For an investment card I want to win, a max bid isn’t enough: I have to see how the bidding moves in the final minutes. Otherwise, I either overpay or lose the card. And the auctions that matter start closing between 3 and 5 a.m. Central European time.
This is Part 3 of The European View, a four-part series on what collecting from Europe costs. It’s about one question: how do you bid in a market that runs on American time?
When the auctions close
Three ways an auction ends
The table splits into three groups, and each one asks something different of a bidder who lives six to nine hours ahead.
The whole auction extends. At Fanatics Collect’s Premier Auction and at Alt, a late bid on any card keeps every card open, so a big auction can run for hours. Both usually end between 6 and 9 a.m. my time, the bigger ones closer to 9, so I can sleep through the start and still be up for the finish. That’s how I bought back the Kobe in Fanatics Collect’s September Premier Auction, on a Friday morning.
Each card closes on its own. In the Fanatics Collect Weekly Auction and at Goldin and Heritage, every card has its own clock. A card with no late bids closes at most 30 minutes after closing starts, between about 4 and 5:30 a.m. depending on the house. If I want it, I have to be awake before then.
The end is fixed. On eBay, an auction ends at the minute the seller set, however late the bids come in. That’s the only kind of close where sniping works. I use Gixen’s paid version, which bids for me in the final seconds of auctions that end at 2 or 3 a.m. The risk is that a card sells above my limit, one I might have raised if I’d been watching. Otherwise, it works reliably.
eBay is now testing extended bidding in some categories, where a bid in the final minute resets the clock to 60 seconds; there, a snipe just gives everyone another minute.
When I bid
Whatever the group, I never put in a max bid early, whether on eBay, Fanatics Collect or Goldin. On eBay, Gixen places the bid at the end; for an investment card I want to win anywhere else, I set an alarm. In the Fanatics Collect Weekly Auction, a sniping service isn’t an option anyway: the rules don’t allow it.
Heritage is the one place where getting up for extended bidding isn’t enough. After 10 p.m. CT, which is 5 a.m. Central European time for most of the year, only someone who has already bid on a card can keep bidding on it. To stay in the running there, I’d have to bid before then; any earlier bid counts, so it doesn’t have to be my max.
Rules for bidding from Europe
Check how an auction closes before you go to sleep. A Fanatics Collect Premier Auction can run until about 9 a.m. Central European time; a Weekly Auction card with no late bids closes at 4:30 a.m.
Snipe where the end is fixed, and get up where it isn’t. Gixen covers eBay; at Fanatics Collect, Goldin and Alt, a card you really want needs an alarm.
At Heritage, bid before closing starts. After 10 p.m. CT, only earlier bidders can keep going, and one bid is enough to qualify.
What’s the earliest you’ve gotten up for an auction?
Reply directly to this piece — I read every response.
Next in The European View 4/4: Payments — the zero-fee payout I can’t use.
— Geminded