Holts, the old Julia's, and Gavin Gardiner bid incrementally up to your max bid as a "commission bid" on behalf of the auction house. For example, I bought an engraved .22 rifle at Holts a few months ago. I PDF'd my bid in for 1200 sterling. The Auctioneer bid for me up to 900 sterling when the room bidding ended and I won the rifle for 900 sterling. I followed the same procedure at Morphy's. Immediately my bid, which was $4k above the reserve, showed as "current bid" on the Morphy's website well ahead of the beginning of the auction. One bid from the floor took me out and the bidding was over.
Stan, You should go onto Morphy's website with your connection and launch the Live Bidding page. You can get a sense for the lag time between start of auction and hammer based on your internet connection. They have a firearms auction today and tomorrow. I have a very good internet connection, but sometimes I feel like the auction server causes a lag.
Bill, I'd be interested to hear the explanation you receive.
