I've just gone through the catalogue and am looking forward to seeing the bits in the flesh.

The neates look great. Who cares about prices, they are well out of my league.

There's a lot of mediocre art on display, IMHO, and I don't really feel it is totally representative of this scene that we love. I spend hours on this forum and on WK and spend ages surfing the net looking at stuff, and wandering the streets looking at stuff too. And I haven't heard of a number of the artists who are showing. This tells me that it is far too early in these artists careers to be auctioned. How many pieces have been donated for sale by the artist?? This just seems wrong to me.

I really hope that some of these artists don't get their fingers burnt. That would be a real shame in their fledgling careers.

You've got that pretty much spot on UrbanAngel.

If the message gets across, then no problem. how much Dreweatts have spent on this, I'm not sure. I agree with the low estimates, high hammer but I wish someone could explain it. Lets use the example above. The original estimate (driven by the seller) is 40 - 60k and doesn't sell. An auction expert recons that if it had have been 23 - 30k it would have gone for 50k. I 100% agree with the reasoning, but why. The early bidders have no chance of buying it. The winning bidder could have snippered it for 40k (-10) in the 1st scenario. What is the psychology behind it. Very intriguing.

I'll explain why.

The Neate had a guide of £40k to £60k at Vision 21 and made £38k hammer, which didn't sell.

By law, the highest the reserve can be, is the low guide. In the case above, that's £40k. It can be lower than that, but can't be above the low guide.

The seller paid £25k for that piece, plus VAT, so £30k. He probably thought that putting a low guide of £40k and having that as the reserve, he couldn't go wrong and wouldn't lose money if it was a bad result.

However, what he immediately done was to eliminate ALL buyers that had a maximum budget of £39,999 or lower. They simply knew it wasn't worth bidding. That left fewer bidders, and therefore if one was willing to go to £80k and the other only £36k, then the auction would end at £38k, as it did.

Now imagine if he'd have put the low guide at £25k. ALL those bidders that had a budget of £39,999 would have bid up until it hit £40k, which it would of, because there would have been SO many more bidders, which would have made the auction look miles more interesting.

And lastly, the people with a lower budget will always bid, as there is always a slim chance that they would win it, if it was a poor auction.

I won an Os Gemeos at Phillips recently. I was prepared to bid to £32k. I won it for £18k hammer. If the guide had of been £35k, i wouldn't have bid at all, which means i wouldn't have won it.

Ever time i sell at auction with a higher guide, i get a poor result. When i sell with a really low guide (Neate Pizza box - £3k to £5k), i get a good result - £14k!

No different to why a .99p eBay auction tends to do better than a £1000 start, or a BIN, because you get SO many bidders early on, it gives other confidence to bid higher.

Buyers need confidence and not to feel that they're not the only one bidding, otherwise they think something must be wrong with it.

I'll explain why.

The Neate had a guide of £40k to £60k at Vision 21 and made £38k hammer, which didn't sell.

By law, the highest the reserve can be, is the low guide. In the case above, that's £40k. It can be lower than that, but can't be above the low guide.

The seller paid £25k for that piece, plus VAT, so £30k. He probably thought that putting a low guide of £40k and having that as the reserve, he couldn't go wrong and wouldn't lose money if it was a bad result.

However, what he immediately done was to eliminate ALL buyers that had a maximum budget of £39,999 or lower. They simply knew it wasn't worth bidding. That left fewer bidders, and therefore if one was willing to go to £80k and the other only £36k, then the auction would end at £38k, as it did.

Now imagine if he'd have put the low guide at £25k. ALL those bidders that had a budget of £39,999 would have bid up until it hit £40k, which it would of, because there would have been SO many more bidders, which would have made the auction look miles more interesting.

And lastly, the people with a lower budget will always bid, as there is always a slim chance that they would win it, if it was a poor auction.

I won an Os Gemeos at Phillips recently. I was prepared to bid to £32k. I won it for £18k hammer. If the guide had of been £35k, i wouldn't have bid at all, which means i wouldn't have won it.

Every time i sell at auction with a higher guide, i get a poor result. When i sell with a really low guide (Neate Pizza box - £3k to £5k), i get a good result - £14k!

No different to why a .99p eBay auction tends to do better than a £1000 start, or a BIN, because you get SO many bidders early on, it gives other confidence to bid higher.

Buyers need confidence and to feel that they're not the only one bidding, otherwise they think something must be wrong with it.

the catalogue seems to have vanished from the site.

Some really nice Banksy originals coming up at this one Could we see a new auction record? ;D