Rage against the machine

Do those ‘Buy’ buttons really conspire against you, wonders Roger Field. Or is it just that too many of us have the same impeccably good taste?

- 

MY mate E tells me he is wondering if he is being diddled when he bids on the internet. I was sceptical. But E is not given to hyperbole or paranoia so I asked him to expand. He has been bidding on both the-saleroom. com and Invaluable.com (I’m keeping his name secret as much from his wife as you) and every time he taps ‘Buy’, that item then goes on to sell, him in hot pursuit, for multiples over high estimate. Conversely, similar things he does not bid for in the same sale sell within estimate, or don’t sell. Given how downright devious technology is becoming he’s worried ‘it’ – whatever ‘it’ is - has noted what a determined bidder he can be and is bidding him up.

I have a love-hate relationship with these bidding sites and would love to cry “Foul!” I love that they automatically ‘ping’ me things I want from all over the world. Pre-internet, collectors paid local ‘runners’ to do this and bid for them, if they wanted to stay in the shadows lest competitors see what they were after and bid them up. No more expensive catalogues, they are free online. No need to travel to the auction houses, either. Bidding from home saves time and travel costs. However, I hate paying that extra (approximately) 5% + VAT on top of the already massive (approximately) 25% + VAT buyer’s premium. I hate that, with the world, literally, scrutinising those online catalogues, even those of my local auction house, bargain-snaffling opportunities have plummeted, killing some of the fun of the auction hunt.