<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bocastephen:
Thanks Philc!
The weekend paper in my area seemed to link skyauction and luxurylink together under the same company, so that is where I got my understanding.
I will spend more time reviewing the site...it appears the auctions are "blind", so you have no idea where the bidding is at, which could make it trickier than most of the "merchandise" online auction sites..</font>
Not all of their auctions are blind. The Best Shot auctions are, but they also have regular auctions where the bidding is transparent. I've only bid once on a blind Best Shot auction and did pretty well. The way these work is that there are 5 packages available, so you have 5 winners (top 5 bidders) after the close of each auction. ALL 5 winners then pay the same lowest winning bid price. I had bid $200 over the minimum required bid, but I only ended up paying about $15 over the minimum as that was the lowest winning bid amount for that round. So with the blind auctions, it's possible to end up paying less than what you bid. As far as I know, you can't find out the past winning bids for blind auctions.
The regular auctions are pretty straightforward and self explanatory. Sometimes there will be multiple packages (usually 2) in a single regular auction, so the top 2 bidders win. In this case, both winners also pay the lower of the 2 winning bids. Having multiples usually works in your favor. There's usually a lot of bidding activity just before closing. If a bid is received just before closing, the auction will be extended for 5 minutes past that time. So sometimes you see auctions go 15-20 minutes beyond the original closing time. With regular auctions, you can check past winning bids going back about a week.
Exclusives and Best Buys which require no bidding are generally not good deals.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bocastephen:
They have an awesome package at the Essex House in NY for a bed'n'breakfast suite. Looks like alot of good stuff there.</font>
I don't think the Essex House package is a blind auction. Are you talking about the one for 3 nights in an Astor Suite that closes January 16th?
Read the instructions on the site carefully and call to ask any question before you bid. They've always been very good about answering any questions I have. Be careful not to overbid and good luck!