Bidding at auction can be both exhilarating and intimidating, so we'd like to share a few tips to help you be a successful bidder. If you arm yourself with information on antique maps, and familiarize yourself with how our auction site operates, you'll be off to a great start.
#1: Curate a Wish List
Before bidding at auction, determine which pieces will enhance your collection. Building a collection is a personal journey and can be meaningful in many ways. A map collection can trace your ancestry, showcase places you've traveled, or spark your intellectual curiosity about a particular time in history. Reference books and articles on maps are great resources to help you refine your collecting strategy. Old World Auctions offers an archive of over 90 articles on mapmakers, maps of specific regions, and various collecting interests. View our articles by clicking here. We have also compiled a list of the reference works we use when doing research, which can be used to find books related to your topic of interest. View our list of references by clicking here.
#2: Find What You Want
Each of our auction catalogs lists items in a consistent order, primarily based on geographical region. It begins with world maps, then western hemisphere, Europe, Asia, Africa, prints & manuscripts, and finally books. You can browse through a category, or you can search for specific items using our search functionality. There is a basic search bar near the top of each page that allows you to search for a specific word (or words), such as “Florida,” or “Civil War,” or “sea monster.”
You can also refine your search using our Advanced Search option, which is just beside the basic search bar. Here you can specify the title, geography/region, creator, time period, auction estimate, or condition grade. For instance, I could search for 17th century maps of North America by Nicolas Sanson in “A” condition by inputting the following:
Our search functionality works the same both during an auction, as well as in our auction archives, which lists over 85,000 items and counting. The archive includes every item that Old World Auctions has listed since 1999 and features the full catalog description, auction estimates, and hammer price. For a visual walk-through of how to perform a search, watch our YouTube video by clicking here.
#3: Know What It’s Worth
Knowing how much to bid is just as important as knowing on what items to bid. Using the Old World Auctions archive is an excellent (and free) way to see what items have sold for in the past to guide you in your bidding. If you are interested in bidding on Abraham Ortelius’ map of the western hemisphere, you can type the title and the mapmaker’s name into the Advanced Search and view the hammer prices of examples that have sold in the past. The items in the archive are always listed in descending order, beginning with the most recent auction. Just make sure that the condition, color, state/edition are the same to ensure that you are comparing apples to apples. With data in hand, you can decide what your max bids will be for the items on your wish list.
#4: Keep Track of Your Items
Once you’ve found items you’re interested in from the auction catalog, you can add them to your Watch List by clicking on the yellow “Add to Watch List” button. (Please note that you cannot add items from the archive to your Watch List.) Adding items to your Watch List allows you to track multiple items at once. Your Watch List is part of your Bid Status page, which is only accessible during an auction and can be found by clicking the “Bid Status” link at top right on our website. Once items are on your Watch List, you can view the current bidding activity and place bids. You can either enter a specific bid amount, or you can click the QwikBid button to place a bid one increment above the current high bid. Once you’ve bid on an item, it moves from your Watch List up to your Bid Status List.
As you are bidding on items, your Bid Status will indicate whether or not you are the high bidder on a lot. There are two visual clues to indicate if you have been outbid: if the High Bid amount is red, and if the QwikBid button appears next to your bid, then you are no longer the high bidder. To place a new bid, you can click the QwikBid button or enter a new bid amount in the box at right. For a visual walk-through of how to use the Bid Status and Watch List, watch our YouTube video by clicking here.
#5: Know the Rules
Every auction operates by a set of rules, and we’ve designed our auctions to be as bidder-friendly as possible. If you’ve never bid with Old World Auctions before, you should review our Auction Guide, Terms and Conditions, and FAQs. Two of the most important rules, however, are our rules related to tied bids and our 10-Minute Rule. With tied bids, the bid amount goes to the person who placed the bid first. Therefore, getting your bid in early can help you win an item, particularly if another bidder has the same maximum bid in mind.
Understanding our 10-Minute Rule can also help you become a winning bidder. This rule goes into effect 10 minutes before the auction closes to ensure that every bidder has 10 minutes to place a new bid if they are outbid on a lot. This simulates what may happen in a floor auction in which the auctioneer does not bring the final hammer down as long as there is active bidding. There are two ways to make the 10-Minute Rule work for you. One advantageous strategy is to place your bids early, before the 10-Minute Rule goes into effect, and if no one bids against you, then your lots will close immediately at closing time and you will be the winning bidder (as long as your bid has met the reserve). If you wait to place your bids in the last 10 minutes of the auction, the auction clock for those lots will extend past the closing time, giving other bidders more opportunity to jump in on the action. Make sure to check your Bid Status page at closing time for verification of which lots are closed and which ones have the auction clock extended.
The second way the 10-Minute Rule can benefit you is if you are bidding on multiple items. You can monitor the action on all of your lots simultaneously via your Bid Status page, which will show you the active bids coming in, which items you’ve been outbid on, and a time clock for each individual lot that remains open past the closing time. If you get outbid, you’ll have 10 minutes to decide if you want to increase your bid. You can even sort the lots on your Bid Status page by time remaining, so you’ll know which ones you need to focus on first.
Your Winning Strategy
Winning items at auction is exciting, and there are several strategies to ensure that you have a great experience bidding. Before you place any bids, figure out what you are looking for and what those items are worth. If you need any tips on the best reference material for your collecting interest, or how to search for specific items in our catalog, get in touch with us by email at info@oldworldauctions.com. Monitoring your Watch List and Bid Status page can help you keep track of items you’re bidding on, and if you’re intent on winning a specific lot, make sure to check the Bid Status page at the close of the auction to see if the auction clock has been extended on that lot and whether or not you’ve been outbid.
Many winning bidders tell us that their most effective strategies are to bid early and to set a maximum bid and then just let it be. Maximum bids are kept confidential, so when a competing bidder places a bid, they will receive a notification that they have been automatically outbid. Receiving several of these automatic outbid notices in a row can be frustrating and cause the competing bidder to walk away. And regardless of your maximum bid, Old World Auctions guarantees that you will never pay more than one increment above a competing bid.
Whatever bidding strategy you decide to implement, bidding at auction should be a fun, rewarding experience. Old World Auctions strives to create that type of experience, and we hope that our auctions will help you find special items to add to your collection.
