It's not rocket science, but it is very confusing the first time
around. The best advice I think for dealing with the big
heritage auctions is to take a deep breath and relax. It's been my
experience that you WILL get your posters if you placed the highest
bid overall after the dust settles. But it's not like eBay, and
it can take them a while to get that information to you definitively.
The problem basically is that all the different ways of bidding are
not fully integrated in real time. Absentee bidding directly
through the Heritage website, absentee bidding through eBay, floor
live bidding, phone live bidding, eBay Live internet bidding, and in
the past, Heritage Live internet bidding. (More on this last option
below).
When I first bid with them, I placed several advance or absentee
bids, and then also bid live on the internet via their own Heritage
Live software interface. I was fairly uncertain as to whether or not
I'd actually won some of the lots that I had thought I should have
won, as there was no clear confirmation of this at the hammer that I
could see.
As Heritage points out, if you place both absentee bids and then
bid live in any way, it is quite possible to bid against yourself, as
they seem to handle the two bids 'groups' separately. So you
definitely need to review your max absentee bids shortly before the
live floor session. If you're bidding live, DON'T jump in until
it goes over your max absentee bid.
I was sorry to see that Heritage didn't offer their own Heritage
Live internet bidding interface for this auction, as they have in the
past. I've used it several times before and was quite happy with
it. It was faster and more accurate than eBay Live, and also
subject to only 15% buyers premium, not 20% as with eBay. Not
sure why they did away with it; perhaps Grey can clarify.
Technical issues? Too much confusion? Or just not enough
people who chose to use it?
Since Heritage Live internet bidding is apparently defunct,
yesterday and today I'm using phone bidding for the first time.
So far, it's been very smooth and I KNOW if I've won the lot at the
hammer. My agent was the same person through the whole session
yesterday, and she called me about 5 lots before each piece that I'd
indicated in advance that I was interested in. I also added a
few additional lots of interest as the auction progressed, and she
contacted me properly for these as well. I've got a different
phone bidding agent today, and she's already called to confirm
everything this morning.
I've not been placing any advance absentee bids on these auctions
anymore, either directly with Heritage or through eBay, for various
reasons which I won't go into here. However I did sign up for eBay
Live and am using this system to follow the progression of the
auctions, which also helps me judge when to expect 'the call' from my
phone bidding agent.
Due to the 'advanced' BP of 20%, I'm generally not inclined to
place any bids as the lots scroll past on eBay Live. I didn't
yesterday. However I wouldn't necessarily discount the option
entirely. If a relatively inexpensive poster that I like but
hadn't really considered bidding on, and hadn't set up for a phone
bid, is going for a very low price, I might jump in with a 'Bid Now'
through eBay Live. Yes, impulse bidding! The key is that
it must be a lower value piece, like a $200 lobby card, for example,
so that the additional 5% BP (ten bucks, in this example) doesn't
hurt.
Randy Petersen
---------------------------------------
At 12:52 PM -0500 3/18/05, Henry Mazel wrote:
It's really not rocket science. Internet bidding ends the day before the live auction in Austin. You are repesented on the floor with your internet bid when the auction goes off the following day. You may be outbid by someone on the floor or not.
I watched the auction live on Ebay yesterday, and will today, but I wouldn't use Ebay to bid while the auction is live -- Ebay needs to take their cut so the buyers premium is 20% instead of 15%
Henry
The Poster Mint
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