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William Henry Hunt, Boy with a Red Ware Pitcher, 1934 & My Thoughts on Auctions, Part 5

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Title:	William Henry Hunt, Boy with a Red Ware Pitcher, 1934 & My Thoughts on Auctions, Part 5
Artist:	William Henry Hunt (All)
Media Type:	Paint - Watercolor
Art Type:	Other
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	289
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	1
Added to Site:	7/6/2021
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Description

My Thoughts on Auctions, Cont.

Sotheby's actually called my bank, asking if I had sufficient funds to cover the expected amount that I would bid. Fortunately, I passed the test. But, for those who wonder why both Sotheby's and Christie's stopped having comic auctions in the late 1990s, I have been told that it was because they had trouble collecting from the winners of comic material. I know that at least Christie's tried to find buyers for lots that did not sell in their comic auctions, but I don't know how Sotheby's and Christie's dealt with lots tht sold but were not paid for. I was told by a Sotheby's employee that one bidder who won items in their 2003 auction had not paid his invoice by some late date and that Sotheby's was on the verge of cancelling the sales of those lots. And I know that one contemporary auction house tries to sell lots which are not paid for by high bidders to underbidders. But they will only sell that lot if the underbidder is willing to pay the full amount of his highest bid. This makes no sense, since the lot would have sold for much less if the defaulting high bidder had not participated in advancing the bidding. The fair amount for an underbidder to pay is the amount of his last bid that was higher than the third highest bidder. This amount could easily be determined, since every bid is now recorded by bidder and amount of bid in all online auctions. Invariably, such lots end up in some later auction, and they typically sell for significant less than highest bid of the underbidder in the prior auction. This makes sense, since one of the major interested bidders is no longer involved in driving up the price of the items. This simple reality should also be considered in predicting whether prices will continue to rise for comic art, since the loss of just a handful of current high rollers can have dramatic consequences for future auction prices.

Historically, even in hot markets, it has been incredibly rare for 100& or anything close to 100^ of lots in a sale to actually sell. Much more common are 60-80^ ssell rates.

One final point about reserves. In most jurisdictions, if an auction ior any lot is adverised as being sold with no reserve, it is illegal to start the bidding on that lot at anything other than $0 or $1. If the bidding on a no reserve lot begins at a higher amount, the auctioneer is required to call ut lower bid amounts until someone actually bids, even if the amount goes down to $1. If no one bids, the item must be withdrawn. While I frequently see starting amounts of $1, there is often no way to tell during the bidding if actual bids during the pre-auction bidding period resulted in the price at which the bidding on the lot began once the live auction started.

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	C E
Joined:	April 2006
Last Login:	August 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
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Dennis Books
Member Since 2006

1 - Posted on 7/7/2021

Enjoy your writings and English paintings. They bring back some of the same memories and i learned some new information concerning auctions and bidding.

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