What is Google Wave?

Posted on 13 October 2009 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | Leave a comment

Unless you don’t pay any attention to the tech press, you’ve been hearing a lot recently about Google Wave. Even if you’re one of the lucky 100,000 with an invite – or one of the eight more users that each of those got to invite to the private beta – you’re probably wondering what Google Wave is. It’s essentially a merging of email, instant messaging and document collaboration – Gmail, Google Talk and Google Docs – all rolled together in a linear interface.

We’ve been playing with it – one of the first 100,00 – for the last week or two and can say it looks quite promising. The service is fairly useless in a kind of lonely way if you don’t have other users with whom to collaborate. Imagine being the only user you know who has email. That’s Wave until they start to allow more users.

We’ll have more information about Wave once it’s more widely available. Until then, we’re not going to say more and add ourselves the list of those who have tried to explain Wave and failed, but here’s the best video we’ve seen on the subject.

CrunchBase Information on Google Wave
Google Wave
Information provided by CrunchBase

Posted in services | Tagged , , |

Bidding histories develop bidder trust

Posted on 8 October 2009 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | 1 comment

Last week’s post dealt with grokking that there is no functional difference between a minimum or starting bid and a reserve on an item. A post last month pointed out that it’s bad to try to be sneaky when protecting a reserve on an item and that it’s much better to be upfront with the conditions of sale than to try to hide the house’s bidding practices from the other bidders.

Today, we’re going to examine bidding histories, another method of fostering trust between an auctioneer and bidders with regards to Internet bidding. Here’s an example of what we mean.

b1

Bidding history showing the start of bidding to be $1

 

Internet bidding sites should absolutely allow a prospective bidder to view the previous bids placed on an item. Knowing when these bids were placed and the increments at which they were placed allows the bidder to know what the starting bid was. Knowing who is bidding – the number or username, not the identity – allows the bidder to spot perceived trends in bidding activity. This knowledge prevents an auctioneer or seller from starting the bidding at a low price and then immediately bidding to create an artificial minimum bid for the next real bidder.

We don’t have space to display all 63 bids in the example above, but here’s the finale that shows how the item – which started at $1 above – ended up selling for over $10,000.

b2

Final bidding history showing the final price of an item

 

Another benefit of making bidding histories available to bidders is that the bid count can be shown in the catalog view. The number of bids shows the level of interest in items and sellers and bidders may be interested to know which items are the most active in an event.

In a live auction, any attending bidder can have access to the bidding history for an item simply by paying attention to the auctioneer. The number of bids and the speed at which they are received arguably builds excitement and can arguably increase the final sales price.

There aren’t any secrets to Internet bidding. Holding a successful auction is more like cooking, where many ingredients are important but different chefs may use different portions at different times to create uniqueness. However, there are ingredients that, if left out, can ruin the project. Internet bidding systems should make items’ bidding histories available to prospective bidders because these histories are a very important ingredient to a successful Internet auction event.

Posted in theory, websites | Tagged , |

Starting Internet bids are reserves, plain and simple

Posted on 2 October 2009 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | 1 comment

In a March episode of the Auction Podcast, we posited that it is wise to have a policy of starting every item at $10 for Internet bidding.

If your minimum bid at a live auction is $10, set the minimum bid for the Internet bidding to be $10. For every item. For every category from coins to real estate. For every auction. Every time.

The logic, of course, is that it looks suspicious to have starting bids that are anything other than the lowest bid an auctioneer would take at a live auction. If your lowest bid is $5, we reasoned, you should start the Internet bidding at that price since the bidding activity generated by a real auction will quickly advance the bidding to more reasonable prices.

thouse1

Publications shouldn't try to be auctioneers

In our summer post called Publications shouldn’t try to be auctioneers, we mentioned in passing that Sandhills Publishing – the folks behind TractorHouse, MachineryTrader, TruckPaper and others – completely missed the concept that there isn’t a difference between a high opening bid and a reserve on assets.

Today, we’re going to get right down to the concept that a starting Internet bid is a reserve, plain and simple.

A reserve price is a price below which the seller won’t complete the transaction. An opening bid is a price below which the auctioneer won’t accept bids. A starting Internet bid is a price, entered into bidding software by the auctioneer, that prevents the bidding software from accepting a bid lesser than the starting Internet bid. Some times the software refers to the starting Internet bid as an opening bid, since the two are functionally the same.

