Welcome To A New Era Of Siegel Auctions

When I first saw the email, I thought it was a phishing attempt and I wasn't about to sign in to a new site and give them my information. But thanks to you all, it appears(?) legit. I haven't signed up yet, and may just sit this one out. These homebrew apps frequently don't live up to the hype. They may have one or two unique and cool features, but are lacking in the bread-and-butter features and overall performance and usability. I mean, custom personalized avatars for bidding, and at the same time randomly changing bidder IDs to protect bidders privacy. Pick a lane, guys.

Less than three years ago they dumped SAN for the "Next Generation" Auction Mobility platform, and now they abandon that for this new one. We'll see. "How hard can it be to write an app that does exactly what I want?" Famous last words. I wouldn't want to be a consigner right now in any of their first sales with the new platform.

Hopefully it turns out to be a brilliant new app that everyone loves, and I will happily eat my skeptical words when that happens.

The idea seems to have started to become a reality starting in at least 2019:

https://trademarks.justia.com/886/4...8644287.html

Software is typically comprised of 10% functionality and 90% 'what if' code. Most software developers are pretty good at coding functionality; it is the 'what if' coding that is often the challenge. 'What if' scenarios are events like users doing unexpected things, the software being run on unexpected hardware, the software interacting with other unexpected software, and unexpected evolving technological changes. These are the unexpected things that developers must support in their code.

An experienced team of coders can anticipate some of the 'what if's' but in today's incredibly diverse technology landscape even large companies like Microsoft cannot anticipate all the 'what ifs' (hence why we see large numbers of post-release security updates, bug fixes and other improvements). This is also why you hear people say, 'the users are the ones who actually test software'.

Stress testing online auction software is also very challenging (read as costly) and most times does not include testing the 'what if' scenarios. Stress testing often only runs a simple set of routines meant to uncover performance issues; emulating significant amounts of traffic and other bandwidth functionality.

I hope that this all works out for Siegel, the buyers, and the consigners. If so, it will be a great step forward for philately. Time will, of course, be the ultimate judge.
Don

That's some good sleuthing. So Scott owns the trademark.

It would be nice to have some disclosure on who developed the software, in order to gauge a level of confidence. Obviously, lots of other private businesses hire programmers to roll their own sites. I think what may separate this one is the obvious dependency on good performance under stress, combined with the sensitive data that it has to secure.

The fact that this appears to be something brand-new, and, apparently, not pre-existing software that has been "burned-in", is good to know. Its much harder than a novice programmer or non-technical person may realize, to get something like this up to industrial strength in both performance and security. Hopefully it will go well....

Scott has some good overview videos of how to use this new system on youtube.
Looks like the newest 4 videos are of interest.

https://www.youtube.com/@siegelauct...s1299/videos

I wander who has developed the software and the platform? Like most computer programmes it may be reproduced for other auctions so while this auction house may be first others will copy or find other ways of enhancing auction platforms leading to even more possibilities of storing historic information and developing other aspects.

I applaud Siegel for putting resources into this project rather than sitting on their duffs like so many other legacy firms and doing things the same old way decade after decade. Harmer is also showing initiative in trying new things and utilizing social media in a big way.

I watched a good portion of the auction online yesterday. There seemed to be a few glitches along the way, but overall it seemed like the new platform performed effectively. I even won a few lots.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Overall it seems to have gone pretty well. There are some growing pains, as to be expected.

Once they get the function of the system tweaked to where they want it, I do hope they spend some time working on some performance issues. The response time to their site, to download pdfs, during the sale was pretty rough at times. I confess I don't recall if the last system they used performed better, but there may be some room for optimizations if they look.

The software has been on development for several years with Siegel providing direct management of the vendor. To the best of my knowledge, this bidbler is not available for 3rd parties, but there are definitely plans for extending its usage.

I find the integration w Siegel's data sources very helpful, in particular, when preparing my bids ahead of an auction. During an auction, the links can distracting.

The won/loss information for a current auction seems to me to be of limited value, but is good to have a reminder of how much I've spent.

Actually, I like that. I found myself using that quite a bit.

It saved me having to write down what lots I won as I go. I usually do that, but this was so easy to use, I didn't bother. On SAN, I have to go to another screen to see what lots I've won, so I usually write them down. I don't want to change screens, so I usually open a second browser window or tab for that with SAN. This uses a pop-up type of deal (in the same browser window) so I don't have to go anywhere. Very nice actually.

Overall my experience with it was pretty good. My only real complaint was, as I previously said - loading a pdf during the auction was pretty rough/slow.

"Bidballer"
"Hipstamp"

Who comes up with these names?

"Hey John, we need to have a cool name to engage with the youths of today..."

Bid baller just reeks of buko $$$$. I'm not sure I'm a "Baller" in this game

Right. I was somewhat offended by the name when I first heard it. In my limited understanding of modern lingo, I thought a Baller was a derogatory term for someone who is arrogant, cocky, and likes showing off their wealth in public. Maybe there are a few high-end collectors or "investors" in that camp, but most of the philatelists that I know are the opposite of that, very quiet and reserved and not wanting to stand out.

Not that the name matters much, but if it helps attract and retain a younger audience, then it is probably a good thing for the long term health of the hobby.

I thought the logo was a bit of an odd choice, but <shrugs>...

Don