Why I will never bid with HERITAGE again ,and why I think they are TABLESPOONS :

[AtlasT]

Money talks, TABLESPOON walks.

[JazzMan]

Inconsistencies in behavior (such as favoritism, which could be argued here) of a public auction could equal legal action against the autioneer. You have a viable legal argument against them.

[skypinkblu]

my sympathies- just yesterday i received some books from ebay that were severely overgraded even though it was a low $ transaction it really bothered me -enough that right now i can really relate to bad feelings about comic deals gone wrong! It is a bummer when something like this happens-- i see there were 3 bids on the floor so try to look at it this way - if your bid had counted it probably would have been outbid as someone obviously wanted the book-- i know it still sucks but it's not like you know you were gonna win anyway and it saves you $2600 to spend on a better book somewhere else! don't blame you one bit about being fed up with heritage because of this, to me they have that "we are so big we just don't care attitude" at times!

 

My bid was recorded, it's right there... I guess we will never know IF the other person would have bid more...it just makes no sense to me...and I'd have no quarrel at all, if the winning bid was higher than mine.

 

[The Troll King]

I was the only regular board member there the day that the comics were auctioned off.

 

I remember seeing this book sell and not thinking anything unusual happen.

 

You have to realize that just because here were only a handful of live floor bidders, there are dozens of people being called and the LiveBid system on the internet is being used also.

 

I don't necessarily think that anything takes precedence over the other but here's what may have happened (as what often happens in a live auction):

 

If your bid was set for a proxy, as in, it hadn't already reached the $2600 by the time the live auction started then people bidding through their LiveBid program can proxy bid as well. It someone on LiveBid happened to bid $2600, or even more for that matter then since that system isn't directly connected to eBay they will most likely see the LiveBid first and will accept that bid over other formats.

 

I'm not sure if any of that makes sense to you as it's kind of hard to explain if you haven't witnessed it yourself.

 

I've been going to live auctions for 20 years and whenever there are mail-in/phone/live bidders there is always some confusion as to what to do when two different people have bid the same amount. The law in Texas says that it is entirely at the discretion of the auctioneer in deciding who the winner is.

 

Basically what I'm saying is that no matter what time the bid was placed, in a live auction it does not matter when until the time that the item is actually on the block.

 

Look at it this way, if two people had mailed in bids (which does happen with Heritage often) and both people said that their proxy max was $2600 then it is then up to the auctioneer to determine which is the winning bidder. Auctions as you know move fast and they don't waste too much time making that sort of determination.

 

As a side note, on Thursday they did have some frequent technical problems and had to take some pauses to correct them and make sure everything was running smoothly.

 

I do not work for Heritage and this post is in no way meant to endorse them, only to help clarify the situation. Unfortunately this thread will indeed just become another bash Heritage thread.

[Red Hook]

See, this is all WAY to complex. Bidding in a multi-access auction like this would be like driving into an intersection where everyone has a different set of traffic laws. I don't want complex. I want simple. It is so complex, you'd never know if anything wasn't on the up and up. And part of me definitely thinks it's designed for that purpose.

 

...and I have noted that when there are strings and strings of threads "bashing" a specific entity, there is usually something that needs further investigation.

[joe_collector]

I don't necessarily think that anything takes precedence over the other but here's what may have happened

 

But what actually happened? If was a floor bid and you were there..

[greggy]

Heritage website shows that it was a live bidder through their website that won the book.

[Stronguy]

A floor bid means it was either in person or a call-in. In this case it was probably a call in since there were a total of 15 floor bidders for both sessions.

[skypinkblu]

Heritage website shows that it was a live bidder through their website that won the book.

 

That's interesting, because I was told it was a floor bidder when I called...

 

but thanks, Greg:)

 

As far as bashing...I don't bash, it's not my style at all...I was just stating facts and if someone wants to give me a strike for starting this thread, so be it...I spend too much time here anyway:) (because I really like the people...and THAT has nothing to do with Heritage:)..I'll just accept a forced vacation if they decide to yell at me..

 

But I don't want anyone else to get in trouble...really, so, I'm going out to dinner and I'm staying away from Complex Auctions...I like that, Brad:)

 

Thanks so much to everyone who posted kindly in support:)

 

Sharon

[The Troll King]

A floor bid means it was either in person or a call-in. In this case it was probably a call in since there were a total of 15 floor bidders for both sessions.

 

Exactly, that's what I was trying to say about floor bidders. There aren't many people that attend these things live but LOTS of people on the phone. Stronguy and I were the only ones there on Friday but if you look at the results many of the items were won by "floor bidders"

 

A floor bids can be made on behalf of other people is what everyone has to realize and that can mean over the phone or whatever.

[Shark]

I agree with Mephisto. I always bid on items within the Heritage website itself and have never had a problem.

 

Mike

[divad]

It would be interesting to know who the floor bidder was...

 

[divad]

Heritage website shows that it was a live bidder through their website that won the book.

And I have a bridge to sell you.