If an item is selling at auction, the auctioneer must accept a bid in order to sell it. If the reserve is the lowest price a seller will accept, then all bids below this price are invalid. Because the auctioneer must receive bids to present them to the seller for acceptance, if an opening bid is used then all bids below the opening bid are invalid since the bidders have no way to submit them. Whether the bids are invalid because the seller won’t complete the transaction or the auctioneer won’t accept them doesn’t change the functional equivalence of an opening bid and a reserve from the perspective of the transaction. If it walks like a duck…

So if all opening bids are reserves, are all reserves opening bids? Many times auctioneers allow items with reserves to feature bidding activity below the reserve in hopes that the price will advance beyond the reserve, allowing the transaction to occur. This practice seems a little fundamentally disingenuous to us, but it is quite common in the industry. While many auctioneers are honest and upfront about the reserve status of the items they’re selling, we mentioned in September that there are still auctioneers who try to be sneaky and use house numbers or fictitious bidding accounts to protect the reserves on the items unbeknownst to the bidders. This practice is absolutely not what we’re advocating.

What we are advocating is that auctioneers understand that a minimum bid is functionally no different from a reserve. A starting bid and a reserve both invalidate all lesser bids. A $100 starting bid on a $10,000 vehicle means that the vehicle has a $100 reserve. Such an auction could not honestly and legitimately be referred to or advertised as absolute or without reserve.

unbeknownst

Posted in theory | Tagged , , , , |

Amazon fail

Posted on 29 September 2009 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | 7 comments

Web standards fail

Web standards fail

Recent website design work has caused us to do some research into the current design techniques and trends among website authors regarding web stanards. We looked into the definitive guide on the subject, Jeffrey Zeldman‘s Designing with Web Standards, and were excited to find that a third edition is coming this year. While imagining how it would soon sit on the shelf next to the well-read first and second editions, we saw that Amazon had a graphic inviting us to preview part of the book. Click to LOOK INSIDE! it invited.

Shown to the right is the result of clicking to look inside. It shows what happens when you try to deliver content in something other than an open and, dare we say, web-standard method.

Your web browser does not support this feature. Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions for a list of compatible web browsers that support the Amazon Online Reader.

It’ll be a great book. For those curious readers who don’t have one of the previous editions, they’ll have to use a compatible browser to view the preview. It’s too bad that Amazon can’t figure out how to deliver content to everyone. Perhaps their designers might do well to actually read some of the books they’re selling.

Posted in theory, websites, design | Tagged , , , , |

Proxibid launches new website, embedded bidding

Posted on 22 September 2009 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | Leave a comment
Image representing Proxibid as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

We’ve been following the new features and website from Proxibid for the last few weeks. Today they’ve launched the new website and announced that you can start reserving the embedded bidding solution. Here’s the release.

Omaha, NE – September 22, 2009 – Proxibid, the world’s largest provider of live auction webcasting services, today announced that the Company will now offer embedded solutions as part of its online auction service offering. Beginning today, auctioneers can reserve their embedded solution, which will be customized to fit seamlessly into the Web sites of auction companies that request this value-added service.

“An embedded bidding solution from Proxibid is a feature for which auctioneers have long been asking. Allowing bidders to participate directly on an auctioneer’s website creates a more seamless user experience that is a win for both the auctioneers and their customers,” said Aaron Traffas, editor of AuctioneerTech.

Proxibid’s embedded solution allows bidders to create an account, register to bid, launch the online bidding application and place bids through the auction catalog without leaving the auctioneer’s Web site. The embedded solution fits seamlessly into the auctioneer’s Web site, enabling auctioneers to offer a full-service online auction experience to bidders from across the globe. Proxibid’s embedded solution enables auctioneers to develop a more strategic relationship with the bidder similar to the relationship that is created when the bidder is sitting in the live audience.

“Proxibid’s embedded solution is exactly what the market has been asking for,” said auctioneer, John  Schultz.  “The business implications of this are huge. Seamless integration means bidders can participate in an auction without leaving our Web sites, allowing us to create better relationships with our online bidders, while also significantly enhancing the services available to our sellers.”

Proxibid’s embedded solution was developed using an in-line frame. The design is built to allow some customizations by auctioneers, to ensure Web site aesthetics are not compromised. For example, auctioneers will be able to choose the color scheme which best fits their Web site. The solution includes new features developed for Proxibid’s newly-designed Web site, which launched this morning, including the new multi-bid mode that allows bidders to place pre-bids and online-only bids for multiple items in the same auction catalog at the same time.

“Proxibid is committed to providing our auction house customers with the best technology solutions in the industry,” said Bruce Hoberman, Proxibid’s CEO. “Our embedded solution is the next logical step in bringing auctioneers online in a manner that allows them to feel as connected to the bidder in the virtual world as they do when that bidder is sitting in the live audience, and vice verse.”

Posted in announcements | Tagged , , , , , |