It is with great pleasure that Robert Edward Auctions is able to report two additional records relating to our April 30, 2005 catalog auction: 1) For the entire 7.1 million dollar auction, the total adjustments to consignors relating to non-paying bidders was exactly ZERO. That’s right – every consignor got paid 100 cents on the dollar. We have always come close to perfection in the collection of funds and the paying of consignors. In years past we have set all publicly released and documented records in this area which is so important to consignors, but never before have we even contemplated or heard of a major auction in any area in which consignors experienced no adjustments due to even a single non-paying bidder for even a single lot. In the world of auctions, this is simply unprecedented. The fact that this was accomplished in a 7 Million dollar auction, the largest auction in our history, makes this accomplishment all the more noteworthy. 2) Consignors have once again been paid in full in record time. The first wave of consignor checks went out May 16, 2005, just 16 days following the auction. 75% of all consignor checks were sent by May 20, 2005, and the balance were sent before the month’s end, all but a few before the Memorial Day weekend. This is by far a record for speed of payment to consignors for a major auction. We could not have accomplished this without the cooperation of our buyers, and we thank you for the speed of your payments that allow us to pay our consignors so quickly. In addition, Robert Edward Auctions was able to set even faster standards for shipping to buyers. We don’t have to tell the 613 different buyers in the sale about the lightening fast turnaround time of shipments. Most packages went out within two days of receiving checks, many within one day. There are many measures of success to an auction. These are extremely significant areas about which collectors and consignors rarely hear. We are still working with the collection of invoices from a few stragglers, but we did not allow these few isolated late-payers to affect the speed of payment to our consignors. Most of the few late-payers had very good reasons and were great with their communications with us to keep us informed. Several winning bidders, however, have proven to be a problem in terms of collection, with invoices that are still outstanding. We try our best to properly address these situations on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes a bidder will take advantage of our good nature and take a few extra days. Sometimes it is more serious and we have to take action. It is unfortunate that REA has had to actually file suit against one non-paying bidder because we have decided that in this instance legal action is our only recourse. (This bidder has refused to respond to our communications and has also recently reneged in another auction as well). We are hoping this will be a unique situation. We have no regrets about our aggressive approach that allows us to pay consignors in full, and to do so faster than anyone. We believe that non-paying bidders must be pursued not just for practical reasons, but to ensure the integrity of the auction process for consignors and for bidders as well. One of the great things about Robert Edward Auctions is that our auction results are real. Every single bid is legitimate, and every single final result is real. Believe it or not, with some auctions that is not always the case (and we can assure you that this has no relation to the size of the auction company). Record prices that aren’t real don’t have much meaning. Those that are real – all of the time, not just sometimes – have great meaning. For us, it is important to make sure that our bidders always know that when they are placing bids at Robert Edward Auctions, they are bidding against real bids, placed by real bidders, who are really going to honor their bids – all of the time. This is just as important as bidders knowing that when they are bidding at REA, they are never bidding against secret unpublished reserves; they are never bidding against the consignors of the material; and they are never bidding against the auction house president, auction house executives, or auction house employees. Just as we are on a mission to make sure our consignors get the highest possible prices for their material, Robert Edward Auctions is also on a mission to make sure that in our auctions, bidders are never going to top a fake bid, a bad bid, a shill bid, a consignor’s bid, or a bid placed by the auction house or an auction house employee. And believe it or not, it’s really not that hard! The confidence our approach to auctions inspires in bidders translates directly into greater comfort, more aggressive bidding, and higher prices for consignors - prices that consignors actually receive. It is not pleasant for us to ever have to file suit against a non-paying bidder, but it is the price we occasionally have to pay to protect the greater good – the integrity of the auction process for all consignors and all bidders. The topics discussed in this auction recap are the type of issues that for some reason are never addressed elsewhere. This is a little puzzling to us as we can’t think of many more important issues to discuss when assessing an auction’s success than if funds were successfully collected and if consignors were successfully paid quickly and in full. The issues discussed here are just some of the many elements we consider when we assess the success of our sales, and we think it is important to communicate about these topics with all bidders and consignors.
