Auction House Mini Rant... (NOT the bay)

So about 26 hours before an auction went live, I placed a bid (knowing I wouldn't be able to bid live) on this coin;



At the time, the current bid was like $20, and I bid $450 (+fees 23% and shipping). That put me as high bidder at $220. Cool, right? Coin had just sold at Heritage in May for $690 (incl BP), so I didn't think it was a slam dunk. But I also know the auction house doesn't have a big buyer base for commemoratives, so I thought with a little luck, it might hold.

So come today, I had a moment to check to see how much it went for, and lo and behold, this is what I saw:


Hmmm. So I was the high bidder, but it was sold "onsite"? What the...???

This tells me that there was no interest, and my bid was the highest, but not enough to cover their purchase price from HA (I know for sure that many auction houses buy from HA, and then sell them on their own auctions), so they passed/pulled it. What is bugging me is that they show it as "Sold", rather than "Passed".

IMO, this is just bad business on their part. Would love to hear your opinions on a situation like this.

 

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Quite a system and too slippery for my taste! Yes it's bad business but it must state those slippery moves somewhere in the fine print of their website. Not that it makes it okay but it has to be legal within their company structure as they gotta edited in case of a legal action! Better luck next time!

 

It's never fun to have that happen and it's not the best business practice (in my opinion). They probably do have a hidden reserve and probably state it somewhere in their terms. I'd rather know about any reserve up front, but for the auction house that would mean less chance of selling.

 

As for their terms, this is the only thing related to bidding. Everything else is about payment, pickup, and shipping. (I removed the auction house name to avoid any issues)

I think my gripe is that my proxy bid was registered and accepted, but not honored. Thing is, I'm not really upset, as I am bummed.

I also most likely will be not shopping their items in the future.

 

If that is all that is there, then it's bad form from the auction house. If it's a fairly small operation, they might not even have formal rules and just figure they can do something like this when the final price isn't high enough.

I might give them one more chance if there was something I really wanted; otherwise, I agree with you that it's best to remove them from your places to bid.

 

I would ask them what happened, at this point you have nothing to lose and I'm sure this same thing has happened to other prospective buyers meaning, it's not like the first time someone asked wtf?

 

I’d find somewhere else to do business

 

I would definitely do some inquires, there should be no difference between a in house buyer and one on the internet as a matter fact you had the high bid first
if the bid was $451 I would see there point but $450 you should have taken that home.

 

Is it possible that the owner of the coin had a reserve set and bought the coin back?

 

Some auction houses post the reserve price 24 hours before the sale, i.e. after your bid.

Have you checked for a reserve?

 

No reserve stated anywhere, at any point.

 

So name them... Auction Results are public information anyway

 

Very true. Here's a link to the auction lot for the coin. From there you can see/read all of their terms, as well as the hosting site's (Proxibid).

https://www.proxibid.com/Coins-Curr...-Half-Dollar-NGC-MS65/lotInformation/56538483

 

/1/ Proxibid is just that, a proxy - They don't show all the Terms and Conditions, just a summary... you need to click through to the auction house for the T&Cs.

/2/ They don't even promise to receive your bid...

/3/ Have you contacted them? I've found them reasonably decent as the breed goes.

/4/ You can always complain to the State of Illinois ... the are registered there.

 

Are you sure your assumption that it was "passed" instead of sold is true? I would ask them just to see what they say. There could be another explanation.

 

In my opinion you have two options. You can call them to discuss as you may not understand what had happened correctly and two, you can never conduct business with them again.

 

What a rip off. Who would think an auction house has the right to bid. I believe that would be a conflict of interest. Oh well, chalk it up and move on... Good luck.

 

Thats very standard

 

I've had this happen to me at another auction house. My high internet bid was the same as the on site winning bid. Bidding started at a number lower than the winning bid. A few auctions later the same coin was listed and sold on site and relisted a few auctions later. That told me that the auction house had a minimum bid they'd accept but didn't advertise it. I wish that they'd just specify a minimum value they'd accept.