Has anyone bought from Superior Auctions on line? 20% buyers fee seem a little high? Do you make just one bid, or can you make several bids up to the time it ends like ebay. Do you know what the high bid is? Do you know if you have gone over the high bid or not?... I have never done this although I have a feedback of over 890 on ebay since 1998..But have never done this kind of auction..Thanks for any help. Ed
The size of the buyers fee (or the seller's fee for that matter) should only concern the seller. An experienced auction buyer set's a price limit for an item, then adjust's his/her maximum bid to stay within that limit after taking account of all fees. For example, let's say that I'm willing to pay $500 for a particular coin. The laws of the state where the auction is located require that I be assessed 5% sales tax. $500 is 105% of $476 and change, so my maximum bid will be reduced from $500 to $476. Shipping/handling is stated in the auction to be $10, so my maximum bid will be further reduced to $466. There is a 15% buyer's fee, and $466 is 115% of $405 and change, so my maximum bid will be $405. If I win the auction at my max, I will be charged $405, plus a Buyer's fee of $60.75, S/H of $10, and sales tax of $23.29, for a total expenditure of $499.04. (If I make the effort to figure everything precisely instead of rounding off, I can make a bid that will result in an exact expense of $500, but it probably isn't worth the effort.) An online auction is an online auction, whether done by EBay, Superior, or anyone else. Bidders may either bid a specific amount, which will show up as the high bid if it is; or they may bid a conditional maxiumum. Read the rules of each on-line auction to learn what incrememntal bids will be posted. A conditional bidder whose bid is the highest outstanding one will show up as having bid one increment more than the second highest person. When someone else bids over the visible high, he/she will either become the high bidder, or the conditional bidder's visible bid will be increased to one increment over that of the new player. And so it goes, until the end. When bidding in an on-line auction it is important to determine whether there will be any live bidding, and if so whether ties between internet bidders and live bidders will go to the internet bidder or the live bidder. Most auctions are structured to favor the live bidder, who is in a position to quickly respond to any other bids, and up them if so inclined, while the inherent delays in posting an internet bid disadvantage the electronic bidder. I've been outbid by a single increment in half a dozen or so live/internet auctions for every lot that I have successfully bid in.
Ok, that is an eBay live auction. You will be competing against not only other online bidders who have only seen the pictures, but also against on site floor bidders who have had the advantage of examining the coin in person. It is called ebay live because you can actually watch the auction as it takes place on site and can continue bidding through the net in somewhat realtime if your bid is beaten. Just like you could if you were really there. Unfortunately due to bandwidth problems and delay times during transmission of the bids lots will often close before your bid arrives, or in the case where you simply instruct it to bid the next increment (Like you do in person) the bid may have gone much higher than you expected before your "next increment" bid arrives. This happend to one person on another forum. He hit next increment when the bid was at about $100, but before it got through someone on site had "jumped" the bid and when his bid arrived he won the coin for $14,000. If you plan on just entering a single max bid, do not do it on eBay. Go to the auction houses website, register for the auction and submit your bid through them. That will normaly reduce the buyers fee from 20% to 15% which is the industry norm for the major auction. One warning, the auction house website will cut off the bidding earlier before the live auction actually begins.
You know what, I think that I am going to stick to the regular ebay auctions, and coin shows..Thanks for all your help.
