Tie Bids At Auction Every Time??

So can we say that Modern is clear and that the issue was not nefarious in nature?

The fact that something weird happened remains, but it appears we'll never know how or why.

OK. Everybody gather around! You are going to see a rare sight. Have you ever seen a mootermutt eat crow? It's rare, but it's going to happen right here, right now.

I spoke to Tom Droege in response to his post (he posted his phone # a few posts back) and he went through the bidding process of the lots that I bid on at the Modern Stamps auction. Of course there were many details that he could not tell me - details that are privy only to the auctioneer - but we went through the bidding, lot by lot, of those that I was involved in.

I am now convinced that things happened as he described in his posts - essentially the trained operator at the auction (trained to use SAN) had to leave and was replaced with someone else. Tom confirmed that I, in fact, paid at one increment over the next highest bidder on every one of the lots for which I was invoiced. I don't know who the other bidders were (proprietary info, and Tom maintained that propriety for the auctioneer), but whoever it was, I paid the appropriate amount. There was a point in the auction (which I didn't notice until I spoke with Tom, but why would I?) where the on-line messaging from the Modern Stamps got very simplified - no "Going at $100" or, more important to my viewpoint, no more ID'ing of the purchaser after the lot was hammered down. All we got with the new operator was a basic, "Sold to Book/NET", or "Sold to a floor bidder" etc. This whole thing appears to be a training issue. Bidding levels are no longer suspect.

This is the 'eat crow' part of the post: I apologize to Ken Rusch and Modern Stamps for making as much of a ruckus as I did. I have been given new tasks at work, myself, and it has always taken me time to learn all the ins and outs of the process. The APPEARANCE of what happened is as I've described. I could not imagine a valid reason that this would be so, and for that I am wrong --- there WAS a valid reason for how things went. This was my first serious (or what I perceived to be serious) issue with Modern Stamps, so after getting a better picture of the details of what happened, I can honestly recommend doing business with them. I have bought auction lots from them in the past that I have been very happy with, and I expect that I will be just as happy with the current pile of lots after they arrive. Somebody upthread used the word 'nefarious', which is a good word. Nothing nefarious happened here. Anybody got a toothpick?

I will be writing directly to Ken Rusch, and Scott English since he has posted here, to apologize directly. I hope Ken will allow me back on his mailing list, but who really wants such a jack-ass on his mailing list?

ETA: Thank you, Tom, for preventing WWIII. Henry Kissinger has nothing on you.

Kudos to all of yall for figuring this thing out. Mutt, nicely done on the eating crow part. That is one of the toughest things to do. I applaud you for it...as well as Tom for reaching out like he did.

Crow Creole

Ingredients
2 medium onions
2 fresh chilies chopped
2 ribs celery
3 cloves garlic minced
1/4 pound butter
16oz. chicken broth
1 can whole tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
8oz. ketchup
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
1 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
1/2 tablespoons garlic sauce
1/4 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 pound (12 pieces, or so) crow breast chopped into bite-sized pieces

Preparation

Brown the crow breasts in a skillet with butter or oil. When browned, place them in a Saute onion, celery, chilies and garlic in butter until tender. Add the above ingredients and all of the remaining ingredients to a crock pot and cook on low for 6-7 hours.
To serve, heap about 1 cup of rice in the center of the plate, and ladle a generous amount of the sauce around it. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley.

rogdcam - I was unaware of this recipe. I am still picking feathers out of my teeth after my meal. Plus, it probably would have been more palatable if it were cooked. Live and learn.

Mootermutt - I have many crow recipes having eaten large quantities throughout my life. Hats off to you my friend for having the stones to have a helping.

Mootermutt, thanks for the explanation and the crow post. Takes a standup person with cajones to do that publicly. 99.999% of people would slink into the shadows and hope it was all forgotten.

2 big thumbs up.

mootermutt: save me a few slices of that pie...

(but I still don't quite understand why the 'tie bids' alert kept coming up on my bids 5-10 seconds after the system told me I was winning the lot, but I guess it macht nichts)

I do not yet understand the "tie bids" aspect in these two cases.

I am in the same boat with SAN and an auction house, high bidder then on sale date there is a tie at my Maximum bid, but I can't bid again as it wouldn't let me.

Says sold but no paddle number so no idea what is going on.

Personally this everyone can take bids and one hand does not know what the other is doing is absurd.

If SAN is running the live auction then they should be taking all bids period, and auction houses should stay out of it.

To have them both involved only creates issues and bad feeling as shown with the prior poster.

These messes should not be allowed or people will stop using SAN and auction houses and SAN will both lose bidders.

Now I have to wait to see what the outcome is and will probably be PO'd, but who knows.

Ties at my Max that miraculously show up out of the blue when it was way over estimate always make me wonder.

Maybe Tom wants to give his feeling on the way these sales are handled.

Maybe I'm missing the point, but not sure I understand the notion of the auction houses "staying out of it" if SAN is also serving as a conduit for live bids. As a consignor who recently watched some of my lots sell in a live auction, I know that the auction house collected bids in advance by snail mail, telephone and email as well as online. And they have folks bidding live on the phone, live in person, and also through SAN. Each lot went in a pretty orderly fashion as the auctioneer announced where the current top bid was coming from - phone, SAN, in the room, or bids submitted beforehand in their "book". And the final winning bid was shown with the winner's number, or "book" if an advance book bid was the winner. If the lot didn't sell, with either no bids or bids not meeting minimum, it was announced that the lot had been passed or was still available for purchase. If someone missed bidding, they reopened lots for bidding unless the previous winning bidder might not still be around - an internet bid for example. All this is old news to you all. Of course, that opens the possibility that the auction house will play some games, but not sure that warrants eliminating all these other avenues for bids. As a seller, I sure don't want them closed off. Am I missing something?

In the interest of full disclosure, I bought all of my higher value U.S. stamps from auctions at these same houses, so I've been on both sides of the table.

add me to the list of people who still doesn't understand all the tie bid messages

There should be no such thing as a tie bid, unless first bidder means nothing any more.

If the sale is not over after live bidding, what does live bidding actually mean.

When a live sale is over, it should be over as any prebids should have been taken into consideration before the lot was actually closed.

And then saying there is a tie bid, is absolute garbage especially if it won't accept another bid.

It really seems that live auctions are not really auctions, just another means of taking offers which defeats the purpose of live auctions.

Who won this item as it shows no winning paddle number?

Your Bid C$ 250
Max Bid C$ 250
OR Bid =
Closed..Jun-27-2020, 11:55:38 EST
Sold For 250 Will open and close at public auction.

Can$ 250

+ 17.0% BP

Dutchman - can you cite where you saw/experienced that so we can take a look and see what you're seeing and try to discern what happened? Thanks.