Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

**MrOct44** · 12-02-2005, 05:38 PM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

This auction was an odd one. It would seem to be that it was an auction essentially run by the ASI people. Is there really a James Brown as president? Maybe there is.

My issue was that I got all the notices that my items were outbid at 2:30 CT today. I am also shocked that even with a 15 minute rule that the auction kept going and going and going. They seem to have plenty of bugs to work out.

The bidding issue is always a challenge. We all ultimately trust the auction house. That's all we can do. Happy Holidays

**CollectGU** · 12-02-2005, 06:24 PM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

***MODERATOR NOTE- POST EDITED- YOU MAY NOT MAKE AN ACCUSATION BASED ON A HUNCH. IT MUST BE FOUNDED IN FACT*** How does an auction house stay open from 9 PM the night before until 12 noon the next day? When I called they told me that people from Japan were bidding throughout the night and keeping the auction running...come on! I've never heard of a 15 minute rule lasting until 12 noon the next day, and certainly not at a brand new auction house with a limted number of items....***POST EDITED***..Also, no one answered the phones from 5:30 AM until 10 AM this morning as I tried all morning to see what was going on and tried them every 20 minutes. Last, I was the high bidder on the Jerry West jersey from 9PM last night until 11:00 AM this morning when miraculously someone placed a bid above mine (one hour before they said they decided they were going to forgo te 15 minute rule and close the auction), and it was not just a little above mine. I went and bid again DOUBLE my original $5,000 bid and STILL wasn't winning the auction. ***POST EDITED***..I spoke with the owner, James Brown, and he said he would have his IT look into this and get back to me, ***POST EDITED***

**MrOct44** · 12-02-2005, 06:55 PM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

Isn't is amazing that none of the other major auction houses' auctions run until noon of the next day? They must have no buyers from overseas. All kidding aside, the fact that out bid notices took over seven hours to arrive is a problem. I also found the site hard to navigate. I could not go to a page to see what I was the high bidder on. Cudos to the auction houses that have invested in the technology to have a ten-minute rule on a per-item basis. There are too many auctions and auction houses now anyway. My advice would be to leave it to those that know what they are doing - the big houses.

**orangebowl** · 12-02-2005, 07:13 PM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

I'm also baffled about the duration of this auction. I didn't place any bids, but when I got up at 6 AM CT this morning and was curious to see what certain items sold for, I was astonished to see that the auction was still ongoing.

CollectGU, I hope you get an honest answer and positive resolution to what happened. For an auction that had a scheduled closing time of 9 PM ET the previous night, no serious bidder would wait until the sun comes up the next morning to decide to outbid you.

I also received an e-mail at 2 AM telling me that the auction closed at 9 PM the previous night. The technological difficulties are almost comical in light of the fact that according to Historic's advertising:

"We have also made the process of bidding easier and less stressful. To accomplish this, we designed the most advanced website and online bidding system in the industry."

Page not found – Historic Auctions

http://historicauctions.com/index.cfm?&fuseaction=help.help&id=94

Not quite, I guess.

**whirl** · 12-02-2005, 07:30 PM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

I also was amazed that this auction was still going at noon CST. I checked last night around 10:00 to see how many items lacked a bid and saw that there were around five pages worth. When I checked again late this morning there were none. I prefer those auctions which prohibit bidders on items unless they have bid on the item prior to closing. I saw no sense in staying up all night to baby sit the items which I wanted and put in several ceiling bids. Apparently my experience was better than some of yours because none of my bids was increased.

**stkmtimo** · 12-02-2005, 07:50 PM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

I typically do not deal with any of the major auction houses but have started to lately. I have purchased from MastroNet - very courteous, professional and everything you could ask for. I have done some autograph business with Memory Lane and am waiting for my package to arrive on Monday as well as Vintage Authentics who I am also waiting on. We'll see how that goes. For some reason, I really don't trust Historic Auctions after hearing this but I can't really comment because I didn't bid in the auction and haven't done business with them.

Let us know what happens,
Tim

**Eric** · 12-02-2005, 10:19 PM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

Reminder

If you are going to post something with an accusation, it must be based on fact which is provided. It cannot be based on what you think someone might be doing. Those are the rules of the forum, and irresponsible posts will be edited.

