Auction house Q

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Not sure if this has been asked and answered, but I am curious as to how ethical the big auction houses are when it comes to absentee bidding. In particular, there are a couple of items that I am interested in chasing in an upcoming auction that is in Europe. It is probably not realistic for me to stay awake until 3 am or whatever when those lots come up, so I am thinking of submitting some bids in advance. Let's say the starting bid for an item is $1,000, and I am willing to bid $3,000 and submit a bid in that amount. An unethical auction house could bid against me until my number is reached, but an honest one would have my bid top out at, say, $1,500 if the next highest bid was $1,400. Thoughts? Thanks all.
 
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In my experience with Sotheby's and Christie's they are very solid with their bidding processes, I've never seen any hint that prices were being manipulated or 'bidding off the chandelier' was taking place to drive up prices. I would trust them a lot more than other places, like eBay, for example.
 
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Put it this way: If an auction house was caught secretly reading your bid and shilling an extra $1,000, their reputation would be obliterated. Do you think they are willing to risk the future of their business on an extra $100-200 in commission?

As others have said about dealers: It takes a lifetime of sales to make a reputation. It takes one fraud to ruin it forever.
 
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I’ve left many a commission bid and rarely do it now.

* 90% of the time I have won the lot, it’s at the max of my commission bid.
* They can often be mismanaged; or not managed as you would expect. I’ve lost out when the auctioneer started bidding on my behalf at a price that meant he wouldn’t be able to bid my max, due the increment size and order of biding.
For example, you leave a 100 commission bid. Auctioneer opens to the floor at 40 and it carries on until 60 and stalls. He then bids from book 70. The increment of 10 mean that if someone else is willing to bid upto 100, in this example the you will only bid upto 90 as you started at 70.
They don’t alway manage it as you wound expect.
Heck I even had it where they bid on my behalf vs the room (think my bid was 3K) and it sold to the room for 20 more. I know as I was watching live ( was working and not sure I would be able to participate so left commission bid)
* Any other commission bid received before yours will take priority if you submit the same bid.
* Eric Wind who worked for a major auction house has said publicly (I will need to find the article / interview) something along the lines of, never let an auction house know what you are prepared to bid for a lot. And really I think the tells you everything you need to know.
 
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Eric Wind who worked for a major auction house has said publicly (I will need to find the article / interview) something along the lines of, never let an auction house know what you are prepared to bid for a lot. And really I think the tells you everything you need to know.

I'd be interested to hear the context of Eric's statement.

Asking you directly, then - you think that major auctions houses are likely committing fraud on standard lots?
 
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I’ve left many a commission bid and rarely do it now.

* 90% of the time I have won the lot, it’s at the max of my commission bid.

This is also my experience, and I've heard the same from many others. Draw your own conclusions.

Also, the auction house loves having your commission bid to shill the live bidders.
 
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So either I try to stay awake until 3 am or whenever or I am screwed?

Thanks for all of the comments.
 
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So either I try to stay awake until 3 am or whenever or I am screwed?

Thanks for all of the comments.
Just set an alarm and get up right before the auction then go back to sleep if you can. I used to wake up in the middle of the night like that for a stupid text based online game I was playing at the time. I was a dedicated teammate. Small price to pay if you really want the watch.
 
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90% of the time I have won the lot, it’s at the max of my commission bid.
Same here. Easy money for the auctioneer. Perhaps not at the - let's say - top 4 auction houses but anywhere below that you are toast.

I will always try to bid live, even if your best bid is the opening bid. Sometimes it is worth it to not even bid the opening bid because if nobody bids it it may even be lowered.
 
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My experience is bidding through a platform like the-saleroom the auction house is not aware of your max bid. Or do they bid until they reach your highest bid and than delete their own bids?
 
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Same here. Easy money for the auctioneer. Perhaps not at the - let's say - top 4 auction houses but anywhere below that you are toast.

I will always try to bid live, even if your best bid is the opening bid. Sometimes it is worth it to not even bid the opening bid because if nobody bids it it may even be lowered.
Same here. Always bid live after many bad experiences. At least if you win or don’t win it, you know why. The one danger with live bidding is getting sucked into the frenzy and bidding here than you wanted. Always set a limit beforehand and stick to it (or at least almost always :)).
 
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