I noticed this a while back at Heritage. Seems they renamed their Tuesday Night Auction to Weekly Internet US Currency Auction and now sell their World notes in a separate auction.
I imagine they were screening out a lot of notes and are expecting more and more Chinese notes... too many to run the one live auction without getting alot of late lot dropouts due to how long it would go.
Speaking of Heritage Auctions.....I hadn't bid stuff there in years, so recently I put in some bids on some low-priced stuff just to "get back in the groove." Well, on some I got outbid and others I am the high bidder....but the Internet bidding is now CLOSED (?)...so what happens next ? Something called "Heritage Live" from what I can tell but I'm not sure. It kinda reminds me of Extra Time in soccer games...the game is over, but it isn't. Anyway....is there a way for me to raise my (losing) bids ? Or the winning one (so far) ? Or is there a physical auction going on somewhere that I can't access ?
It's extremely confusing. You have the regular internet bidding which is like Ebay...but then when the "real" auction is going on there's Proxy Bidding and Heritage Live Bidding and I couldn't figure out WTF was going on. No matter, it was just a bunch of common SC's anyway.
With these Heritage auctions you can enter your "Secret Maximum Bid" until 10 minutes before the auction starts. This enters a bid right away, at which point you either become the high bidder (with a max bid at or above the new price), or you push the bid up to one increment above what you just bid, assuming somebody else has already bid higher. At the 24 hour mark prior to the start of the live auction the "Live Proxy Bidding Open" button becomes available, at which time you are giving the option of entering a "Pre" Proxy bid, a Live bid that will not execute until the Live event itself (when that lot opens). You can raise this bid at any time before the lot sells, or watch the auction through and bid during the Live event. You cannot outbid yourself by using any of these different bidding methods.
Thanks Mag.....your explanation was clearer than the HA interface or their instructions. I'll have to get familiar as this is a hybrid auction, looks like Ebay before the actual auction starts and then you have the Live and Proxy bidding as the auction approaches/stars. I think...... You know, when you add in the 20% buyers premium (or $19 minimum for low-priced stuff), S&H, and sales tax....the "bargain" vs. Ebay narrows a ton. Still generally better, but it appears unless you get a really good price, like below FMV, when you add in all the extras it's tough to buy stuff without paying a big premium to FMV.
I LOVE world paper, but alas I'm way too poor/cheap to get anything of any value, much less graded. I stick with the 'Bay, which sometimes yields great results: I bought a $5, $10 and $20 series 1935 Canada Bank of Commerce bills for somewhere around $100 total, which is a SMOKING deal for those bills.
You got it! There are definitely bargains to be had in any auction environment. That said, the main thing people go to the bigger auction companies for is items that are not nearly as available (for either their type or quality) through eBay and other avenues. There are certainly fees involved - whether the consignor or the buyer pays those is debatable - but for comparison, so many listings on eBay are exorbitantly priced "Buy It Now" items. I'd rather see the better stuff go for a market-valued price where I know there are other people out there who value the item similarly to myself.
Why do you or others here think so much stuff on Ebay is way over FMV ? Are the sellers literally waiting for the One Dumb Buyer ? Are they in too high and they need to recoup the price + listing fees ? Can they afford to wait months...years....until they get their price ? I get that many common bills, including SC's, are going to be over FMV because the cost of the grading/protector is ~ $15/bill. Add-in S&H and listing fees, and I get why some stuff that has a FMV of $10 or $20 might sell for triple or quadruple that. Or more !! At least the cost is still affordable. However....when I see stuff that costs HUNDREDS of dollars, that easily covers the extra costs and similar % mark-ups really piss me off. The gouging on stuff costing thousands of dollars appears less, probably because as the costs go higher you are dealing with a savvier, more disciplined buyer.
