a change. Especially since Goldin Auctions already has a proven track record with the current system. No denying if you want to get the highest price for your item you go to Goldin Auctions. Not sure they should change the format. Personally I would not mess with a good thing.

The people complaining about the current system are complaining because they lost out on an item. That means that bids were left out there for items to sell for more. I can not see how as a consignor that doesn't register with you that there are people that would be bidding more on items but aren't able to due to the hours it is open.

Just because you deem Goldin Auction's results a "good thing" doesn't mean there is room for improvement. The moment you stop trying to improve is the moment you fail.

[G1X]

Just a random thought - I would guess that Goldin Auctions has a substantial investment in its current internet auction system. Changing to a different auction format might not be a simple fix, and it might incur an enormous expense to do so. Even if Goldin wanted to experiment with a "lot-by-lot" closing in a future auction as I previously suggested, it might not be feasible or practical without overhauling the entire system. With their current arrangement appearing to be quite successful, changing formats at this point could be a disastrous business move.

As much as I have voiced my opinion and offered a couple of suggestions to Ken, I have to admit that if my business was successful and I was meeting my goals, and I was convinced that I would continue to meet those goals in the foreseeable future, I would be very reluctant to make any changes unless I had empirical evidence telling me otherwise.

Still, none of this changes my mind with regards to finding the "lot-by-lot" closing to be much more "user friendly" from a bidder's perspetive, and, theoretically, more financially advantageous from a consignor's standpoint.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange

[Phil316]

Just a random thought - I would guess that Goldin Auctions has a substantial investment in its current internet auction system. Changing to a different auction format might not be a simple fix, and it might incur an enormous expense to do so. Even if Goldin wanted to experiment with a "lot-by-lot" closing in a future auction as I previously suggested, it might not be feasible or practical without overhauling the entire system. With their current arrangement appearing to be quite successful, changing formats at this point could be a disastrous business move.

As much as I have voiced my opinion and offered a couple of suggestions to Ken, I have to admit that if my business was successful and I was meeting my goals, and I was convinced that I would continue to meet those goals in the foreseeable future, I would be very reluctant to make any changes unless I had empirical evidence telling me otherwise.

Still, none of this changes my mind with regards to finding the "lot-by-lot" closing to be much more "user friendly" from a bidder's perspetive, and, theoretically, more financially advantageous from a consignor's standpoint.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange

Well written.

[Dawg Pound]

3:00am is the dumbest time ever. I agree that a hard stop is the best way to proceed but for gods sake pick 11:00pm eastern Sunday as the hard stop. Most people have wrapped up their weekend by 8:00pm (pacific coast) and can log in to their computer and finalize their bidding.

Would be interesting to see if there is a higher percentage of items being won on the west coast. If there is a higher percentage of west coast winners then as a consigner you might not be "maximizing" your value because half of the bidders are long asleep hoping their max bid wins.

Personally I like the way nfl auctions close out their bids and is the main reason they get the majority of my business.

[Birdbats]

I agree that a hard stop is the best way to proceed... Personally I like the way nfl auctions close out their bids and is the main reason they get the majority of my business.

Doesn't the NFL close auctions on a lot-by-lot basis with a five-minute rule vs. a hard stop for all lots?

[G1X]

Doesn't the NFL close auctions on a lot-by-lot basis with a five-minute rule vs. a hard stop for all lots?

Jeff,

That is correct, and MLB Auctions uses the same procedure as NFL Auctions. With MLB Auctions, a team might put up a set of game-used jerseys that end at the same time, but it is no different than any other auction in that most of the jerseys will go into "extra time", and someone bidding on several of those jerseys can both extend and stagger the closing times on the particular items of interest.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange

[ousooner_85]

As I was bidding on items last night in an auction that completed with 30 min extended bid times for each individual item, I thought about this thread.

I placed bids on 18 individual items prior to extended bidding time, I placed additional bids on 15 of those individual items once the 30 min extended bidding period began at 10 pm Central time. Of those 15, I won 3 within the initial first 30 minutes of extended bidding. That left 12 items that I had been outbid on at different times within the first 30 minutes.

Of the 12 items, I actively bid on 10 items multiple times over the next 45 minutes. In total, I won 7 items being able to adjust and reallocate funds as items moved past my price range and/or were bid above what I deemed the value.

I was an active bidder, engaged in each item, probably over paying for a couple items (but had the funds to do so as other items ended) and easily was able to juggle my initial 18 bid items with the 30 minute extended bidding time.

The best part was I was in bed and finished at 11:27pm Central time. I enjoyed the process, knew exactly what I had won, knew exactly what I had spent and maximized my budget.

I've never won more than 1 or 2 items in auctions that end in the wee hours of the early morning (central time). I can't place my maximum bids on multiple items and go to sleep (because if by chance I did win them all with my max bids, my budget would be blown - basically I would never do that).
So I place bids on a few items, follow the auction for a few hours as the
"high bidder", go to bed as the "high bidder", go to sleep around midnight and let what happens happen (which is generally lose multiple auctions that I would have paid more for and win one auction).

In summary, I enjoy auctions with 15-30 min individual close times. I'm more active, more aggressive and ultimately win more items as I maximize the budget I have allocated for the auction.