[szelim]

I'm not entirely sure how Heritage handles the proxy bidding, but this might have been the scenario:

 

Floor bid = 2200; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2300

Floor bid = 2400; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2500

Floor bid = 2600; sky's proxy bid was not higher so the first to reach 2600 was the floor bid.

 

 

[divad]

Sharon,

 

Very well documented. I think you got farouked, as they say.

 

David

[The Troll King]

I'm not entirely sure how Heritage handles the proxy bidding, but this might have been the scenario:

 

Floor bid = 2200; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2300

Floor bid = 2400; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2500

Floor bid = 2600; sky's proxy bid was not higher so the first to reach 2600 was the floor bid.

 

 

Agreed. I think this is exactly what happened. No smoke and mirrors, no Oliver Stone waiting in the wings to film the next big conspiracy in Dallas. Really, if there was some funny business going on... and this is to all of you... wouldn't Heritage have taken Sharon's bid over the phone/live bid because if they had the buyers premium would have been higher putting more money into their coffers.

 

When the auctioneer hears a bid amount he acknowledges the bidder (meaning they have people in place monitoring each avenue of bidding and many people on phones).

 

If anyone's to blame it's the person who was monitoring the proxy's on eBay and that she didn't speak up quick enough before the person monitoring Live or the Phones did.

 

It is no different then if two people sitting on the floor raised their paddles at the same time, the auctioneer has to decide which one he's taking first.

 

 

[The_Spirit]

I'm not entirely sure how Heritage handles the proxy bidding, but this might have been the scenario:

 

Floor bid = 2200; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2300

Floor bid = 2400; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2500

Floor bid = 2600; sky's proxy bid was not higher so the first to reach 2600 was the floor bid.

 

 

this is very well possible. Completely sucks as sky was so excited about it in the Gold forum. Therefore, I'll remove my "collusion" comment.

[skypinkblu]

I'm not entirely sure how Heritage handles the proxy bidding, but this might have been the scenario:

 

Floor bid = 2200; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2300

Floor bid = 2400; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2500

Floor bid = 2600; sky's proxy bid was not higher so the first to reach 2600 was the floor bid.

 

 

Agreed. I think this is exactly what happened. No smoke and mirrors, no Oliver Stone waiting in the wings to film the next big conspiracy in Dallas. Really, if there was some funny business going on... and this is to all of you... wouldn't Heritage have taken Sharon's bid over the phone/live bid because if they had the buyers premium would have been higher putting more money into their coffers.

 

When the auctioneer hears a bid amount he acknowledges the bidder (meaning they have people in place monitoring each avenue of bidding and many people on phones).

 

If anyone's to blame it's the person who was monitoring the proxy's on eBay and that she didn't speak up quick enough before the person monitoring Live or the Phones did.

 

It is no different then if two people sitting on the floor raised their paddles at the same time, the auctioneer has to decide which one he's taking first.

 

 

Then why did Ebay and Heritage show me as the high bidder? Remember, Heritage agreed when I called, that K****Y was the winner...until they realized that "k****Y" was me?

 

thanks for trying to figure it out though:) and I'm still going to dinner,

 

Their website says earlier bids will take precedence, mine was the earlier bid.

[Aman619]

I would like to think that Ebays system can get the internet bid to the auctioneer within the 8 hour Sky Pinks headstart window! I dont think he was "cheated", but victimized by a system whose flaws were exposed here.

 

There is no profit in Heritage NOT using EVERY bid they get. The floor bidder may have gone to 2700 if Skys bid were in the mix. Why ignore it???

 

I think Ebay owes Heritage 90 something bucks! $100 minus the usual Ebay cut.

[JohnT]

I'm not entirely sure how Heritage handles the proxy bidding, but this might have been the scenario:

 

Floor bid = 2200; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2300

Floor bid = 2400; sky's proxy bid was higher so 2500

Floor bid = 2600; sky's proxy bid was not higher so the first to reach 2600 was the floor bid.

 

 

Agreed. I think this is exactly what happened. No smoke and mirrors, no Oliver Stone waiting in the wings to film the next big conspiracy in Dallas. Really, if there was some funny business going on... and this is to all of you... wouldn't Heritage have taken Sharon's bid over the phone/live bid because if they had the buyers premium would have been higher putting more money into their coffers.

 

When the auctioneer hears a bid amount he acknowledges the bidder (meaning they have people in place monitoring each avenue of bidding and many people on phones).

 

If anyone's to blame it's the person who was monitoring the proxy's on eBay and that she didn't speak up quick enough before the person monitoring Live or the Phones did.

 

It is no different then if two people sitting on the floor raised their paddles at the same time, the auctioneer has to decide which one he's taking first.

 

 

This could be what happened, but it's shocking if Heritage operates an auction in such a haphazzard way.

 

The Ebay answer was such a classic example of them washing their hands of things that take place on their website.I fthey're going to allow their site to be used for that purpose, they should insist that fair practices are in place for their customers...