Eric
moderator

**sportscentury** · 12-03-2005, 12:35 AM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

Originally posted by Eric

Reminder

If you are going to post something with an accusation, it must be based on fact which is provided. It cannot be based on what you think someone might be doing. Those are the rules of the forum, and irresponsible posts will be edited.

Eric
moderator

Eric,

Out of curiosity, how many "second chances" does a person get?

Reid

**trsent** · 12-03-2005, 12:40 AM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

Originally posted by sportscentury

Eric,

Out of curiosity, how many "second chances" does a person get?

Reid

Reid, don't ask Eric, ask Mike Tyson, the king of the 2nd chance.

**sportscentury** · 12-03-2005, 12:44 AM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

Originally posted by stkmtimo

I typically do not deal with any of the major auction houses but have started to lately. I have purchased from MastroNet - very courteous, professional and everything you could ask for. I have done some autograph business with Memory Lane and am waiting for my package to arrive on Monday as well as Vintage Authentics who I am also waiting on. We'll see how that goes. For some reason, I really don't trust Historic Auctions after hearing this but I can't really comment because I didn't bid in the auction and haven't done business with them.

Let us know what happens,
Tim

I did not participate in the Historic auction, but it sounds like there are definitely some issues they need to address. I regularly bid in auctions run by Mastronet, Lelands, and Grey Flannel (I also used to bid in American Memorabilia auctions quite regularly, but never again ... for a boatload of reasons that have been well-documented on this forum in other threads). Historically, I've been outbid in Lelands and Grey Flannel (which I believe is just a coincidence), though I've been fortunate enough to win several incredible items from Mastronet over the years, some of which have gone for amounts far under my ceiling bid. These experiences have certainly helped me to trust Mastronet (and I agree with Tim's comments about how courteous and professional they are). The issue of shill bidding in auction houses, though, is one that has been around for many years. You can't blame bidders for questioning this practice. I admit that it has crossed my mind with certain auction houses.

Reid

**allstarsplus** · 12-03-2005, 09:49 AM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

I bid on several items in the Historic Auctions and won 1 item which was the Carlos Lee HR Derby used bat. I reviewed the items I got outbid on and wasn't surprised because my bids were average bids. Nothing I got outbid on seemed suspicious. My only issue with the auction was the same old problem of questionable items but you find those in every auction. Overall, I thought they had some great items, and I look forward to their Spring auction.

Like Reid, I bid on Mastronet, Lelands, Grey Flannel and of course eBay. I lost every bid on the Lelands Cardinals auction which I was very disappointed because I went way above what even the auction value estimates were and I still got outbid. This happens all the time in auctions.

My only bad experience I have had recently with an auction house which I documented on the Forum was with the last Geppi's auction where I was the high bidder but Jim Pratt told me that there were computer errors which showed me as outbid. I took him for his word that it was an error. In fact Jim said he was sending me a very nice gift as their apology for the error----which I still haven't received.

**Eric** · 12-03-2005, 10:34 AM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

Originally posted by sportscentury

Eric,

Out of curiosity, how many "second chances" does a person get?

Reid

They get a warning and get a chance to fix it. If they don't, I'll assume they don't want to abide by the rules of the forum
Eric

**CollectGU** · 12-03-2005, 12:30 PM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

I do find it interesting that on the night of the auction closing my original bid of $5,000 would hold from 9 PM - the official close time - until 11 AM the next day and then I would be outbid by more than double my $5,000 bid 1/2 hour before they decided to change the auction 15 minute rule and close the auction.

Also, has anyone ever heard of an auction house 15 minute rule lasting 15 hours because of people in Japan?

Dave

**sportscentury** · 12-03-2005, 02:05 PM

Re: Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

Originally posted by Eric

They get a warning and get a chance to fix it. If they don't, I'll assume they don't want to abide by the rules of the forum
Eric

Eric,

Thanks. I was asking because it has seemed to me that there are one or two individuals who clearly are not interested in abiding by the rules. I'm sure you know whom I'm referring to ... I know that Chris and you do an excellent job of making this forum a great place for meaningful and valuable dialogue, but wanted to share my observation.

As always, thanks for your diligence and for such a great site.

Reid

Questionable Bidding-Major Auction Houses?

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