Anyone ever bid with Heritage Europe?

pruebas

I bid on 3 lots in pre-live bidding. Unfortunately live bidding started at 3:30AM Eastern Time and I woke up at 4:00, just missing my lots live. I didn’t think they would get through that many lots so fast, but probably few were bidding live.

It’s now 12+ hours later and I STILL don’t know if I’ve won the lots.

I’ve never known such a screwed up bidding platform!

lermish

I just did for the first time and it is a bit weird. I would assume the the Price Realized being filled and the Time Remaining being empty indicates it's done. How it got there...who knows🫤

lermish

I think the difference between Next Bid and Price Realized would show the effect of any floor/live bids. Current Bid is probably the final online pre-bid??

pruebas

I think at some point after the live sale, the “prices realized” column went from “pending live sale” to final result.

lermish

That could be the case! I thought the auction wasn't until next week and missed it entirely.

pruebas

The confusion in their auction process helps bidders buy things inexpensively, though their high BP and fees often make up for that.

I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining though. Back as recently as the late 1990s, one would mail (or FAX) their written bids into the auction, then wait until the mailman delivered the invoice, which you would then return via mail with a check and wait again for the lots to show up.

I guess I am spoiled by the immediacy of most internet bidding platforms today.

lermish

I've been puzzled by the site since I signed up. Presumably, HA Europe is a wholly owned subsidiary of HA? I don't know why they couldn't use the same web design as the excellent US site. The current site makes me think of less technologically advanced, mid-tier auction houses (eg Goldberg).

@MFeld Are you able to shed any light on the relationship between HA and HA Europe and why they have such vastly different interfaces?

pruebas

@lermish here’s what I know.

Heritage bought some percentage of an existing Dutch auction house maybe 10-ish years ago so they could have an agent in Europe. Ostensibly for collecting consignments, but perhaps there was some tax angle involved (VAT?).

While the name has changed, the auction processes have not. And the original owner(s) are still running the place.

realeswatcher

Was "MPO", I believe...

It is kind of odd how disjointed they are from the American operation. Like @pruebas said, seems like they are still mostly the same old Dutch outfit, just under the Heritage banner.

Just perusing some results... For Spanish Colonial, generally looks like there aren't quite the bargains that one often could find there, though I'm sure sharp bidders of more obscure pieces can find exceptions.