posted 02-11-2015 01:41 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by spaced out:
One possibility for listing fees would be to make them refundable on any sold item - that would encourage/reward setting attractive prices.

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I totally agree with this. I would suggest setting a higher listing fee, perhaps $1.00, which would then be refunded (or go towards the final fee) when the item has sold.

As it stands now, one seller is choking the auction with so many listings at unrealistic prices that it's making it hard for legitimate sellers to be seen.

posted 04-27-2015 06:07 PM               

Novaspace has moved all items from Astronaut Central's "Single and Rare" section to the auction. Many of the items currently listed have "Instant Purchase" options.

We have a number of covers up in the auction, many with Instant Purchase and many with no reserve. Of the 100 items listed today, 80 either have Instant Purchase or no reserve. As posted earlier on this thread, new auctions are limited to 10 days maximum duration.

I still have a lot of work to get done before looking at some of the other suggestions here, like a classifieds section or a "Best Offer" option. The idea of scheduling auctions to start on a future date is interesting, although it's not as simple as it might seem. I will be looking at that.

With the performance issues handled, we're beginning promotions to bring in more traffic. I urge y'all to take another look if you haven't recently. If you have questions or concerns, certainly post here and we will try to address them.

posted 05-05-2015 03:28 AM            

For a moment I too thought I had won the item. After all the closing bid was well under the high bid which I had placed two days prior to the end of auction. I had also been monitoring the auction throughout the final day and it appeared proxy bidding was doing its job flawlessly up until it stopped placing bids on my behalf.

posted 05-05-2015 01:33 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by white_knights:
I was the proxy bidder mentioned by the staff at Novaspace.

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posted 05-06-2015 04:56 PM               

I suspect others as well as myself would appreciate from Novaspace an answer regarding mjanovec's post above ("It appears that the item in question...").

If there is now to be an attempt at a new "fair" auction, it should only be between white_knights and myself. However, I choose not to participate in this new auction.

posted 05-06-2015 06:42 PM               

This software error had nothing to do with the price or value of the item, but instead manifested itself based solely on the number of bids placed on a single auction. The error caused proxy bids to fail to be properly placed when the number of bids exceeded 25. This error would have occurred on any auction with more than 25 bids, regardless of its price or value, but since none of the other auctions run to date since the reintroduction of the Astro-Auction site had reached that number of bids, the error did not show up to anyone until this particular auction.

posted 05-06-2015 07:02 PM               

1. You plan on adding more detail to this detail?

2. Your assertion: "We did not know there was a problem with the software until white_knights contacted us after he realized his later proxy bids had not been properly placed." white_nights told me Sally already knew about the glitch when he called her?

posted 05-06-2015 07:17 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by NovaRob:
This error would have occurred on any auction with more than 25 bids...

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posted 05-06-2015 07:51 PM               

White_knights emailed us about the problem on Sunday, May 3 at 7:45pm our time (when no one was here), and his fiance called us before business hours on Monday, which is before white_knights himself talked to Sally on Monday, May 4. Because of the email, we started investigating the problem as soon as we arrived at work on Monday, before white_knights talked to Sally. That's how Sally knew about the problem before she spoke to white_knights.

Thank you for pointing out the Cernan auction. We had not realized that one had 29 bids, and appears to have worked. Randy does not understand why this discrepancy, and is trying to figure this out as I write this.

posted 05-06-2015 08:35 PM               

Ok, I don't have a lot to add to Rob's answer. This appears to be an error in the code that caused all this. I've fixed that error. Database results are limited by the software to 25 rows by default. A simple software switch causes all rows to be returned. That switch had not been set. The proxy bid was row number 26 and not returned with the result set, so it was not honored. This was not a problem in the previous version.

Looking at the data, there is one significant difference between this auction and the item with 29 bids. In this auction, the proxy bid ended up as row 26. In the auction for the "Gene Cernan Last Flag", the proxy bid ended up on row 25. The system didn't actually work correctly, but the results came out right anyway. Had a higher proxy bid been placed after the 25th bid, it would not have been honored by the system. Thanks for asking the question, white_knights. This prompted me to dig a little deeper. I am now more certain this was the problem.

After receiving emails from both bidders, I took a look. I could tell right away what the problem was. It took a few minutes to fix that. We would not have known there was a problem had the bidders not notified us. Even if I had been in the office Sunday night, I couldn't have done anything as we didn't find out until after the auction closed.

At no time did we consider the Instant Purchase price in our discussions about what to do about this problem. My only concern was to be fair to all bidders involved. There's really no way to predict how this auction may have ended had there not been an error in the software.

Yes, I do have access to the raw data, I am the only one with this access. No, I do not share any of that data with anyone else, not anyone at Novaspace or anyone else. I need this type of access to be able to research problems such as this. I can lookup the reserve amounts, I can lookup the maximum bid of a proxy bidder. As auctioneer, this is permitted under Arizona law.

posted 05-07-2015 03:47 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by spkjb:
Because white_knights apparently had the high bid and I will not participate, he should rightfully be declared winner under the Auction Agreement on Astro-Auction website.

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posted 08-09-2015 03:10 PM               

The issue with the Jim McDivitt's LM I.D. plaque for LM-3 Spider was messy and I suspect has hurt the site.

I used to have it bookmarked, but every month or so I would go back and there has been very little for sale, so I turn up my nose and vow to not bother with it anymore.

Also the Astro-Auction site is so very dated. It reminds me of a message board in 1990. It's needs a makeover or a funeral.

I'm just going to throw it out there, and watch Mr. Pearlman spit milk out his nose, but would collectSPACE not be the perfect place to embed an auction for space collectors?