Bids at Auction

[AFC Wimbledon]

Thanks for all your thoughts, very interesting.

Is it possible (indeed LEGAL) for it to work like this:

Sometimes, if a lot is estimated at, say, £30-£50 (i.e. reserve probably £25) and there are no commission bids on the books for it their end, they will say something like:

"What can I say for this lot, £50 to start it?"

And if I've left an online bid of, say, £50 for it, I'll end up winning the the lot for £50, even though I am the only bidder.

I'm sure I've seen auction houses start the bidding like this. I didn't watch the Mullock Jones auction, I wish I had, so I don't know if they do this sort of thing. But surely, as in their T+Cs, they should execute any bid as cheaply as possible for the buyer

[RIKERBCFC]

AFC Wimbledon wrote:

Thanks for all your thoughts, very interesting. Is it possible (indeed LEGAL) for it to work like this: Sometimes, if a lot is estimated at, say, £30-£50 (i.e. reserve probably £25) and there are no commission bids on the books for it their end, they will say something like: "What can I say for this lot, £50 to start it?" And if I've left an online bid of, say, £50 for it, I'll end up winning the the lot for £50, even though I am the only bidder. I'm sure I've seen auction houses start the bidding like this. I didn't watch the Mullock Jones auction, I wish I had, so I don't know if they do this sort of thing. But surely, as in their T+Cs, they should execute any bid as cheaply as possible for the buyer

If you want to watch how an auction house works. Try watching Stacey's on Monday their football sale for Football Wanted starts at 9am and is on both The Sale room and Easy Live.

[martino]

In my experience a lot of Auction House start with a high number and work down until a room or auto-bid kicks in. For example:

A football programme with an estimate of 60-80.
The auctioneer could start at £100, no takers.
Than down to £90.
Someone has left an autobid for £90 so that bid kicks in and if no-one else bids they get it for £90.
You will never know but if they had left an auto-bid for £50 they may well have got the lot at that figure.

Auction house know that some bidders will auto-bid high to ensure they have a good chance of getting the lot and in doing so they may well end up paying over the odds.

So, if I auto-bid I only bid what I think the lot is worth.

Hope this makes sense but it is common practice.

[AFC Wimbledon]

It absolutely makes sense, martino, but I only bid what I think a lot is worth also.

But surely the point is, if there are no initial bids on a lot, they should start the bidding at the reserve, or even below the reserve, to get the bidding going. I've seen many auction houses do this. And as Riker said, it is totally legitimate to bid against the reserve, I get that. But this practice of starting the bidding well over the reserve so some poor online bidder like me ends paying more than the reserve for a MAIDEN BID, is this legal??

[martino]

I suppose the answer is always bid live and then you can control your bids.

[AFC Wimbledon]

But then I'd spend my whole life in front of a computer as I bid on so many lots!

I guess it boils down this: is it allowable for there to be different rules for commission bids (lowest possible bid for buyer as it states in their T+Cs) and online bids (highest possible)

[Maidonian]

I would imagine "off the wall" bidding is fairly prevalent especially when no members of the public are able to be present at an auction. I was always told that bidding by telephone was the best method to use.

[martino]

The problem is the Auction House has no idea of what Auto-bids have been lodged as they are stored in the "system" until the lot goes live.

Yes some of the Auction houses are taking advantage of this as I outlined above but, as it stands, I do not think the Auction House are doing anything wrong.

I think I am correct in saying that there is a disclaimer next to the Auto-bid box stating that all bids are binding on the bidder. So bids of whatever amount could be winning bids.

Is this practice any different to those programme dealers who advertise programmes on a "best bid" basis i.e. if the the winner bids £200 he never knows if the next best bid was £100 or no other bids!!

[AFC Wimbledon]

Just an update -

Spoke to Mullock Jones and they basically said that they don't start bids at higher than the reserve, and so I've just been very unlucky to have 35 winning bids all won at my maximum bid...

What are the odds??

I'm off to buy a lottery ticket...

[RIKERBCFC]

AFC Wimbledon wrote:

Just an update - Spoke to Mullock Jones and they basically said that they don't start bids at higher than the reserve, and so I've just been very unlucky to have 35 winning bids all won at my maximum bid... What are the odds?? I'm off to buy a lottery ticket...

Told you I had won some items under my maximum at Mullock Jones.

Most Auction Houses will try items at a higher price than reserve to see if anyone bites , but then drop them down to a lower price sometimes dropping them more than once. Some auction houses start at the reserve and do not drop any lower.