In no particular order, we present the following additional information of note:
Our servers are currently being upgraded to avoid system slowdowns in the future at peak times. Over 95% of all auction bids in the April 30 auction were placed over the Internet. The extraordinary embracing of Honest Auto Bid by bidders has virtually eliminated the need for call-backs, even though we continue to offer this service. Last year we even considered eliminating call-backs entirely due to the impact of Honest Auto-Bid, but feedback from bidders suggested that this service still had great value for a small number of bidders for a variety of reasons. (If you are not familiar with Honest Auto-bid, please visit the following link to learn about it: http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/rea_bid.html) We closed the auction at 2:53 AM on the morning of May 1ST. We had hoped to close earlier but this was still impressive in our eyes, especially in light of the fact that all 1525 lots were closed on a single day, instead of over two or three days, and this closing time included a two-hour delay (we extended the 4:00 PM “witching hour” two hours to accommodate for the slowness caused by the extraordinary traffic resulting from the unprecedented interest all over the world in the auction). With our upgraded servers, we believe we can close the next auction hours earlier.
Our integration with eBay reached new levels of sophistication and allowed us to automate many processes which were previously very time-consuming. We received only one bounced check for the entire auction, and that bidder made us aware of his error before we were even notified by the bank, and wired the funds to us that very day. We received bids from every state. Bidders were very cooperative about sales tax issues this year. Those bidders who last year so very much did not like our simple and very straight-forward "by-the-book" policies regarding New Jersey sales tax laws had a change of heart this year and did not complain or simply stayed away. For the 613 auction winners, a total of over 800 packages were sent. Of these 800+ packages, not a single package was lost, with the possible exception of one Federal Express package which was properly delivered to the recipient’s door per the recipient’s special “signature waiver release” arrangement with Federal Express, but which the recipient has reported to us that he cannot find (we are still hopeful that even this package will turn up). Of the 500+ fragile bobbing-head dolls in the auction, four dolls broke in transit. This was the first time we ever lost even a single bobbing-head doll to shipping-related injuries, and while a 99%+ success rate on bobbing-head shipments may sound respectable, but we found this very unacceptable and we have plans to use a different system with different packaging materials for bobbing-heads in the future. We have been accused by a disgruntled would-be consignor of going overboard for not allowing Kobe Bryan material in the auction. You will never see a Kobe Byran jersey in our auction. You will never see an O.J. Simpson jersey at Robert Edward Auctions. It is incredible to us that a consignor would even attempt to insist that we accept material that we refuse to run under any circumstances to get more valuable material. A Stephen Holland art print of Bryan was even accidently accepted for the April sale with an extensive art print collection. This art print was returned to a very surprised consignor. We realize that there are many different opinions about various items. We make our decisions based on what we are comfortable with and offer no apologies to anyone for what we will or will not accept. Our auctions are designed to be significant auction events and our catalogs are designed with great care and intended to be appreciated as reference works for years to come. One of our goals is to always produce a catalog that collectors and non-collectors alike will enjoy and find educational, and that we will be proud of. While this may not serve the interests of consignors who wish to consign material we will not accept, we are confident that our policies do best serve the interests of the consignors we do represent.
IV. FREE CATALOGS:
Free catalogs for both the April 30, 2005 auction and the May 2004 auction are still available. If you would like a first or extra copy of either for your library, please go to www.RobertEdwardAuctions.com and click “Free Catalog.” REA auctions and complete results are archived permanently online and can always be accessed for reference. Also, please note that on the website, to access results for the entire auction, click the "price grid" link on the left side of the auction page. To access a printer friendly version, click "printer friendly." Auction prices can be viewed and printed with or without the buyers premium.
V. CONSIGNMENTS WANTED:
We are currently working on our next sale. Consignments accepted through July 31, 2005 for our next auction will be given special discounted consignment rates as well as the most aggressive cash advances (if desired) as extra incentive to get material in to us early. Everyone wants to send us material at the last minute. Robert Edward Auctions goes out of our way to reward early consignors. If you have material you think might be of interest, please call or write.
Thanks for the update. It certainly sounds like you're trying to do the right thing with your auctions.
Question- you wrote "Robert Edward Auctions is also on a mission to make sure that in our auctions, bidders are never going to top a fake bid, a bad bid, a shill bid, a consignor’s bid, or a bid placed by the auction house or an auction house employee."
Can you elaborate on this? Do other auction houses or auction house employees place bids on items in their auctions?
