Talk:Auction

Initial comments

Nice work so far. Of course Christie's and Southeby's should go in at some point. Also some discussion of the situation where, several similar items are for sale, winning bidder takes as many as he wants at the winning price, and the rest are auctioned again later.

I would think that major auction houses would merit their own articles; in addition, Christie's and Sotheby's should go into a section on the history/development of the modern auction as well as getting a nod under...well...'major auction houses'.

Yes, discussion under lots, I would think.

Aleta Curry 01:57, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

What about auction scams? e.g. I think Wikitravel's warnings about art auctions on cruise ships [1] sound believable and the one time I went to a heavily-advertised carpet auction in a local hotel, it struck me as utterly crooked.

Are you going to cover tactics? What about risks like the time I bid higher than I'd intended to get my wife a nice bicycle at a police auction and discovered later that, including replacing a tire and a check-up at the bike shop, I'd spent more than that model sold for new? Sandy Harris 07:20, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Scams, or scams and dubious practices, could be a section or a related article. Ditto tactics. Feel free to jump in, naturally. Aleta Curry 01:57, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

And rigging? For example, in the UK antiques trade the traders agree not to compete against each other. Illegal but well known to be common practice.

There's also (or rather was) auction bridge, which was often referred to just as "auction", but that probably doesn't belong in this article. Peter Jackson 08:53, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

The practice of which you speak, Peter, is generally known as collusion or, colloquially, 'the Ring'. Takes places in many countries and you're right, it's completely illegal and difficult if not downright impossible to stop. A dreadful practice.

I know nothing about the game of bridge; I've never played it. If auction bridge was named for 'auction', I see no reason not to have a paragraph or two, or a separate article about it.

Aleta Curry 01:57, 12 May 2012 (UTC)