wrighty said:
Snaketibe said:
OK, here's a stupid newbie question. I joined Vectis and placed a modest bid on a modest item in this auction, and have just received an outbid notice. However, when I sign into the site to see what the new high bid is, it doesn't tell me; it still lists the estimate price instead. I'm guessing this is deliberate policy on Vectis' part, but in case I am simply being dense, is there any way of seeing what the current high bid actually is, as I could on eBay? I might be willing to up my bid, but won't bother if it's already higher than I'm prepared to pay come auction day.
Thanks.
Haha!! I found that out previously. Up till the day of the auction its a closed bid system so all you know is if you are outbid. You can increase your bid gradually till it says you are the highest bidder if you want to find out. I also asked the question how do you know you are not bidding against yourself on the day if you already placed an internet bid.
the auctioneer gets a copy of the commission bids so will work out where the high bid is. So if you have bid a grand and ten other people have bid varying amounts up to £700 then the auctioneer will "bid" the item up on the commission bids behalf to wherever they are, so £720. They will then invite bids from the room.
If you are online, in the room or on the phone you will then be treated as a room bidder, and be able to bid against the commission bid. They will not know who the bidders are at this point, so you could easily bid yourself up.
In live auctions, commission bids should only be used as a last resort. If there is something you really want, you need to bid live on the phone.
Invaluable is a better way to bid online as their software is vastly superior to vectis, but you have to pay for it.
Got to remember, vectis is an old school auction house.