I have a story about this very subject. To comply with the board policy, I left some information out. Here's goes:
I once bid on an item that a major auction house had up for bid and my experience seemed to suggest they were bidding up their own item. The auction house was supposed to call me if I was outbid, so that I'd have the chance to bid again. Being the newbie I was, I called a few times to make sure I was still in the lead (I wasn't sure how often they updated their web site, which I was continually checking). Even though they never had called to tell me I was outbid, each time I asked they said, "Yeah, you've been outbid...would you like to go higher?" I played this game a couple of times and then placed one final bid and said "That's it...no need to call me if I'm outbid" (not they they had anyhow). Of course, there were no more bids and I won the item.
The item was supposed to come with a team letter and a second letter of opinion promised by the auction house. It arrived with the team letter only. I called the auction house and was told that's all that was offered. I took a digital pic of the statement at the front of their catalog which said every item comes with an additional letter, and sent it to them. So then I had to mail the item back for the letter, which I later received.
A few weeks after I had it, I was trying to hunt down a photo to display with the item and I came upon visual eveidence that made it pretty clear that the item was not game worn...at best, game issued. I sent all these pics to the auction house and the person I had been dealing with simply said "Why don't you sue us and the team for your sizable loss". I still have that email. It was a $400 purchase. I should have done me research prior to the bidding, but I was trying to hunt down exhibtion game photos from the early 70s. Not the easiest of tasks.
To be clear, I have no proof that they were bidding on their own auction. Heck, I have no proof there were even other bidders It's not like eBay where you can click on "Bid History". Just didn't like the feel of it.
Good point on bogus bids Eric.
I would like to know the difference in these types of questionable bidding such as "fake and bad" bids? Shill, consignor, house bids I understand. And the big question is: is this a practice that's allowed at other auction houses??
Robert Edwards has earned one of the best reputations in the business.
Great auction, great selection, great service. Other than the difficulty accessing the site on the day of the auction as you mention, I thought the REA auction was a huge success in every way.
It seems like with each auction Mastro (really the only sports auction house in the same league as Rob) becomes more and more dominated by cards, while their memorabilia and game worn offerings continue to sharply decline in terms of both quality and quantity.
Meanwhile, Rob had great balance between cards, memorabilia, game worn equipment and bats, autographs, paper collectibles such as tickets and programs, artwork and some truly exceptional non-sports cards offerings. And, of course, I'm most appreciative of Rob's attention to the rare pinback niche (which is all but ignored by every major auction house, including Mastro). It seems more and more that if you're looking for a rare pinback, REA is the only auction house you can turn to.
I won a lot of the two 1914 World Series programs and the 1929 "Murderer's Row" pinback and am extremely happy with all items (which now have prominent places in my sports memorabilia display). I paid via personal check right after the close of the auction and received my items that same week (a day after my check cleared, so I know he sent my lots before my check cleared). (Contrast that with Heritage sitting on my lots for 10 days AFTER my check cleared and still not shipping until I called and complained.) I also received an unsolicited refund from Rob for what he deemed to be excess shipping charges.
Just a great experience all the way around. The only downside is possibly having to wait another year for the next REA auction. I'd love to see you move to two auctions a year, Rob!
Eric wrote: "Question- you wrote "Robert Edward Auctions is also on a mission to make sure that in our auctions, bidders are never going to top a fake bid, a bad bid, a shill bid, a consignor’s bid, or a bid placed by the auction house or an auction house employee."
This is the kind of thing that send shivers down my spine. I know for a fact that Mastro encourages its employees to bid on items in their own auctions (this is straight for Doug Allen who told me he wants people working for him who are passionate about the hobby). As far as the other types of bids, Rob is very familiar withe the inner-workings of the various major sports auction houses, and the implications are alarming to say the least.
That is some interesting information. I've heard things like that, as well, and I must say that I find myself bidding less and less in these national auctions.
I actually had a lengthy discussion with Doug about and he was pretty vehement that he didn't feel it presented a problem. I just think you get into a grey area (even if it's just in the minds of potential bidders) when distinguishing if a Mastro employee is showing genuine interest in obtaining an item as opposed to simply trying to artificially inflate a price. I eman, why even let that be an issue?
Even if Doug is 100% right about this, as Rob points out it will, IMO, inevitably creep into a collector's mind and undermine his confidence in the auction house.
It's not like eBay where you can click on "Bid History". Just didn't like the feel of it.