[78-L] Bear in mind...

[David Lennick]

Taylor Bowie wrote:
>  DL wisely pointed out:
> 
>> Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you. Don't worry, I 
>> don't
>> have any more wise sayings.
> 
>> Actually these are "traditional" auctions, and this is the way record 
>> auctions
>> operated for many years, since you don't know what the next highest bid 
>> was.
>> And in the Hawthorns' case, you find out how much you lost by since the 
>> "items
>> you didn't win" are enumerated in your invoice (no crying towels 
>> included).
> 
> 
> Yes,  I know it's "traditional" but that system is still not a true auction, 
> where bidders raise each other or where "the house" does the raising for 
> you.  If David bids a dollar and Taylor bids five dollars,  I pay maybe a 
> buck-fifty on a real auction but I pay the full five on the "traditional" 
> auction.  I'm usually all in favor of  "tradition" but not in this case!
> 
> My first record  "auction" was from a November 1965 issue of Record 
> Research.  I won three records:
> 
> Varsity Eight (Cummins/Radlach) Oriole of You're Driving Me Crazy   75 
> cents.
> 
> Jane Gray Harmony (w/ Rube Bloom) of Say It Again   50 cents.
> 
> And my big purchase,  the Armstrong Okeh of Hear Me Talkin' To Ya b/w Tight 
> Like This for the staggering sum of $1.75.
> 
> I think the shipping was fifty cents.  BTW I still have all three of those 
> copies of the records.
> 
> 
> Taylor B
> 
> 
But you still bid blind and took a chance that nobody would really need those 
records and be willing to pony up $5 or $10 on them. I realize it's not a 
"traditional" auction in that it's not open, but record auctions from a printed 
list ran that way for decades, so they're "traditional" in that one sense. 
Fair? Within the accepted rules, yes, and you usually have a minimum bid shown 
or implied. Larry Holdridge's auction also continues to run in this manner, as 
do others..if they decide to go to internet bidding, things may change.

dl