Thread: How long do marketplace auctions run?

Originally Posted by doug3030

I thought marketplace auctions ran for 14 days?

Ok now I know how it happened but there are still issues with this.

I just received a PM from the person who was selling the item, in response to a PM I sent him.

"I posted a Heads Up thread on the 21st to say I was ending the Auction early as I`m heading off early Monday morning for a week or so R and R ,sorry about that if you missed it."

Now I had not actually made a post in the thread, just placed a bid, so I did not receive a notification that there was a new post in the thread for me to look at. There seems to be a shortfall in the system in notifying all interested parties. There may have also been others just watching who may have been willing to bid more that were not aware that the auction was going to end early.

I know that this is a free service provided by the forums but it seems that something is missing somehow.

I was the first bidder on this item and I knew that I would not get it for the reserve price; it is a very nice piece of timber. I am not going to say how much I was going to bid on the last day. Having said that, it is a bit disappointing that having bid in the auction the system did not notify me that there was an early closure coming.

Cheers

Doug

New Higher Bid "Lace sheoak blank"

• Woodwork Forums
• Today at 8:06 PM

To

• [email protected]

Hello doug3030,

The auction that you are participating in, Lace sheoak blank, just got a new bid for AUD 160.00
This auction will expire on 29th Apr 2015 07:58 PM

View the auction at: https://www.woodworkforums.com/f275/lace-sheoak-blank-194241

All the best,
Woodwork Forums







Now look at this email that landed in my email account today at 8:06 PM. What was I supposed to think?

It clearly states that the auction will not end until 29th Apr 2015 07:58 PM.

Every time a new bid was placed, I was (incorrectly) notified that the auction was going to run until 7:58pm on 29 April when the owner of the item chose to end it earlier.

I actually see the owner of the item as a victim in this as he would have gotten a lot more for the item if proper notification of his intention was sent, particularly with the inclusions which I was not aware of.

Hi Doug

To be fair, it's probably a good idea to subscribe (if you haven't posted) to any auction that you are participating in. An awful lot of things can happen in two weeks to require an early closure to the auction (first thing that comes to mind is a death in the family).

You wouldn't have known about the extra three pieces of timber that were included either.

The system can't update the early closure because it can't be set to close early (I don't think).

Cheers
Brett

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Hi Doug

To be fair, it's probably a good idea to subscribe (if you haven't posted) to any auction that you are participating in. An awful lot of things can happen in two weeks to require an early closure to the auction (first thing that comes to mind is a death in the family).

You wouldn't have known about the extra three pieces of timber that were included either.

The system can't update the early closure because it can't be set to close early (I don't think).

Cheers
Brett

Well yeah, it obviously does not update (obviously meaning at least in hindsight this is obvious. Quire clearly it was not obvious until the auction closed well before I was planning on placing my final bid), but every time someone places a new bid it still tells me that it was not going to close until 29 April in the notification. At least something could be done about that. Maybe even change the notification to one suggesting that you log in to the thread to see if there were any changes instead of just blindly making incorrect notifications.

Dusteater was going on a break, I was on holidays for the birth of a new grandson and 2000 km from home. I was not logging in to check everything on the forum, but I thought it was reasonable to trust the notifications given in the emails generated each time someone posted a new bid. Is that unreasonable? If the system cannot update for early closure is is really acceptable that it keeps advising of the original closure date if that is not correct?

I made the first bid and after it took off and I was away from home. I knew I would be back by 29th and was going to make a more substantial bid even without knowing about the extra pieces. The seller has missed out bigtime here too.

Cheers

Doug

Maybe in hindsight what I should have done is let the auction run but post a thread to say that I would be away when it concluded and that I would deal with the payment and postage when I returned, would that be an option?. I do apologize for throwing the cat amongst the pigeons or the proverbial into the fan .

Originally Posted by dusteater

Maybe in hindsight what I should have done is let the auction run but post a thread to say that I would be away when it concluded and that I would deal with the payment and postage when I returned, would that be an option?. I do apologize for throwing the cat amongst the pigeons or the proverbial into the fan .

Hi Dusteater,

I have no problem with what you have done as I told you via PM earlier.

However, I do not think that the people I am directing this at have yet realized that it is directed at them. If they do realize that it is directed at them then their lack of response is probably due to them not actually realizing exactly what I am directing at them. Let me explain.

I use sheoak in my projects. I have $hit!0ads of sheoak in my timber vault. Dusteater's piece was particularly nice and I was prepared to pay a premium price for it. I placed the initial bid in this auction with the understanding that it was extremely unlikely that I would win with my initial bid, but I had expressed an interest in the piece and had made a note that the auction was scheduled to run until 29 April.

I am not feeling any sour grapes as to having missed out on the prize. On the contrary, I am trying to point out how the software that runs the marketplace is not doing its job effectively. This is where the software is defective.

Several times since I placed my bid, I have received an email notification advising me that a higher bid has been received. Great! that is what should happen to tell interested parties that they may have been outbid. This is good for the seller so that potential buyers are kept aware of the process of the auction. Included in the email was a reminder that the auction was to conclude on 29 April. Even after Dusteater made a post advising that the auction was to be closed earlier, every email I received continued to tell me that I had until 29 April to place my higher bid.

Even when Dusteater accepted the bid that ended the auction, I received a system-generated email that told me that a new higher bid had been accepted and told me I had until 29 April before the auction closed. Can anyone other than me see the problem here? I mean, the seller ended the auction and I was sent a system-generated email telling me it still had five days to run?

The problem is that the seller has an option to end the auction early and when they clearly state their intention to do so, the system does not recognize that they have indicated their intention to exercise that option and continues to send out emails that wrongly advise the end-date of the auction.

What I am trying to do is to let the people who administer the software that runs the marketplace that there are some issues that need to be looked at from both the buyers and sellers point of view.

So mods, admins? can something be done about the inaccuracies in the emails that are automatically sent out by the marketplace software when something like this happens?

Cheers

Doug

The system works fine based on the information the seller provides to the system. If the sale date is changed via a post within the thread the system has no idea it was changed. The seller needs to change the date within the system as it is not up to the mods to read every post on every for sale thread to see if the date was changed. If editing the system is not possible by the seller, due to lapsed time, the seller can PM the mods/admin to try and change it.