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Hi everyone,
This is my first time posting here. I am relatively new to antiques and auctions. I started watching Peter's YouTube videos earlier this year and find antiques really captivating... I can't seem to get enough!
The one thing confusing me is how bidding on auctions work and I'm hoping you can help me understand this. Two scenarios:
I saw on Ebay where one person put in a bid and their bid won. Their bid did not follow the increment (maybe the increments are only for automatic bids). Please see attached.
I also know Peter won a beautiful scroll for $300 even though he left a bid of $1,000 (see attached). In this case, why didn't the auction house take the $1,000 offer but instead sold it to him for $300, when Ebay took the highest offer and didn't give it to the buyer and the next increment?
My concern is I'll be on an auction site like Christi
e's, Bonham's, LiveAuctioneers, Ebay, etc. and let's say I leave a bid of $1,000. I'm busy so I can't monitor the auction. The next highest bidder is $200. From the onset, for any given auction, how would I know whether they're going to charge me what I offer or whether I'll win it for the next highest bid or opening bid (assuming no other bidders)?
This is very confusing to me so I'm hoping someone can set me straight on this.
Thank you!
Hi Mark Webb,
Welcome to the forum.
If you are bidding on a live auction or even a timed one then what ever is the highest bid regardless of your placed highest bid will be the winning bid assuming of course it meets the reserve price if any.
It would depend on what the opening bid is on the live auction. Or what the auctioneer is calling for.
For instance if the item has a estimate of say $200-400. With a start price of say $50 then normally the auction will start at that price and move accordingly. If there are no further bids and it meets the reserve then it will be sold for $50.
The exception to this is what ever the bids are on this lot that the auctioneer has on his sheet especially if it's a hotly contested lot. Where he MAY try to ask for a larger opening bid than appears on the liveaucioneers site.
But in most cases the opening bid is normally the one that the auction starts at and moves accordingly to the bids of any.
The auctioneer I believe does not know the reserve you have placed with liveaucioneers or invaluable.
This is different from if you leave prior bids with the auction house directly. He will then be aware of your bid offer prior to the opening bid and may try to start it at your highest bid and then call for further bids. It's really up to the auction house or auctioneer on how he works as they are all different.
How many watches on the desired lot is important too to consider. If there is only a few watchers on the lot then the interest will generally be low and you should be able to buy it cheaply.
I hope this helps you.
Mark
Thanks Mark. I think I'm still confused. 😥 Let's ignore Live Auctioneers for the moment and focus on the traditional auction houses.
So at the end of the day, it sounds like all auction houses operate differently and there is no way to know beforehand, short of asking them. This is in regards to leaving bids.
There is nothing in the auction description that would tell me whether I (being the highest bidder of a lot) would win that bid at the next increment value of $300 or whether they'll just take the bid I left them of $1,000? This is assuming the next highest bidder is $200 and let's say the increment is at $100 increments.
Put another way, Peter left a bid of $1,000 for the scroll above. There was either no other bidder or the best highest bidder was under $300, and there was no reserve or the reserve was met. What you're telling me is Peter could have returned later that day to find that he won the lot at $1,000 (even if there were no other bidders) and the fact that he got it at $300 was the decision of that particular auction house. Had it been another auction house, all other factors the same, he could've been charged the $1,000 amount he left as a bid?
Thanks again!
@calling I'll also try to explain. Peter won the scroll for $300 because the highest anyone else bid was $250 or $275 depending on if the increments were 25 or 50. The auction only bids up to just past your nearest competitor and they alwsys go up in set increments which get bigger the higher it goes. The auction house would have only charged Peter $1000 if someone else would have bid $950. So Peter's maximum bid was $1000 but there was not enough competition to push it past 300. John
The highest bidder will win regardless of how much you leave with the the auction house directly as a absent bid or if you use liveaucioneers or invaluable.
The only difference could be when the auctioneer tries to open the lot for a higher amount than is the lowest estimate.
Generally speaking the lower estimate is what the item opens up at. If you have left a bid that is higher than the open bid then your bid will be accepted.
If no other bids are made YOU will be the highest bid and the lot will be sold to you regardless of how much you have left as a absentee bid.
For example if you left a high bid of 500 against a item that has a estimate of 50-100 and the auctioneer calls for 50 your bid would be automatically accepted. If no further bids are received then you will be the highest bid and the item will be knocked down to you for 50 despite you having left a absentee bid of 500.
The only tactic is if the auctioneer tries to call for say $200 ( against a estimate of say 50-100) then your bid will be accepted as the highest offer. If no further bids are received then you will be the highest bid at 200. This practice rarely happens but does depending on how the auctionee operates. Particularly if it's a really small auction and the owner is conducting the auction.
Auction houses cannot just randomly charge you what ever you left as a absentee bid. This would be unethical.
I hope that this clears up your question.
Mark
If you want to win a lot badly, do not leave an absent bid but register, log in and follow the auction live. Then you can react and make a higher bid if necessary. Of course there's always the danger of getting carried away in the heat of a bidding war and paying more than you initially wanted. But if you decide to leave the bidding war at some point at least you made someone else pay more than he wanted 😁
Birgit
@imperialfinegems Thanks Mark, that really helps clarify your first response. Thanks for the bit/exception about the auctioner trying to start the lot higher than the estimate. Really appreciate it. -Mark
@shinigami Thanks for your encouragement Birgit. I would love to engage live every time but sometimes due to work I can't so I may have to, as Peter always says, "Leave a bid." -Mark
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