Creighton-Davis Art Auction Bidding

1. Absentee Internet Bidding: Internet bidders may enter bids via the bid form at each lot description. After registering, simply click on the bid button at each lot and enter your bid and registration number. The entered bid represents a maximum limit bid for the work and is not exceeded in the bidding competition. If there is no other competition for the work and the bidding can be opened at a level below your limit, you would buy at some  level beneath your bid limit. Thus the system protects the absentee bidder in two ways. No competition: you buy at the open or at the reserve if there is one. Other bidding: you buy at one increment above the next highest bid but no higher than your limit. If there are higher bids exceeding your  bid limit you would, of course, be unsuccessful.
Live Bidding at www.rareart.com:  The live bidding module at www.rareart.com allows you to monitor the actual bidding as it takes place on an individual lot.  You can bid  using the interactive software in the module as long as you have a bidder's registration id.   You can mix absentee and live bidding without fear of bidding against yourself.  The live bidding module allows you to monitor the bidding as well as review the upcoming lots without departing from the live bidding screen.  See the separate link for live bidding for more information and to check out the test version.
Bid Tabulation:  Rareart.com auctions use the time tested auction bidding system of collecting advance bids and comparing these against live bidder's offers. All advance bids are "opened" at the time the lot comes up for bidding.  The auctioneer enters your bid against other bidders or the reserve until your bid limit is reached.  Tie bids are awarded to the earliest received.  Live bidders are offered the opportunity to bid against absentee bids at each bid level.  If there are no live bids and the reserve is met, the lot is awarded to the earliest absentee bid received at that level.  Bids may not be withdrawn once entered.  In some cases you may revise your bid limit downward if there are no other competiting bids... call or email us if this becomes an issue.   This policy protects against sham bidding where initially a very high bid is entered and then, at the last minute, is withdrawn.
Bidders on the net may submit higher bids on a work they have already bid on if they wish to improve their chances of buying any lot.   Bidders only bid against other bidders.  During live bidding, the software rejects a bid which comes from the same registration id as the prior bid.
Review Your Bids: Internet bidders may review a list of their bids using the link at the top of the auction catalog.  Advance bidders will not know whether their bid is successful  until the lot is closed for bidding in the live auction.  Therefore please make sure you put in the maximum you would be willing to bid in order to protect your interest in  a particular lot against other bidders.
Bid Deadlines: Abentee bids placed on the internet should be entered at least one hour in advance of a live auction.  Bids may be entered by telephone or fax  as well.  Deadlines for these bids should also be at least one(1) hour before live auction begins.

2. Telephone Bidding: We can accomodate a limited number of telephone bidders in the event of either a internet only auction or a live auction. Telephone bidders can be contacted just before the lot comes up and an auction associate will relay your telephone bids to the auctioneer. Please make reservations in advance for this service. It may not be possible to accomodate every telephone bid request.

3. Live Bidding: In the event there is a live auction session, you can attend the actual auction and bid in the traditional system whereby the auctioneer asks for bids and compares the bids of the audience with the absentee, internet, and telephone bidders.

Minimum Bids, Starting Bids and Reserves

Many works have reserves, the lowest price the lot can be sold for.  The reserve is never higher than the low estimate. A starting bid is just that, the first bid that the software will accept. The autobid function will not accept starting bids less than 1/2 the low estimate.   
Example: there are bids of 100, 300, and 500 from three diffenent bidders and the reserve is 250. The posted bid would be 325 indicating one increment above the next highest bid limit...in this case 300. Unless another bidder raised their limit to 350 or higher, the bidder with the 500 limit would win the lot with a bid of 325. If there was only one bidder, that one bidder would get the lot at the reserve price...250...regardless of the maximum bid limit of the bidder.

Auction Premium

As in most auctions there is a buyer's premium added to the final bid. That premium is 25%.

Bid increments are strickly adhered to during bidding. No lot will be sold below specified increment levels noted below. Bids entered between these increments will be rounded DOWN to the specified increment level just below your bid limit. The reason for the increment restriction is to be fair to all bidders. Everyone, whether present or absentee, clearly knows in advance what the next price must be and can decide if it is a price they wish to pay.
The bid increments are: