Are you happy with the results?

So I've been following these Trade Auction threads and I'm wondering even without reserves are you happy with the results? Are you getting good pin offers for the pin that you are offering? I'm really thinking about doing one of these but I'm afraid I won't be happy with the results so I just want opinions from the people who have held these auctions.

Thanks, opinions away!

I have held several of these auctions and I have been very happy with the final choice I have made each time. I wish there were more people bidding however. It is a lot of fun to both bid on and auction off.

Bidding wise, yes, I enjoy it. I have won one and tried for a few others. I think the rules need to be tweaked a little for certain situations, but I think overall it is cool idea. Selling wise, I think some type of reserve should be allowed should the seller want it

Bidding wise, I am happy. If I see an auction with only one bid, that's where I'm bidding

Selling wise, I don't know that I would be happy.

yup, ,,,, no frowns here

Who ever it was who started these auctions is an idiot and should be banned from the DPF site... That being said as the person who started all this madness...LOL... I feel that the MODS dealt perfectly with the situation and the rules they implemented... Nobody knew it would be as popular as they are and as a result there had to be guidelines established...

As far as if we were happy with the outcome of the bidding... Not always, but that is the risk and excitement that I love about the auction system... It is a gamble... We have had some items do extremely well and some very poor results... I have aquired pins specifically to put up for auction, thinking they would do great, but ended up losing quite a bit and vice versa as well... Mistakes I have made were putting up box sets, heavy glass beer mugs and things that are expensive to ship and the trade offers equal shipping cost...

Final note on adding a reserve... Nope... Cannot be done without controversy... Unless everyone agrees on one set standard to establish the value of a pin... Perhaps a mathmatical formula using the following info... Wants/Trades/edition size/original cost/age/condition/accessability/ever scrapped/universal desire... Hmmm that would work... No it would not!!! How can you establish value that everyone can agree on. I personnaly would pay more for an LE100 Goofy pin than an LE100 Stitch pin, but who else would...???

So on a reserve auction people could just always say the reserve was not met and waste everyones time as they fish for offers on their pins... That's called a trade thread I thought... So basically, if you are not going to take the risk stay off the playground... Just my opinion...

I am not the "gambling" type so I don't see myself putting things up for "auction" any time soon. I think it can be a good idea but I have seen people get like one bid and have to take it. :/ I think an auction can be useful for the sought after pins like the Brave Marquee or maybe a Designer Princess pin. One you know most people who bid are going to want.

I disagree about the lack of a reserve option. I think that ultimately limits the types of pins people are willing to put up for auction. I believe that decent high-end pins will get decent high-end trade offers, so personally I don't think the "reserve" will be used to prevent as many auctions from being completed as some fear. But I do think that until a reserve option is allowed, many people (myself included) will not risk a high-end pin that most likely will get good offers (but we can't guarantee that).

Goofy_Moe said:

Final note on adding a reserve... Nope... Cannot be done without controversy... Unless everyone agrees on one set standard to establish the value of a pin... Perhaps a mathmatical formula using the following info... Wants/Trades/edition size/original cost/age/condition/accessability/ever scrapped/universal desire... Hmmm that would work... No it would not!!! How can you establish value that everyone can agree on. I personnaly would pay more for an LE100 Goofy pin than an LE100 Stitch pin, but who else would...???

So on a reserve auction people could just always say the reserve was not met and waste everyones time as they fish for offers on their pins... That's called a trade thread I thought... So basically, if you are not going to take the risk stay off the playground... Just my opinion...

Click to expand...

However on the flip side, as Unibear has pointed out, without a reserve system in place some higher end pins may never get listed for auction. I know I have a couple of pins that I bought for a fair deal on the secondary market (released well before I started collecting), and have tried to trade them for what I wanted with no luck. So I want to put them up for auction, but not let them go for a Hidden Mickey, a common rack pin, etc, if that is the only bid I get. My reserve would be very simple, I would look to get roughly what I have in the pin back, unless it was a pin on my higher wants, like in my case Scrooge related, I would go lower than what I have in it, similar to your "LE100 Goofy pin than an LE100 Stitch pin"

I think if we have a reserve system, the easiest way to do it is to list the reserve in the auction. In my case, if I have $40 into a pin, I can say something like this "Unless the pin offered is a Scrooge pin from my wants, I am looking to get roughly what I paid for the pin back, whether in MSRP value or current value, which in this case is $40". If someone else has a different way to value the pin, they can do it that way as the reserve, like, must be an LE100, must have X trade ratio, etc. Ebay is the same way if you think about it, once you hit the reserve, you know it, and some people even list the reserve in the auction itself.

Edit: I looked through the auction forum, and there are a couple of auctions for LE pins that retailed well over $50 USD, have NO bids, and end this weekend. Based on the no reserve rule, if someone bids a hidden mickey for that pin, even though the auction states does not prefer Hidden Mickeys, the auctioneer is bound to do the trade. To me, that is how lopsided an auction could be without reserves.

I feel that even a time could be placed in the auction such as... If this auction does not have an acceptable bid within three days of listing, owner has the right to cancel the auction. I do not necessarily like the value reserve method because you could say you have $70 invested in a pin that you only really have $30 actually invested in. I guess a "current value" could work though. I don't know. I do know that I am not willing to risk anything of good value in an auction. I LOVED the auctions before the rules came into play when you could "pull" the auction or place a reserve as there were some REALLY good pins being auctioned off. You don't see that so much now. The rules as stands favor the buyer which I think is unfair to the person that is willing to auction their pin. I LOVE THIS CONCEPT just think it needs to be tweaked to make it fair to both sides.

I definitely think the auction system right now is in the buyer's favor. I can see a lot of people just bidding inexpensive pins, hoping no one else will bid and in hopes of getting a great deal. Well if that's the only bid that auction receives, even if it's a $50 pin or whatever, the seller is already obligated to make the trade and no, I don't think that's fair. So while I'll use the auction part of these forums, I won't auction off any really good pins in fear of not getting things I want. I mean, not even being able to require people to bid things from your want list, or not letting people bid, say, hidden mickey pins, isn't cool in my opinion. Definitely a bidder's market.

a couple more thoughts... Yes there were nicer pins being put up, but how many of those auctions ended with the item not being trade... 90% or so??? Why waste peoples time if your not willing to give up the item... and when I say give up the item I do not mean for a hidden Mickey, but perhaps pins that are not what you want to collect, rarely do you not receive something close to the value of the item... At least that is what I have experienced...

A possible solution to reserves...

On this weekends Honor Board Auction I am doing it different by telling the bidders what we feel their bid is worth in a point system that we assign to each item bid... If this were a reserve auction which it is not, I could state something to the effect of... The minimum acceptable trade is a bid worth 200 desire points... Then as bids are placed the auctioneer would need to post a value for each bid so that people would know exactly who is in the lead and if the minimum reserve of desire points has been met... Again I call these desire points not dollar value because the items that are bid are valued at what the auctioning party feels they are valued and not on the bidding parties estimate of it's value... So for instance if a bid for me had a hidden mickey and a Snow White PoDM, I would state the bid value is 151 points, 150 points for the PoDM and 1 point for the HM... That way the person making the bid would know if they are not over the 200 point mark they would still need to improove their bid before the reserve had been met... I am trying this point system for the first time so that we could use it to factor in the Honor Board bonus points after the bidding has ended, but if it works well, then it may be a possible solution to establishing a reserve system...

Again this is just a thought...

One final thought... If you have pins with high wants and would not like risking the auction system, send me a PM with the info and price or trade offer and I will buy it off you and take the risk myself... Simple... You get my cash and I get to take a gamble... I am currently waiting for some cool DLRP PTN pins that I know have high wants to get here from Paris so I can Auction them... I paid a good amount to take a risk, but I know that my DPF peeps wont let me down... LOL

No, not right now. I am not happy with the auction situation as the auctioneer. So go bid on my auctions!!! :lol: But seriously, I think the auctions are more in favor of the bidder right now, at least that is the case for my 2 auctions right now so I hope that changes.

I have put up around 5 auctions and have not been disappointed once! After the rules were set about no reserves I have put up a Paris PTN pin with decent trade ratios and even an LE 100 Disney Auctions Jessica that was popular. Every time I had fair bids and even over trades. I even got one of my most wanted Jasmine pins!!!

