Auction etiquette (semi-OT)

RYK

Last night I was at a charity silent auction. There was an item (not a coin) in which I was interested. When I arrived, the bid on the item was $420. This is how the rest of the bidding went:

Me: $450
Bidder A: $455
Bidder B: $460
Me: $475
Bidder A: $480
Me: $500
Bidder A: $505

At this point I was mostly annoyed that I was being bid up by a smaller increment than is customary. No bidding increments were posted or published. I half considered bidding $506, and I more seriously considered bidding $600, but at this point I was annoyed by the proceedings, and I withdrew. Any comments?

keets

you: $550.

al h.

coinguy1

RYK - it is for the auctioneer to set the increments. While I, too, would have been annoyed, the other bidders were apparently doing nothing wrong. Nor, would you have been, by jumping the bidding by similar increments.

Dabigkahuna

Well, it's just a guess but if another bid was on the floor before you joined in, then the increments had already been set forth. Did the auctioneer ask for $450 while the bid on the floor was $420? It may be that those only bidding $5 were good customers of the house?

In any case, I feel it would be up to the auctioneer to intercede if he felt a bid was not appropriate. He didn't so I guess you did nothing wrong? Except maybe you showed your hand to soon? "Some" dubious auctioneers will shill up the bids if they can get away with it also.



Larry
Dabigkahuna

Lakesammman

You ain't seen nothing. My wife will block the table and hog the bidder sheet as the auctioneer is counting down the last 10 seconds. If seen grown men nearly come to blows doing the same thing

RYK

You ain't seen nothing. My wife will block the table and hog the bidder sheet as the auctioneer is counting down the last 10 seconds. If seen grown men nearly come to blows doing the same thing

Yes, there was a bit of that going on. More boxing out than in the NCAA Final Four. And aren't you on-call this weekend?



In any case, I feel it would be up to the auctioneer to intercede if he felt a bid was not appropriate. He didn't so I guess you did nothing wrong? Except maybe you showed your hand to soon? "Some" dubious auctioneers will shill up the bids if they can get away with it also.

No, Larry, there was none of that. This was a charity silent auction. No one was managing the bidding.

My wife argues that there should be no bidding increments so that the charity will wring out every last penny. My position is that there is something about bidding increments that makes bidding more orderly and profitable for the seller.

JLW

<< <i>My wife argues that there should be no bidding increments so that the charity will wring out every last penny. My position is that there is something about bidding increments that makes bidding more orderly and profitable for the seller. >>



My experience with these is that even if there is a bid increment on the bidding card, people tend to disregard it and bid whatever they feel like. I also feel that this is not right, and those smaller incremental bids (if they are the winning one) should be thrown out and the item awarded to the next bid down who bid in accordance with the rules. I also believe the charity holding the auction would come out ahead if these rules are made clear at the onset.
Joe

291fifth

At silent auctions pretty much anything goes unless the rules have been plainly posted. It's a game you have to learn how to play.

ohbaby

If it is charity then what the hay? Big often and bid high, it's all going to a worthy cause I would assume.

Lakesammman

Yes, there was a bit of that going on. More boxing out than in the NCAA Final Four. And aren't you on-call this weekend?

Oops....busted. It's not as busy at the hospital as I expected.....

There's something about an open bar that makes that junk look desirable and brings out the worst in people.

byergo

Sounds like you wanted to take your ball and go home. Grow up man!

You don't set the auction rules, but you must play by them.

Nobody really cares what YOU consider to be customary.

RYK

Sounds like you wanted to take your ball and go home. Grow up man!

Byergo, Dude, thanks (I think) for your patronizing comments.

I thought it was cheap of others to raise by 1%. So did the others who were present. I bid the item up to the price I was willing to pay...and walked away.

Conder101

<< <i>At this point I was mostly annoyed that I was being bid up by a smaller increment than is customary. No bidding increments were posted or published. >>


There's your mistake right there. You assumed there was a "customary" increment from your experiences with auctions elsewhere. No suggested increments were published or posted, so there probably weren't any restrictions on increments. Bidders A and B were acting properly, you were simply jumping the bid.

dorkkarl

<< <i>it is for the auctioneer to set the increments >>

true ... UNLESS it was not a licensed auctioneer, or done in an informal environment. you said charity auction, so i would guess that it was a rather informal situation , in which case, a lot of leniency should be expected.

K S

RYK

My point is, I guess, it is my opinion that a $5 bidding increment for a $50 item is appropriate but not so for a $500 item. I think that having bidding increments makes bidding more orderly and tends to raise more money for the seller, not less. Had I not increased the bids the way I did, the chair probably would have sold for $25 to $50 less. Had everyone raised by $20 to $25, the chair would have possibly sold for more. According to the opinions here, a raise of $5 is okay. How about $1? How about 50 cents? How about one cent? I expect that all respondents, including the majority here that disagreed with me, would have some threshold below which the bidding increment would be too small.

coinguy1

<< <i>I expect that all respondents, including the majority here that disagreed with me, would have some threshold below which the bidding increment would be too small >>

I sure hope we would

I agree that things could and should have been handled differently/better, though I still place at least part of the blame on the auctioneer (licensed or not, Dorkkarl) I would bet that the lack of established increments merely served to slow things down, reduce the level of interest and action, increased the level of boredom and resulted in lower, not higher prices.

LanLord

Perhaps I am missing something. If it's a silent auction how were the others setting their increment?

flaminio

You're way overreacting. It was a charity auction. A fair amount of informality is to be expected. The other bidders were behaving just fine, and you spazzed out. I'd recommend switching to decaf.

RYK

Geez...I wish this thread would go away. (Did I think that or type it?) My adding to it again will certainly not help.

FYI, I was drinking beer and wine (no coffee).

Next year, I will volunteer to run the silent auction, so things can be run in a manner that I think is appropriate and that will raise more money for the cause.

sinin1

were you bidding on the item because you thought it was worth $500+ or because of the charity benefit?


silent auctions are just that aren't they? last highest bid wins at designated ending time

if you wanted to sit around the 1 item, and after every other bidder, raise theirs by a quarter, you probably could have


you could have tried the manual snipe idea

or you could have bid a very high price, just daring the others to bid more


if you would have jumped it to $800 - you may have felt better when the other guy bid $805

Lakesammman

silent auction snipe......