 |
| Roy Lichtenstein screenprint, at auction at Phillips de Pury on June 8th, starting bid: $3,400. |
Perhaps you've purchased a few things from Ebay. Perhaps that site terrifies you: a towering pile of LOOK: brand NEW children's sneakers!!! and yard sale rejects that you finally crawl out from under, your dinner burned, your plans waylaid, your family crabby. Well, fret not, my dearlings, not because I'm tackling Ebay today--no way: it's too hot and I've had a fever for three days--but because there are other, more pleasant auction options out there for your browsing enjoyment.
These days, it is possible to go online at most auction houses, become a client, and, at minimum, leave absentee bids on their sites. At the very end of this post, I will discuss when it makes sense to go this route. Right now, however, I am interested in showing you how you can reach the most auction houses in the simplest, most efficient manner, because, let's face it, we're all pressed for time.
As I see it, there are two efficient ways to bid on line: via Live Auctioneers or via one of the sites in the U.K. conglomerate: AuctionZip / Artfact/ Invaluable.
Let's tackle the more complicated entity first: Artfact and Invaluable are quite similar, albeit that Artfact, based in Boston, is orientated toward the United States and thus domestic auctions, while Invaluable, based in the U.K. is orientated toward Europe and international auctions. Both Artfact and Invaluable are easy to use and bid via, but they both require a paid membership to access even basic information, such as the estimate for an object. AuctionZip, an American based site, contains much of the same information as Artfact and Invaluable, but you can access more features for free. The caveat is that the site is a bit of a mess: harder to use, harder to navigate (this is because AuctionZip is orientated toward small business owners, such as antique shops, who are looking to find estate sales; more on this later). Even so, my recommendation would still be to start with AuctionZip, to see whether you like the auction houses available from this trio. If you do (and my dearlings, you probably will) then I recommend that you go to Artfact and become a member.
Getting Started on LiveAuctioneers and AuctionZip
 |
| Imari platter, at auction at Skinner via Live Auctioneers on June 2nd, starting bid $70. |
Live Auctioneers
LiveAuctioneers has clearly been designed with the consumer in mind. For one thing, Live Auctioneers focuses on art and antique auctions, so there aren't an overwhelming number of sites to wade through. For another, LA has a lot of great time-saving features, making your minutes on the site well spent. Once you join as a potential bidder (which free and pretty straight forward but if you get confused, LA has a good "help" section), get to know the following features:Save this Item - Whenever you come across an item you want to track or return to later, click the "save" icon on the right hand corner. Every item you save will be located under the "Saved Items" tab, accessed within the dashboard...
"Dashboard" -Easily accessed under your profile page (which you link to via your email address, located up top on the lower right side of the navy header), the dashboard shows you, at a glance, your absentee bids, your auction house approvals*, your lots won and your active alerts.
"Auctions Near Me"- A new feature, this allows you to see, at a glance, what auctions are coming up in your area and click on their lot lists. This is a great tool for beginners because it allows you to concentrate on auctions near you, even enabling you to easily plan a road trip in which you hit two or three houses in one day, thus truly fueling your nascent addiction.
Keyword Alerts - A huge time saver. Keyword alerts are set up within the dashboard by clicking the "Alert Terms" tab. If you desire, you can have items that match the alert terms established here emailed to you. The emails arrive each morning. Because they include pictures, sifting through the matches is a breeze. I highly recommend this feature. (Note, another dashboard item "Saved Search Terms" can be used if you'd prefer not to get a daily email.)
"Show Recent Bids in More Detail" - When you click on the "My Bids" link in the Dashboard, you get the option to look at each bid you've placed in more detail (bottom). A key feature here is the "retract" button: you can retract an absentee bid right up until the start of the auction. Note that even if you accidentally leave multiple bids on the same item and see all of those bids listed here, the system only sends one bid on your behalf to the auction house, the highest bid, so you'll never bid against yourself.
