Stamp Auction Network (San) Considering Membership Fee

Responded similarly as others. If they do go forward with this, I can predict the future:

StampAuctionCentral
1994-2019

RIP

I gave a big The fees,taxes,shipping on my last HR Harmer auction were over the top already.

I never received the survey in question, not sure why.

I don't really understand the point of this though. Just in the last 90 days, Tom made all of the historic results functions subscriber-only for $100 per year. As much as I don't like it, I can understand it having to defray the costs of a data structure overhaul and maintaining the data long-term.

If what I'm reading here is accurate though, he's now on the heels of that price increase, considering forcing bidders to pay for access? Is that accurate?

There's a fundamental difference IMO, between "SAN the bidding platform" and "SAN the research tool". I can see charging for the latter, but charging for the former is a HUGE mistake. That would be like ebay charging bidders to participate.

That could be the last straw that kills the service entirely. Buyers are already paying obscene (IMO) buyer's premiums to the auction houses in question. Charging bidders on top of that will adversely impact auction results IMO, which will make auction houses less likely to pay SAN fees for their events. It's potentially a huge snowball that could spiral downwards quickly.

This is truly puzzling. Are the fees that Tom charges auction houses insufficient to support the service?... or have the auction houses exerted pressure on Tom to switch to a bidder-funded model?

Regardless of the reason, it can't end well for SAN. Putting barriers in front of bidders does nothing good for the auction houses in question.

I also don't see returning to a traditional agent-only model as a substitute for Internet bidding as being acceptable for many people.

I emailed Tom directly about this and heard back from him in short order. His reply:




My response to Tom:

The site is an abortion. They have to decide what they want to be... one possible direction is to try to become the 'go to' auction site and after they have gobs of traffic then add traffic based income generators.

One idea, partner with an Insurance company and offer people who are consigning their material to the various auction houses some coverage. Or at least vet the auction houses they list as value-add.

There are a million things they could do, but many of them over-lap with the auction houses. Sorting through the particulars and getting all the legalese in place would be the biggest challenge.
Don

Maybe its there, but I have never seen a cut-bid ability in the user interface for SAN. Some firms allow cut-bids, others probably do not - most, likely don't want to deal with them, but that is something that occasionally someone on the floor with easier access to the auctioneer can get that is a bit harder for someone on SAN who would have to message.

To be clear, I'm talking about making a slice-bid 1/2 of the way to the next normal increment. I think Heritage auctions supports this in their API (or at least they used to), once per lot. Maybe support for that could be one thing they could provide in a premium package of other goodies.

I'm 98% sure that SAN supports cut bids, but it probably has to be enabled by the auction firm and most do not.

If memory serves though, once you cut/slice, you're done bidding, i.e., if you're outbid you cannot jump back into the bidding on that lot.

EDIT: Confirmed with Tom that cut bidding IS supported by SAN. The feature being enabled is at the discretion of the auctioneer.

Thanks for the info on cut-bidding.

What about the ability to voice-message the auction house, instead of just a text message?

I said earlier, charge those who use the site and don't actively bid . The auction firms are tired of all the lookers also.

Set a active base fee for those that want free access and spend hours on site and rarely bid ,this is the same crowd who ordered printed catalogs but never bid at auctions .

If your spending money at auctions why should you pay for the entertainment of others . THAT IS THE PROBLEM .I know four firms that will be happy to pay my SAN fees because they know my activity .

Charge people for NOT using a feature. Brilliant!... not.




I bet you they aren't. You never know when the "tire-kicker" of today might be that lucrative customer of tomorrow.

"This job would be so much easier if it weren't for all those customers!"

Oy.

I was a tire kicker at one time and now am a very active bidder. Getting your material out there and your name recognized is huge and SAN does that well IMO.

I think alot of people start out as tire kickers, especially those have never bid in an auction (outside of ebay). I watched the site for a couple of years before placing my first bid. If I had to pay for that when I was just starting, I don't believe I would be an active bidder today.

Traditional auction firms don't charge you to register to bid. They often will charge you for a printed catalog.

One can watch a live auction on SAN now, without even logging in. I do that when I know I'm not going to buy anything, or, more importantly (), when I want to prevent myself from bidding.

So if they charge a fee, you'd be paying for the ability to bid using their service. On the surface, this appears to be a perfectly valid business model. Unfortunately, the last thing that we need to be doing in the stamp hobby is to make it harder for people to take that next step and become more active buyers. This is absolutely a place where we want people to be curious, take their time and engage at some point.

Well prior to the internet, when I first started actively collecting, I paid attention to auction results and studied auction catalogs for six years before I got up the nerve to actually place a bid. It was a big step for me.

In terms of their business plan, what market are they looking to capture? Are they trying to capture inexperienced hobbyists? Trying to convert existing ebay buyers into SANS participants? Or are they targeting existing, experienced auction players? How does this play into how they pitch their value to the auction companies? Trying to be 'all things to all hobbyists' presents all kinds of expensive challenges but I guess it might be possible if their pockets are deep.
Don