Does Heritage hate me?

I was wondering if someone could explain what is going on with my bids at Heritage.

A couple days ago I bid $131 on a coin in the weekly auction at Heritage. At the time, I was surprised to find I was the high bidder. Today I looked at it only to find out "Your secret maximum bid of $131 has been outbid". That did not surprise me much except its current bid is $131. How on earth can that happen?

Than again today, I bid $175 on a coin during their live auction. It stated that my bid was accepted. It closed at $175 (+bp) and the "SOLD" was green I thought indicating that I had won. So far everything I look at after that point says it sold for $175, but I was out bid. HUH???

Is there something I am missing or have I been blackballed at Heritage?

 

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It happened to me before too, I thought I won, but I was out bid. Someone probably entered a higher bid previously, so during live auction their higher bid won. If you enter same your bid of $131, but someone probably entered the same amount earlier than you. So you needed to enter a higher amount to win, in most of these cases, you need to enter a higher last second bid than you think, sometimes 1 increment over current bid is not enough to win.

 

That is correct, but then I could not have been the high bidder. Because I was the high bidder, my bid had to be first.

I did enter a bid more than 1 increment over the current bid, my bid was accepted, and it said I had won at the price I had bid.

 

If it said you won then you can contact them and ask what happened. Maybe they have to sell to you.

 

This is from their FAQ's, does this explain what's happening?

I was outbid by less than a full increment. What happened?
It is entirely possible for someone to lose a lot in Internet bidding by less than a full bid increment. What happens is that the winning bidder will independently bid a small amount higher than the underbidder. Since a bidder is only required to bid at least the amount of the next highest increment, and since no one knows what anyone's maximum bid is other than their own, the current bid will rise possibly from well below the maximum bid to the lesser of the actual maximum made by the new high bidder and one increment above what the underbidder has bid.

In other words, if your maximum bid is $800 and the current bid is $310, a new bidder would be entitled to bid any amount of $320 or higher because the next increment above the current bid is $320. If the new bidder bids any amount above your maximum bid, he would then become the high bidder on the lot.

 

That is exactly what I thought I had done to the another bidder. However, since both item either closed or are presently at my high bid, this does not affect my winning or not.

 

I hate Heritage. You gave me more reasons for that, thanks. Meanwhile, why not stop dealing with them? As you indicated, they won't much care. One plankton less doesn't matter to a whale.

 

I have had nothing but pleasant dealings with them. My guess is that this will be worked out quite successfully and you give me no reason not to continue dealing with them.

 

I hope every coin you buy from them is a gem at a bargain price.

 

Let us know how it turns out. Never had a problem like this myself. I did notice last night it showed me as the winner on two auctions(not at my maximum), but the live auction was still going on. Now just hoping to get the invoice.

 

Does Heritage hate me?



perhaps!


LOL

 

Heritage can be a wild ride for sure!

 

Finally got hold of Heritage. Their lines have been busy this morning. Apparently they did have some problems with the internet bidding in Connecticut.

On the $131 bid, it turned out to make no difference because it sold for $150 + bp. However, the agent I wound up talking to said their program apparently has a bug in it because what I saw should not have happened. It should have show me as out bid but the current bid at $140. He is going to send it up to the IT people.

As for the $175 bid, again there was a problem with their internet bidding, but he assured me that there really was an earlier bid of exactly $175. That bid rightly won the auction. I guess it really had to accept my bid because we both bid more than increment above the current bid. The only problem was that it should not have shown me as the winner. Next time I need to bid $176.

 

I noticed that they had a flag in the comment section during the live auction that noted technical difficulty a few times..... There were a couple lot that's that passed by during this time that had 1 cent as the current high bid,,, obviously I bid 2 cents and showed me as high bidder,, then the auction closed with sell price up around 130, etc.... I signed off after that.

 

"There was a computer involved... and that's when the trouble began" - 21st century man

 

Heritage really should address this. I like Heritage, and would not be a happy camper if I started encountering "bugs". Such bugs do open themselves up to potential civil legal liability, regardless of disclaimers.

For anyone who has concerns, perhaps they should start pressing their PRT SC (print screen) button each time they submit a bid and show as highest bidder. After hitting print screen, paste screen image into Word or another program that can handle graphic images.

 

Indeed, they do have glitches, pursuant to both parties. Hence potential liability, and potential contest by either party.

 

Lots of luck.