*"Auction House Approvals" Please keep in mind that while you have already signed up for LA at this point, you'll still need to register to bid for each individual auction in which you plan to participate. This can typically be done with a click of the button. Many auction houses approve you nearly as fast. A few will request that you provide a credit card up front. Personally, I see this and think: unhand me! If I win, I'll pay! That said, I've provided this information before and never had anything sketchy happen. Up to you.
 |
| Pair of Chinese Cinnabar vases, available at Alex Cooper via AuctionZip, at auction June 5th, minimum bid $60. |
AuctionZip
As mentioned, AuctionZip is designed with the small business owner in mind: someone who treats these auctions as his/her wholesale channel. The largest site of its kind (not sure there is any other site of its kind), AuctionZip provides information on all kinds of auctions: gun auctions, storage unit auctions, heavy equipment auctions. The site can be a bit overwhelming and, in truth, it took me a couple of attempts before I had the courage to wend my way through it. But I'm glad I did because AuctionZip has a few things going for it: lower prices, lower prices, lower prices!
By "prices," I mean what you'll pay for those wins of yours. Now, this isn't always true, of course; the high end auction houses on AuctionZip (and believe me, there are some extremely high end sites here) are have an established clientele who show up to bid no matter what. But it's often true. And the reason for this is that AuctionZip seems to be the preferred stomping ground of thousands of smaller auction houses, the ones who earn their keep primarily by doing estate sales. These smaller houses often have a few gems that can get lost in the shuffle: find them and, often times, you've found a real bargain.
 |
| Antique Suzani, up for bidding on Jun 11th, The Potomack Company via AuctionZip, minimum bid, $200 |
Sigh. It's things like that that make AuctionZip hard sledding at times. But I do think it's worth it. Because, in addition to the small gems I mentioned, several excellent, established auction houses can be accessed via AuctionZip, including: Stair Galleries, Freeman's, Northeast Auctions, Swann Galleries and Doyle New York. As mentioned earlier, several auction companies allow you to sign up and even bid online via their own sites--Doyle, for instance. It's probably only worth it to you to do this, however, if it's your local house and you want a stronger, more individualized connection with it (after all, you buy all this stuff, one day you might want to sell a few things!), or if the commission is lower when you go to the auction house directly. Payment options might vary as well: the commission might be lower if you bid with them direct, but you have to pay by cash or check, no credit cards or PayPal. Investigate the differences and decide for yourself.
A note on absentee bidding and minimum bids on AuctionZip.
On, AuctionZip absentee bidding is different than it is nearly any place else you'll try. This is because AuctionZip uses the eBay model for absentee bidding in the sense that you are bidding against other people the minute you place a bid! Here's how it works: you find a painting on AuctionZip that has no bids on it. The auction house has put a minimum of $50 for that painting. You bid $60. Now, on the lot page, the minimum bid will be $70--it's moved!
When I first noticed this, I found it annoying. But the truth is, it can be helpful. AuctionZip essentially makes it clear what the strongest absentee bid is going into the live auction (that is, the strongest absentee bid left on the AuctionZip; the auction house may have other absentee bids that have been left directly with their establishment). If you're not "winning" already, you obviously won't get the item in the live auction: useful to know, don't you think? If you're worried about running up the price of the item, simply place your absentee bids late, so that other absentee bidders don't have time to react to you and adjust their own bids.
Alerts on AuctionZip
The alert feature on AuctionZip allows you to be contacted when an auction house has a new listing, a nice touch, or when an individual auctioneer is at the helm (for all you auctioneer groupies out there) in addition to key word alerts. One advice about key words: be specific. AuctionZip doesn't send you pretty emails with pictures of all the new alert items embedded in them each morning a la Live Auctioneers: you get text links (and, to get them for more than one keyword, you have to pay a yearly membership fee to become a "premium member"). This is, remember, a big site. Better to say "Imari charger," for instance, to limit your results, than "Imari," and forget searches as generic as "porcelain" or "bronze," unless you have oodles of time to kill.
I hope this tips help you become more adventurous in your online bidding. So, go! Bid! Win! Love!
No comments:
Post a Comment