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Goodwin & Co Current Auction: Does This Seem "Proper" to You?

detroitfan2detroitfan2 Posts: 3,342 ✭✭✭✭
in Trading Cards & Memorabilia Forum
Lot 24 is for a complete 30 card set of 1910 Standard Caramels. However, even if you are the high bidder, you may not win the set. Instead, each card in the set is being auctioned off separately, and if the bid on the complete set exceeds the total price of the 30 individual cards (lots 25-54), then the set is sold as a whole, and the bids on the individual cards are essentially "void". Likewise, if the sum of the individual cards exceeds the bid on the complete set, then the bids on the complete set are "void". Does this seem fair, or even ethical? Maybe this is a common practice, but it seems strange to me.

Comments

  • CDsNutsCDsNuts Posts: 10,092 ✭
    That would be like listing something twice on ebay and telling the lowest high bidder to f-off. Seems shady to me to auction off the same thing twice simultaneously.

    Lee
  • Stone193Stone193 Posts: 24,438 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's an interesting technique...

    I don't care for it. It's kind of like having "your cake and eating it too?" I've seen it before.

    mike
    Mike
  • kingraider75kingraider75 Posts: 1,500 ✭✭
    I don't bid on those, because it's too hard to win. Either it's a set, near set, lots, or single cards, it can't be all of the above at once.
    Running an Ebay store sure takes a lot more time than a person would think!
  • tennesseebankertennesseebanker Posts: 5,433 ✭✭✭
    Dem Sum beetches is crazy !
    image

  • GriffinsGriffins Posts: 6,076 ✭✭✭
    Mastro has done this a bunch of times for the last year or so- '59 Ted Williams, '54 Red Hearts, '54 Wilson Franks.
    I think it bites and refuse to place any bids on lots done like this.

    Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's

  • cmokingcmoking Posts: 195
    As a bidder, I don't like it either. Mastro also did it recently (August 2006?) with a high grade SGC graded E93 set that eventually sold for $300K I think. I am interested in a handful of those E93s, and like most, I'm not real happy that even if I "win" a few individual cards, that it may be all for naught.

    On the other hand, as a seller, it does get maximum price. I'd be very happy if I was the consignor.
  • aro13aro13 Posts: 1,961 ✭✭✭
    Alan Hager used this idea in the mid-90's. Certainly makes figuring out when and how much to bid difficult.
  • schr1stschr1st Posts: 1,677 ✭✭
    Agreed. It's just not worth the headache. I'd like to think it's costing the auction companies (and their consignors) $, but apparently it isn't.



    << <i>Mastro has done this a bunch of times for the last year or so- '59 Ted Williams, '54 Red Hearts, '54 Wilson Franks.
    I think it bites and refuse to place any bids on lots done like this. >>

    Who is Rober Maris?
  • bobsbbcardsbobsbbcards Posts: 3,254 ✭✭✭
    I think it's even more complicated than it seems at first glance. Try this scenario:

    Bidder A is high bidder on the set at $40K. The high bids for the individual cards in the set reach $35K. Seems simple enough. Set bidder wins, right?

    Well, what if the "max" bid for the individual cards in the set added up to $41K? Not the winning bids, but the "top-all-bids". What do you do then? What if the max-all bid for just one card in the set was a ridiculous $50K? Would the auction house push that bid up till the total of the individual bids exceeded $40K? Would they push up all of the top-all-bids for the single cards proportionally?

    If I bid 50K for one card in the set, maybe I REALLY want it. But maybe I'm also the high bidder for the complete set. What then?

    What if the top-all-bid for the complete set is $100K, but the last bid to win the complete set was only $30K, and the total for the individual cards was $35K? I'd be EXTREMELY upset if I was the bidder on the complete set and didn't win because the underbidders for the complete set didn't bid high enough. I'd also be EXTREMELY confused if I added up the "winning" bids for the individual cards, came up with 35K, and found I was charged $70K for the complete set (which I suppose I would be if the top-all-bids for the individual cards added up to $69K).

    Head spinning? Mine too.
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  • detroitfan2detroitfan2 Posts: 3,342 ✭✭✭✭
    bobsbbcards, those are some excellent scenarios. It sure isn't clear how the auctions work in regards to the "top all bids" situations.
  • packCollectorpackCollector Posts: 2,786 ✭✭✭
    I don't like it and think it is way too confusing and opens up way to many doors as to what are probper bids based on scenarios like bob presented. I choose not to bid on the mastro lots when they did it , I did recently win a high grade hockey set through another auction by this method. I only bid on the set and set my limit and won it for a few increments under it.
  • sagardsagard Posts: 1,901 ✭✭✭
    When you are bidding on the set, one of the underbidders is always "the sum" of the individuals.
  • bobsbbcardsbobsbbcards Posts: 3,254 ✭✭✭


    << <i>When you are bidding on the set, one of the underbidders is always "the sum" of the individuals. >>


    True, but is it the sum of their winning bids or their maximum bids?
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  • TheCARDKidTheCARDKid Posts: 1,496 ✭
    It's a little greedy, and "stretching" if you will, the whole auction process.

    I think it would be horrible for a bigger set (anything over 50-100 cards). Imagine running 500 seperate auctions on ebay, and then telling 500 bidders "you all wasted your time" if their cumulative bid is topped.

    Mastro has done it. I don't know....it's like the "flattening corners" deal Doug Allen talked about. I wonder..what's it going to get you long term. Maybe a little bit of upside short term, but is it adding anything to your brand, your trust/goodwill with clients?
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