As for bidding..... I have won quite a few myself, but that's because I think I make very fair offers. And I know what peeps like. lol.


I just have to say that I think the key to a successful auction is dedication and organization. If you update daily (which also bumps you thread) people are more likely to see it and know that you are serious about your auction. Also, it doesn't hurt if your thread looks nice as well.


PS. If I still have certain pins after PTN....... Expect to see a very nice popular pin up for auction from me!!!

I am happy and like the auctions system as is. I've not only had a successful auction but also have won an auction. Goofy_Moe's original auctions were all about risk and that's how the DPF team saw it best. You don't want to take a risk, then don't auction off your pin. Simple!

I am totally happy with the auctions that I have listed I have gotten several pins that I needed including several Peter Pan pins that I didn't own, which is rare these days! I just love the fun of it. I pick something that I am totally ready to part with and leave it up to chance. I don't mind not being able to set a reserve, if something goes for next to nothing then so be it, I knew that was a possibility going in. If it is a desired character with decent stats I don't think that it will go for nothing because it creates a mini competition between the members here that want it. I am even happy just to switch up my traders and make my trade book a little different here and there

I think for in-demand pins, things seem to be going well. I'm more concerned about what happens to the middling level pins. Those are the pins more likely to end up with HM bids, since there aren't many people looking to add them to their collection or pick up a good trader. I had considered putting a few of my "pins I'm not sure what to do with" up, but without a reserve, I'm not sure it's worth it. There is still one I am considering because it is a Princess pin and I get frequent requests for it.

I also would like a little more clarification of what happens in the following scenarios

1. Someone bids a pin you already own
2. Someone bids a pin with known scrappers

It doesn't seem like the rules allow for any "no thanks" scenarios, including these. But after receiving scrappers as my Secret Santa "gift," I don't want to auction anything if I have to take a chance that there is going to be post-auction, "do you know these pins aren't authentic, what are we going to do about it now," nonsense.

as an auctioneer, I have gotten mixed results. Literally. One time what I was offered was way underwhat I felt I could have gotten via normal trade. While the other was phenominal, way better that I could have gotten via normal trading.

The key, I think, is to only auction pins that will have a high wants value. Popular pins like PODMs, Stitch, Jessica, Tangled, and Brave will auction well. Pins that have more of a niche group of collectors should not be auctioned. Look at the pin you want to auction, if its trade vs wants is high, it will auction well. I am also noticing that groups of pins, or sets, are being under traded.

example: I will never auction my 5 pin set of WDI pixie hollow fairies. To specific to collectors, very nice pins, but chances are I wont get "their value" in aution.

auction singly. Auction popular. Those seem to do best.

as a bidder... I love this!!!! but I feel bad bidding if I have nothing on your wants or at least similar. As a bidder, I would like to see auctioneers with lots of different wants.

I have only done 1 auction but I liked my results. It seemed to die for a while and I had to bump it twice but after each bump there was a little activity. I'll do another soon I think.

Hopemax brought up one of my big concerns, the fact that there seems to be no rule about bidding a pin that the seller already has. I do think some reserve system needs to be established, what that is I don't know, but I think it is really not fair to expect someone to have to trade a pin that they already own. I know this is a different system, but you wouldn't expect someone to do a pinpics trade for a pin they already own. As far as getting scrappers, that never even occurred to me but is a great point. When bidding goes wrong on ebay, you can get your money back, if bidding goes wrong in this situation what happens?

unibear said:

I disagree about the lack of a reserve option. I think that ultimately limits the types of pins people are willing to put up for auction. I believe that decent high-end pins will get decent high-end trade offers, so personally I don't think the "reserve" will be used to prevent as many auctions from being completed as some fear. But I do think that until a reserve option is allowed, many people (myself included) will not risk a high-end pin that most likely will get good offers (but we can't guarantee that).

Click to expand...

I see what you mean here but being someone who as auctioned off a fairly high-end pin, A stitch masterpiece, the outcome was actually very good in the bidding department and I was very happy with the top three offers and it went down to the wire for what I ended up choosing.

The Auction is all a gamble and if you aren't willing to take the gamble there shouldn't be a reserve unless it is clearly defined as auctions will just turn in to trade threads as others have said. If you have a reserve don't auction the pin.