What does it mean to bid live, online? Let's clarify this, so that it's easy to understand.
One of the oldest sales events, (an auction) has had a new twist really take off in the last 10 years or so - live online auction bidding. I'm not talking about eBay type auctions here which have been around since the 1990s. I'm referring to fully self-contained auctions, which the entire auction is run by one auction house.
Today we're running a "Live-Online Auction" of Cape Ann Art and a collection of Orientalist paintings known as the Bonnie Crane Collection, as well as some other fine art additions.
This auction consists of 101 lots of fine art by the likes of Jeff Weaver, William Lester Stevens, Charles Henry Richert, Wayne Morrell, Max Kuehne, Philip Barter, John C. Traynor, (attrib. Albert Bierstadt) and many others.
The auction is hosted on a website called LiveAuctioneers. Here are the steps to view the catalog and bid in the auction with some instructions and tips on getting the art you want and what your final bill will look like if you bid.
Click on the red button below to go the LiveAuctioneers the website:
You'll see the screen below. As you can see in the upper right corner, you'll want to click on the "join" button.
Once you join, you are able to register for our auction. The registration process is pretty easy, but for EACH and EVERY auction on LiveAuctioneers you'll need to register. Think of it like walking into a physical auction house, where you need to register with the clerk each time. If you're already a customer, you still need to register, but the process is pretty much automatic, unless you've changed address or other critical information.
Once you're approved to bid, you can click on any item in the auction and leave what is called a "Pre-Bid". A pre-bid is much like an absentee bid that you can leave and walk away from. It's important to know, that you're pre-bid amount is private, and will NOT be maxed out if there are no competing bids. IE: if you leave a max pre-bid of $500 on an item and your current leading bid amount is $275, but no one else bids against you, you win the bid for $275, plus the tax and buyer's premium, and credit card fees if applicable. If you're getting the item shipped, of course shipping fees apply. You can also set reminders, in case you want to join the auction as it goes live. Leaving a pre-bid does not mean you can't bid live. Let's say you leave a pre- bid of $100 on an item, and you get out-bid. You can increase your pre-bid, OR you can up your bid when the auction goes live.
Live Bidding Of course, just like an In-Person live auction, you don't have to leave a pre-bid. You can join the auction as it goes live, (in the case of the one we're launching today, it's at 1 pm EST, Saturday, November 2nd.) and bid on the items in real-time as they go up on the auction block. Exciting right?! There are a lot of benefits to joining live. One is let's say you're after several pieces, and have a set bid budget. If you don't win the first item on your list, you know how much of your budget you have to spend on future lots, etc. As I'd mentioned earlier, there are a lot of reasons to participate in the live bidding, but the best one I can think of is it's so much fun! And yes, you'll know immediately if you've won the bid!
Participation Tips. Just like an in-person auction, bidding live means you may gain valuable insight into the auction. For example, let's say items #27 has a starting price of $500 and no one has met that threshold. The auctioneer may drop the starting bid amount! Or, suppose that 1o items in the auction haven't received any bids. The auctioneer may choose to run those items again at the end of the auction with significantly lower starting bids.
After the auction: You'll be sent an invoice, please pay promptly so that we can streamline the delivery of your item(s). If you're coming to pick up your item in person, simply text us at... (our # is not shown here to avoid Internet spam, but it's readily available to you if you win) OR if you've chosen the shipping option, you will need to contact the shipper on file, in this case it's the fine folks at https://easyshipandpack.com
As a service we will bring your item to the shipper at no cost to you, however, it's up to you to work out payment for shipping with the shipper.
While these few steps may seem a bit cumbersome at first, it's usually much easier and more affordable than attending a live auction. Consider the alternative of, getting in your car, driving who knows how far to attend an auction, sitting in an auction hall for a few hours, waiting for the item you want to come up on the block etc...
Other benefits:
Save and refer back to this post as it's evergreen, because once you register, you can search ours and other auction houses for "prices realized" on hundreds of thousands of pieces of art & antiques! It's like having your own personal price guide but better! Better, because you can search for exactly what you want to compare, and do so by date sold, geographic location and many other qualifiers!
And, although the auction at hand is on a specific day / time, the tips, information and entire process will be updated, comments will be responded to, and the auctioneer is available for questions you may have about this, or any other part of the auction process. So please feel free to ask questions or leave remarks in the comment section. (We even take requests!
Or if you have a specific need, use the links below.
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