auction win...new bid after the hammer

[bigboykarl]

today i won a auction with easylive.com the hammer dropped @£7900 i got rang a hour or two after the the end to say the auctioneer missed a bid and if i want the item i have to pay £8500 plus commisions of course...shouldn't the hammer fall be the binding bid ?

[honeybee13]

Is it these people?

 

https://www.easyliveauction.com/

 

HB

[honeybee13]

In simplistic terms I'd say the hammer means that person has the winning bid.

 

If there was a bid after yours, why haven't they sold the item to that person? Did they give you any other information?

 

HB

[bigboykarl]

yes but they are only the agents.....the hammer closed and they went on to the next item..i rung the auction house at 11.57 to arrange a collection date ..it wasn't mentioned then...they rang me to inform me of the extra bid at 14.10

[Ethel Street]

Their explanation doesn't stack up to me.

 

I can imagine a situation where the auctioneer had received a valid bid prior to the fall of the hammer that was higher than yours but had not noticed it. In error they thought yours was the highest bid but they immediately notice the other bid so sell the item to the actual highest bid. I know nothing about auction law but if that had happened I could see some fairness in what they did.

 

But if that had happened it makes no sense that they offer the item you anyway but at a higher price. Because why hasn't it gone to the highest bidder? 

 

I suppose the highest bidder might have been unable to pay but if that happens shouldn't they either have sold it the second highest bidder - ie you - or alternatively put it back into a new auction?

 

Sounds to me like they are trying to fleece you.

[honeybee13]

Ethel put that much better than I could have and I agree with the summary.

 

There are a lot of auction houses on that site, which one are we talking about please?

 

HB

[bigboykarl]

according to what they have said ..the auctioneer missed the other bid and moved on ..the auction house is featonbys in north shields ...the auctioneer is the company director and it's at his discretion until an invoice is sent out apparently...sounds like a con to me

 

[honeybee13]

Let's not say 'con' immediately. Do you have any information in writing from the auctioneer? I'd be asking for more details.

 

HB

[bigboykarl]

none...i have an invoice with the new price on..they seem to be putting me under pressure saying if i don't want to pay they will sell to the other bidder

[Ethel Street]

So are they saying they made a mistake but now will let you have the item as long as you agree to match the higher bid?

 

Hmmm. Not sure about the law on that. I guess they have a duty to the seller to get the highest price. It's possible what they doing is legal - as long as there genuinely was a higher bid that they hadn't noticed. Needs someone with knowledge of auction law to advise.

[bigboykarl]

yes they made a mistake but i have to pay £100 more than the high bid..i bid 7900 it closed but allegedly somebody bid 8400 i have to pay 8500

[honeybee13]

I would be asking them to explain this in an email or by a paper letter.

 

HB

[shalamar138]

I would ask the auction house who were conducting the auction for a copy of the terms and conditions.

Especially relating to online bids and the time delay of when the hammer drops and the time of the accepted bid online.

 

I attend an auction near where I live and the auctioneer when getting an moment of silence of no further bids received he will allow 3 seconds before dropping the gavel meaning he will say eg £50 the room £55 online £60 the room. Then silence "any further bids - one two three" and drop the hammer.

 

From the point of the hammer dropping and a full 3 second delay (warning) the winner is the one with the successful bid.

 

However if there is a rush of people clicking online then it is the received confirmed final bid online that wins the item . There might be a rolling proxy bid and that bidder would get the item. So if the item is going up in £5 increments and the buyer has invested say £100 in advance then instead of clicking to bid on the rise in price of £5 increments then this bidder wins the bid up to the total of his investment of £100.

 

If the bidding goes up to more than the £100 then other bidders gets the item. 

 

I also bid for items online with a well known auction site and I place a bid on a price that I feel that the item is worth (this being a much higher amount than that displayed).

So without going back in to continue to bid and if the item comes in at less than that of the amount that I have invested online then in the final frenzy of bidders I have more of a chance to getting the item because my bidding is automatically accepted with each rising increment.

 

This system I feel is the same that the auction of the item that Bigboykarl would have been using. 

 

It is a complicated process and I hope that I have explained myself as clear as possible.

[Manxman in exile]

It doesn't necessarily* sound "wrong" to me.

 

Imagine the auctioneer has made a legitimate error and has honestly missed a bid higher than your winning bid.  They have a duty of care to the seller to get the highest price, so the "missing" bid - not yours - is actually the winning bid.

 

However, the auctioneer does not know that if you were aware of this other bid that you would not have made a higher bid.  So they are giving you the opportunity to do so now.  If the price they are offering is more than you were willing to pay, then simply don't accept it.  You are then in the same position as before the auction.

 

You need to examine their T&Cs (I'd expect them to cover the scenario above) and/or find someone who knows contract law as it relates to auctions.

 

*But it doesn't necessarily sound "right" to me either!  If they don't sell it to you at your bid price, that would suggest to me the above has happened.  If they do re-offer it to you at your original bid price, it would seem a bit strange.

 

 

[shalamar138]

It`s the time delay between the hammer dropping to the bidding frenzy online. This is sometimes up to 2 mins so when you are looking at the auction online and you see the hammer drop it could have dropped earlier or later subject to the speed of the connection and bandwidth including the server used. 

[stu007]

Hi

 

I think it would help us if you looked closely at easyliveauction.com Terms & Condition:

https://www.easyliveauction.com/legal/terms-and-conditions/

 

Then let us know exactly from these T&Cs how the live auction was run by that company.

 

The reason I mention this is there is one in those T&Cs 'Timed Auction' where the auction runs and to prevent 'bid snipping' when the hammer drops at the time the bidding time is extended for a few minutes after it has dropped. (note this is only one example from there T&Cs it would depend on how the auction was run).

 

So was the auction a: Timed Auction, Live Bidding Console, Live Bid, Absentee Bids or Autobid?

 

Have a good read of 'The Bidding Process'