The live bidding
consol permits you to bid as the live auction is conducted. You
can watch the bidding as it progresses and monitor all bids entered
from all sources including those received from eBay live
auctions.
Important: Be sure you are in the live bidding section after
the auction starts to enter bids.
1. How can I be sure I am not bidding against myself? A. If you are live bidding, two consecutive bids from the same bidder id are automaticly blocked by the software. Another registered bidder must bid (and be shown on the bid consol) before you can bid again. The auction house bids on behalf of the consigner's reserve limit and will be seen as another bidder. 2 How do I know how much to "up" the bid. A. The bid increments are automatic posted and managed by the computer program. Acceptable increments for each price level are posted in the "how bidding works" page. Bid increments are strickly enforced so that everyone (advance bidder, phone bidder, live bidder) knows exactly how much must be bid in order to overbid the previous bid . This prevents the unfair practice of bidding $1 or some similar small amount to essentially top another bid at the same level. The next bid has to be a clear "jump" to be accepted. 3. What happens in the case of tie bids? A. Tie bids received in advance are honored by which bid was received first (earliest bid). Generally the bidding is opened on the house floor(auction office) first. Bids are monitored and the first bid seen on the screen, from any source, is posted as the current bid. It is possible that two bids can be received at the same time from a variety of sources (phone, live bid consol, eBay, absentee). In that case, as has been the practice for centuries, it is the auctioneer's discretion as to which bidder is acknowledged first. In practice the bidding is opened by the auctioneer at a price level deemed appropriate or by an absentee advance bid which meets at least the starting bid requirement (1/2 the low estimate). Then as bids are received from the live bid consol or eBay, the bids are recognized on a first seen basis. (eBay screens all bids in a similar way and only presents the bid from the earliest bidder at each level. However since eBay can only screen eBay bids, bids from other sources at the same level may be recognized before the ebay bid at that level. It is not possible to check the time for each eBay bid to see if it is earlier than an absentee bid received at www.rareart.com.) 4. What happens if I think I am the successful bidder, but another bidder is shown as the winner on a lot. A. All bids entered through the bidding consol at www.rareart.com are time stamped in the order posted. These are recorded in a bid history file which can be provided to you for your review in the case of dispute. 5. How much time do I have to make up my mind on a bid before the bidding is closed? A. Not very long...about 30 seconds max in most cases. You should be prepared to enter your bid promptly, either to be the first one at that level or to avoid being closed out. 6. I get nervous and am not sure if I want to trust myself in using the live bidding system. A. Advance bidding may be best in that case. Decide the maximum you would wish to bid and enter it by using the advance bid button at each lot description. Your maximum is not exceeded when tabulating bids and you may buy for less depending on the competion. Please review the section "how bidding works" for more information. Please note that a starting bid may not be enough to be a successful bid if there is a reserve. Advance bidding cuts off about one hour before the start of the live auction. See also the answer in 9 below. 7. What about lost connections, delays in receiving bids, and other irregularities that may occur when "live bidding"? A. This has not been a problem at www.rareart.com live bidding. It has been a problem for eBay live bidding as their servers are much more congested. If concerned, see answer 6 or 11. 8. I have a dial up connection. Will this affect my ability to use the live bidding system? A. Probably your response will occasionally suffer delays. See answer 6 or 11 if concerned. So far at www.rareart.com, we have had no problems reported. However, I would feel more comfortable with a high speed connection. 9. I am confused by the bidding consol. It seems too complicated. A. Test out the trial consol. No real bids are involved. You quickly become familar and comfortable with the bidding system. If you get to the link that says..."This bid is discarded(because no other bidder entered a bid)" and you want to try it again, refresh to start over. 10. The bidding consol does not fit on my screen. A. The bidding consol is completely flexible and can be arranged to your viewing comfort level by placing the cursor on any of the dividing lines between screens and moving the border in the direction needed to enlarge or shrink the section as desired. 11. I don't trust the computer entry bidding system to get my bid in on time. I don't want to bid more than a certain total amount and I need to see my results as the auction progresses before I decide to bid on another lot. A. You may want to use telephone bidding. See the "how bidding works" page for more information. 12. How can I review the upcoming lots to see if I am interested? A. The top three screens are the bidding consol. The bottom section contains an artist index on the left and a "go to" lot link. You can use that to bring up lot descriptions on the right for any lot in the auction. All thumbnails enlarge for full screen viewing on the right. You will see results posted as well after the lot is auctioned (slight delay in some cases before results are posted). 13. My bids are not recognized because my bidder id is not recognized (or I don't have one). I registered once before and I can't get the bid consol to accept my bids. A. Bidders must register for each auction session and obtain a unique bidder id for each auction session. Each unique posted catalog constitutes a new session requiring registration. Advance registration can be done as soon as the new catalog is posted for that session. See the auction registration link on the auction home page. |
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