Snake Essay 001: Theory of variable auction pricing and how to bid on LiveAuctioneers
advice. plus: quick hits
Howdy new readers — generally this email includes a number of auction listings, with writeups. That will come later this week or early next, though I do have some listings at the bottom.
Housekeeping:
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I did a Perfectly Imperfect newsletter last week or so, before Thanksgiving. Nice! Tyler is cool and lives in Carroll Gardens. Here I am pictured with Will Taylor’s dog (on the right):
How to bid on LiveAuctioneers:
Sign up for Liveauctioneers with a credit card ahead of the auction, register for that auction on the item page — button/prompt on every auction pg — a couple days in advance.
Bid live in the pop-up window. Prices can jump during auctions. Both app and website have good UX. Sometimes items go for a lot, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes lots of watchers means something; sometimes not. Note buyers’ premiums (~25%) and freight, so expect to pay over listed prices. When you win you have ~a week to get the item. Houses may recommend third party shippers; some ship themselves. If so, In-House Shipping is noted on the page. Pickup is cheapest and some shippers (esp. if in-house) can be very cheap.
Steals are rare, deals are occasional, and fair prices are frequent. But overall, more steals and deals on LA than anywhere else. Respond if more questions.
PRICING:
I wanted this week to answer a question I get a lot from readers: what’s a fair price for an auction? What should you pay? How much is too much? How can we even tell what an item is worth?
I have a theory about it, a sense of pricing that anyone who bids on eBay or Depop probably shares.
I’ll case study this with this Joe Colombo Coupe Light, which was featured as a quick hit in Snake Auction Observer 018, mid October, and which a very smart and cool reader who lives in [REDACTED] asked me about when the letter was published. What follows is my explanation to them that I wrote around then, and which I am expanding now and making more step by step. Auction sale price and conclusions follow at the end:
AUCTION PRICING:
The way I calculate what I would pay for an item that is very great but isn’t dirt cheap/and which has some attention—over a couple dozen watchers on LA—is by triangulating the retail cost of the equivalent new item, the auction history pricing and the immediate cost of the vintage item and comparing those numbers against a very real objective price for the piece of furniture in general that will allow me to stop looking for future pieces.
The triangulated pricing data points I define as new licensed items with the same designs (i.e. a new coupe), the identical items that sold on auction (old coupes), and pretty close old items that are for sale now i.e. on platforms like 1stdibs or Pamono or Instagram. I compare that rough price (actually a few numbers) to what I'm willing to pay for a very good lamp that to me solves a problem. This price is based on what furniture is actually worth to me (i.e., the social price of a lamp, and the price of my ultimate lamp) and how much I have to spend. Both numbers vary. The first three numbers roughly make up the floor, or what I think the minimum price will probably be, and shake out the very max. The last number is my ceiling, which is the maximum I myself am willing to pay—what I think it’s worth. The bid range (and real price) sits somewhere in the middle. Let’s get to it: I’ll explain with a retail example and relay that to auction prices and items.
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