How Do You Feel During Auctions?

There are games and stratgeries that are at play when your bidding . If you been around public auctions long enough you start to figure it out .

You have to sit thru a few auctions to see how and who is bidding and learn what material will attrach aggressive bidding . I watched enough floor bidding to understand the bottom feeders and who is a percentage of catalog bidder .

How about situations, when you think you won the bid, but actually lost!

This happened to me in 2020, Rumsey auction. Auctioneers DO NOT want you to bid against yourself. I thought I was the highest bidder but when they announced the winner, it was a different paddle #. This is the response I received.

"Hello Brian, I spoke to Schuler and Matt after we spoke on our lunch break right after our call, they remembered the lot and said that they made several audible announcements that there were tie bids on lot 2107. They did not have a specific recollection on lot 2111. I will review the click record with SAN to see if there is a problem that can be avoided in the future. I apologize that we were not able to win you the lots." This was a learning experience for me. There definitely is a lag time from MY SAN to the live auction. I suppose the auctioneer determines when to close the lot, to keep things moving.

Late bidding and lag time is what causes a lot of misunderstandings . As mention before when your the high bidder your dying every second the auctioneer keeps the lot open and if he addresses somebody on the floor during this time of seconds ,you want to kill the s.o.b .

Lag is really the only thing that bothers me during auctions. I'm always a bit concerned about the possibility that the bid price may go up a lot between when I make the decision to click (aka bid) and when I actually click. That definitely happens - and when bid increments get large, its a bit nerve wracking.

When you are using any website that utilizes a timing, it is often important that your PC clock be accurate against the same clock on the server they are using. In other words, your PC clock and the server's clock really need to be in sync. Everyone should have their computer's clock set to sync with an online atomic clock (and most do by default), but your PC clock can drift. This is because it typically only syncs every 7 days (the default) and if you have an older (i.e. 2+ years old or older) PC this can be pretty common. In 7 days tie your PC clock might drift 2-3 seconds.

Normally and with most things, this doesn't matter at all. But in something like a live auction where the software is needing to rely upon bid timing, everyone needs to 'be on the same page'. I know for a fact that this is exactly how ebay's software works. I also know for a fact that I have had this issue trip me up and I've lost bids due to it.

So anytime that I am getting ready to do online bidding, I always go into the operating system clock and force it to sync with an atomic clock. I have not had any issue since I started doing this.
Don

Below is my bid from My SAN account. This is the lot I lost. In any event, this is one auction company I will consider should I sell my Hawaii collection. Anyway, I try not to burn bridges. "Easy Bruddah!"


Revised edit - During this particular auction, there was a bidder who on numerous occasions was already the "highest bidder" and when the auctioneer was calling the bid, he kept going higher. He was gently reminded to avoid doing this. When I bidded on this lot, I recall listening that "we have a bid from the internet" thinking it was me, as I did not want to bid against myself, to perhaps annoy the auctioneer, who after telling the other participant to avoid doing this. Again, just a learning experience.

I lost a tie as well. Sucks.

Does anybody think a live video feed of the auction floor would be helpful?

Rodcam if stamp auctions did that, they would be modernizing. too much to ask I am afraid.

A live video feed probably wouldn't be as helpful as the audio (which is very useful). Since only a small fraction of the bidders in most auctions are actually on the floor, you still won't always see who you are bidding against. Sometimes you will, which would be nice, and useful at times.

Does it help to actually see the auctioneer and/or staff? Maybe a little, but probably not much beyond hearing them, via audio.

Furthermore, would you want to share video of yourself, during the sale? Speaking for myself, "usually not".

All of that said, having the option of a full interactive video/audio auction experience would, certainly be a nice thing to bring everyone together in one virtual room.

We have a programme called Antiques Road Trip, in which a couple of experts buy stuff in shops and compete to get the bestprice at auction. It's fun watching the auctions, and there's often give and take in the room. Although sometimes the room is pretty much empty, and all the bidders are on the phone or the web.

Ripped off sometimes. Recently I was an internet Bidder at a live auction. On one particular Lot, my single bid stood for a very long time. Then, a rush of about 10 floor bids came gushing in. Obviously the work of the auctioneer who was selling the hell out of it out of my sight. I can just see him....$40!, the book value of this one stamp alone is $200. Who will give me $100?.....glad I haven't spent a dime on stamps since June. Two Lots I would have bought were passed on even.

Several examples here make a good argument for using an Auction Agent when you really want something.

You have to appreciate the network of Agents we have for philatelic auctions. I often participate in on-line ephemera, manuscript and autograph oriented auctions, and there I am strictly on my own. That's when I get queasy.

Auction agents are a vaueable asset to the auction firm ,so they are treated better than your average floor bidder .

They have a large book of clients from many auctions of the past , they have records of the activity of their clients. So if they see something in the catalog or during viewing that a previous clients had a interest in ,they will make a call ,bring customers to the auction firm who otherwise wasn't looking at the firms present auction .