I was bidding on an auction at Heritage. It closed and I was highest bidder, but later on that night it showed I lost the auction by a bid. Is that someone sniping the auction and it taking time to see who won? It took a while to show up I lost. Thanks in advance.
Something similar happened to me a while ago as well. I actually had the higher bid, but they gave it to the underbidder. I think that because I bid through SixBid prior to the auction and not during the auction the signals somehow got crossed. Stuff happens.
Did you enter a whole bid according to the bidding increments? If somebody placed a proxy bid, then you made a higher bid that didn't cover a whole bidding increment, then the original bidder would win the lot. Not sure if that's what happened, but it's one possibility. Guess you'd need to check with Heritage to be sure.
I've think they might have a small bug in their bidding software. On their bidding platform you have the option to turn on and off the button for placing bids (which I very much like). I've had it before where I've bid, been shown as winning the coin, so I turn off the bid button before the lot officially ends. Still shows me as the winner when it ends, later I find out I didn't win the coin. Now I just leave the bidding button on until the lot ends and I've never had that issue again.
I've run into that before (not at Heritage though) and it's been told to me that they have the auction running simultaneously on multiple platforms and they aren't all tied together so if a bid on another platform is higher at the close, you can lose what you thought you'd won. (I hate this practice and also feel like there's shenanigans at play a lot of the time).
Or, just do like me; ignore all auctions. If it's not fixed-price, it's dead to me. I haven't participated in one since the Clinton admistration, and even then, I think 95% of my wins were remainder lots.
Lots of speculation in this thread, but more specifics are needed to tell what exactly happened. The most likely scenario is that there was a "live" session after the pre-bidding and the OP was outbid there. Heritage often has this sales format. Alternatively the lot could have an unmet reserve price. Again, without specifics, I don't see any evidence to support the accusation of "shenanigans". Genuinely curious. Why do you not wish to participate in auctions? Clinton administration was 23 years ago.
Interesting, I'm exactly the opposite. I only buy in auctions and completely ignore fixed price listings. The buyer's fees, shipping rates, etc tend to piss me off. But, when I compare the total price that I pay in auctions to fixed price listings, I'm consistently getting a better deal in auctions for sure. I absolutely despise haggling though. I suppose that if you enjoy that kind of thing, then you can maybe do well in the fixed price world.
