Can anyone explain to me how heritage auctions works. The main question I have is on some items its says open for bidding on August 19 2011. But on some items on the left it says live auction September 9 2011 while it says to the right open for bidding August 19 2011. Can anyone explain this?
Auctions occur at different times. Internet bidders are bidding against live bidders and telephone bidders. Internet bidding may begin a few days before the live auction.
They open them for internet bidding about 3 weeks before the live bidding. So you can place an internet bid first, then if you still want you can place a live bid the day of the auction. I have only done it once or twice.
Usually they last about 3 weeks and then the day after that they do the live auction. Depending on how many coins I have seen the live auction last all day - or at least it seems like it.
Okay thanks last question if you dont mind. Do they start the price with the best internet mail bidder price or does it work like ebay where you can put in your max bid and it goes according to that little by little
They have 2 small auctions every week, the more common items will start at $0, while high $ coins will have reserve. Once a month they will have a major auction, most will start at $0, sometimes prices stay low until live auction. If you put in your best price, it will be at 1 increment over the next lowest bid, until someone place a higher bid, sort of like ebay.
okay thanks and if you dont mind me asking how does that compare with the live auction that occurs 3 weeks later?
it's similar to ebay, prices can double or triple during live auction, when it gets to that lot, most of the time prices don't go up much until it gets close to auction date.
For the live auctions the internet auction price is the starting price for the live auction, with the caveat that if you are the max internet bidder, your max bid is a secret. So example, if you have a max bid of $100 but the bid is at $60 when the live auction starts the coin starts at $60. Then if someone bids up to $70 your next bid would come in at $80, and so on. For the heritage auctions they you have the ability to watch and bid on the auction live as it's going on. So you can put in an internet bid, and then watch and bid live on the date of the auction.
In addition, for the large auctions, you can use Heritage Live, which allows you to not only bid live, but also watch streaming audio and video of the auctioneer. There are usually two sessions where they stream the video and audio, and the sessions last around 3-4 hours, depending on how many lots. The Heritage Live screen has multiple sections so you can see the auctioneer, see the coin up for bid, see the bids coming in (internet, phone, mail/fax -- yes mail and fax are still used, and those bidding on Heritage Live.) You have a big red button that says "Bid" and you can bid just like you were there at the auction. It can be quite fun, especially when a high ticket coin comes up. I have been at Heritage auctions in person, and have bid many times on Heritage Live. Pretty good system in my opinion.
One thing a new person to the auction needs to know that low ball bids will not normally get the items. The auction house in most states has the right to bid on the items also. Also some items for auction my be house owned. My advice when bidding on the internet is do your research before hand and set your max for the item and stay with it. Also remember that the people at the auction get to see the coins in hand so something that goes cheap may have a reason. Of the auction venues usually Heritage has what I have found to be about the best images of online venues some of the others are poor enouph that I have not bid on items I wanted. Edit to add... Be sure that you add in the Buyers fees to your bid and remember that shipping and in some cases sales tax will be added also.
It sounds like you're looking at one of our Long Beach auctions. These auctions (US coins, world coins, currency) are scheduled to open for Internet bidding only around August 19, but that is only a rough estimate; it is common for our floor auctions to open for Internet bidding earlier than the scheduled date. They will stay open for Internet bidding until just before the items are scheduled to go to live auction. Once regular Internet bidding closes, you still have the chance to bid through Heritage Live, as Numan mentioned. You can place proxy bids until just before the lot comes up to the auction block, or you can bid live once the lot opens. The lot will open at whatever the current bid is, as listed on the website. This is generally the increment above the second-highest bid; the actual high bid is secret. If there is a reserve on the lot and the lot hasn't yet met the reserve, the lot will open half an increment below the reserve, making the reserve the next acceptable bid. If we have a Heritage Live proxy bid, you might see the lot open and immediately rise by several increments. LindeDad's post above has a lot of very good advice all around.
I certainly appreciate how Heritage Auctions has permitted both buyers and sellers to trade successfully. The information on the auction site is very user friendly. I appreciated how Bob Merrill ran the auctions, and the friendly men and women at the major coin shows.
