Lessons in Auctions: The Ins and Outs of Absentee Bidding

 Art Deco Giltwood Palm Tree, at Skinner on July 9th, estimate
$500-700.

Well, we're getting into mid-summer now, my dearlings, in case you can't tell from the perspiration running down your back, which means fewer auctions and more time to catch up on terms and techniques.

One of the most important auction concepts to grasp is absentee bidding. For the casual auction enthusiast, this is probably how you'll bid on items the majority of the time, so you might as cozy up to this technique and get to know it well.

What is absentee bidding? 


An absentee bid is a bid that you leave with an auction house prior to the auction date. You do this in instances where you won't be attending or monitoring the live sale, because you have pesky tasks to do that day like painting your toes or going to work--something, anyway, that is more important than sitting and holding a paddle in the air.

How does it work?


The process of absentee bidding is fairly straightforward. An example might be in order here, so let's use the fabulous art deco giltwood palm tree, pictured above.

Say I really like this palm tree and have the perfect place for it in my 1920s mansion. I love it so much, in fact, that I want to leave a really high bid relative to the estimate. After all, I reason, it's not like gilded palm trees grow on trees, and my local antique store never seems to charge less than $1,800 for anything worth coveting. Given all this, I want to leave a bid of $1,200.

What am I saying exactly? I am saying that the maximum amount I will pay for this item is $1,200. Yes, maximum is the key word, that's why its in bold. Will I pay that much? I will only if at least one competitor is bidding against me right up to that dollar amount. 

I'm hoping to get it for much less though. After all, auction houses typically start the bidding at half of the minimum estimate, meaning that the auctioneer should start the bidding for this item at $250. So, in my example, if I have heated competition from $250 to $450, but then my opponent declines to increase his bid, I will get the item for $450. If my competition goes to $1,300 (the next bid increment), he gets it and I don't. It's that simple.

This French Empire bookcase did not sell in an recent auction.
Typically, this means the item's reserve was not met.

Please note that the minimum end of the estimate is just that: the low end of what the auction house expects the piece to sell for. It is not the minimum selling price. There might be a minimum selling price, though; this is called the reserve. The reserve represents the minimum price the seller wishes to sell an item for. In our example, maybe the seller doesn't want to sell the palm tree he inherited from his aunt for under $350. If the auctioneer begins the bidding at $250 and there are no other takers, the price does not move beyond $250 (the opening bid, which has become my bid). The item, therefore, does not reach the reserve and thus it does not sell. There has to be a competitor for your bid value to increase.

Where do I place an absentee bid?

In years gone by, absentee bids could only be placed with the auction houses themselves. These days, the majority of auction houses have partnered with a host company that enables live bidding. The two biggest are LiveAuctioneers and Artfact (which is also Invaluable and Auctionzip, just to add to the confusion). Absentee bids can also be left with any of these sites.

Using our giltwood palm tree example, I can either leave my $1,200 bid on Skinner's own web site or on LiveAuctioneers. The buyer's premium, 22.5% will be the same in either location.

I decide to leave my absentee bid on LiveAuctioneers. I do this because if I want to leave a bid on Skinner, I'll need a client number, which means getting the auction house to vet me prior to the sale, a process that often involves bank information and definitely involves more time. I also lose the ability to track my item in the same place I am tracking many of my other auction finds. And, finally, if I change my mind, I can either retract my bid or increase my bid on Live Auctioneers with a few simple clicks.

I leave a bid with LiveAuctioneers for $1,200. Before I press confirm, LA calculates the buyer's premium for me, just to make sure I understand that the total price is going to be $1,470 once the 22.5% buyer's premium is included.

What happens next?
Once the bid is received, you should get a confirmation email that shows what you've bid. If you don't receive this, and it's not in your spam, something went wrong. (Note: the auction houses will take longer to confirm a bid than LA, sometimes more than a day. Be patient unless you are running out of time. In that case, call, but be sure to tell them you placed a bid through their website.)

If you end up watching the auction, for heaven's sake, don't bid until the amount gets past your maximum absentee bid! You'll just be bidding against yourself. In our example, say I am so jacked up about this palm tree that I end up watching the auction live online and decide I really want to go to $1,500. I won't jump in until the bidding has surpassed my $1,200 bid. LA tries to make bidding idiot proof by saying YOUR BID in bright green while the auction is going on, plus the software would actually prevent me from bidding until the bidding had surpassed $1,200--another helpful feature.

If you win the item through a bid placed on LiveAuctioneers, it will immediately appear in the Lots Won section of your dashboard. If you bid through the auction house, you might have to wait until the end of the sale to see the results. But don't worry: however you've won, they'll manage to get an invoice out to you very quickly!

I hope this was helpful. Now, go, bid, win and be happy!

Lessons in Auctions: The Basics of Online Auctions

Roy Lichtenstein screenprint, at auction at Phillips de Pury on June 8th, starting bid: $3,400.

[This page has been edited. See below.]

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.

The key to success on this site is narrowing down the scope with targeted searches, which you'll do, initially, via the search box on the front page. Simply enter your parameters, select the "Antiques-Household-Collectibles" category, and click "search."  The results will appear in two, side-by-side formats: a calendar, on the left, and thumbnails of the search items, on the right. The calendar will feature "auctions" in blue and "live lots" in red. Note that AuctionZip is heavily promoting its live auction feature (which is new for them) and so the "live," red items will honor the keyword you typed in but not the mile parameters of your search. Thus, you might have limited your search to within 250 miles of Boston for your Imari, only to click on a thumbnail of a lovely vase that's up for auction in Melbourne...as in Australia.

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!