Ralph, Andrea and so many others, Welcome to the "is this any way to run an auction? club" founded and sponsored by Heritage, with an elite membership that grows every time they do one of their major events. The general consensus among club members is that while Heritage can put up a lot of great posters, they never seem to able to avoid confusion among bidders at the end. Naturally, it's because they don't actually close these auctions on eBay -- they just PUBLICIZE the auctions on eBay and take bids on eBay that generally don't mean squat, because the real bidding takes place "on the floor" a day or two after they pull the auctions off eBay. And what happens on the floor, what with live bidders, phone bidders, fax bidding and some kind of internet bidding-but-not really, etc. generally works out to be anybody's guess. Members of the club have come to realize that Heritage pulls this stunt off using a format that eBay calls "eBay Live!". This format looks just like normal eBay auctions, so people who are not yet members of the club often get confused and dismayed -- as normally eBay insists that if you offer something "for auction" on eBay that it is supposed to close on eBay, with the final bid showing on eBay as the real, genuine final bid. Not so with the "eBay Live!" format apparently.
Others wonder what eBay gets out of allowing this? Do they get a percentage of the last bid shown on eBay or what? If the last bid shown on eBay isn't what the item actually sold for, isn't eBay short-changing themselves by allowing this? And since when did eBay ever cut anyone a break on paying every penny eBay feels it is supposed to get? It's all very mysterious. I think Ralph asked a while ago what the best technique is for bidding on a major Heritage event. The club members all seem to agree that it is simply to bid only on the last day, preferably by phone if you can't be there in person and to throw money at the item(s) you want. Lots of money. More money than you would ever pay anywhere else (except possibly Bruce's auctions) and then just hope it is deemed enough by whatever Gods rule on the floor that day to actually win you the item... and it may be hours or a day or so before you really know how it all came out. Many club members are also confused as to why you would want to do this -- but then, oddly, there seem to be a lot of people with a whole lot of money who think this is a great way to run an auction. Go figure. -- JR ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ralph Plumb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 8:57 Subject: Re: [MOPO] Heritage Auction > I just called Heritage Auctions for clarification in regard to the > Movie Poster Auction ending today. It appears that if you bid on the > internet, all you are doing is establishing your absentee bids which > will be then be bid for you during the floor auction. So even if you > were high bidder on an item last night, it really means nothing until > the floor auction is completed. I was also told to ignore the fact that > ebay live auction may show no bids on an item at the present time > because they are not up date. Heritage says they have no control over > what ebay shows. They emphasized that if you bid last night and the > current item does not show any bids, you should not bid again on ebay > as you will be bidding against yourself. I really think that is a > screwy way to run an auction. It is totally confusing. I am sure that > many people thought last night that they won items when internet > bidding ending. But in actuality all they were doing was establishing > the amount that they would like Heritage to bid in their name during > the floor auction today. Then throw Ebay live auction into the mix > which does not show any bids being placed on the items, and you really > have a mess. > Ralph Plumb > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
