Anthrocon Art Show Bidder’s Guide

TL;DR

  1. Art show opens to bidders Friday at 2 PM
  2. Get a bidder number
  3. You bid on the art
  4. Closeout
    • Mature closes starting at 6 PM on Saturday
    • General closes starting at noon on Sunday
  5. Voice auction
    • Voice auction for mature is Saturday Night, 11 PM at DLCC Room 406
    • Voice auction for general is Sunday at 2 PM at DLCC Room 319–321
  6. Come pick stuff up and pay for it
    • Art show opens for sales pick-up Sunday at 2 PM
    • If you need to leave before 4 PM, ask at bidder sign-up about an early pickup pass.
  7. Enjoy your artwork!

Q&A AND SPECIFICS

When can I bid at the Art Show?

You can bid any time the Art Show is open up until closeout. Hours are 2 PM to 6 PM Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM Saturday, 10 AM to Noon Sunday.

How do I bid?

Short answer: WRITE ON THE BID SHEETS.

First, you get a bidder number — fill out the online form and go to one of the Bidder Sign–Up tables to sign for your bidder number sticker. Put the sticker on the back of your badge — that way you’ll have it whenever you need to check and can’t forget and also so we can verify that you are the correct bidder come checkout.

Once you have your bidder number, browse the gallery rooms until you find an item you want to bid on, then look for its bid sheet. It looks like this and there should be one attached to every item.

An Anthrocon Art Show bidding sheet.

Check the Minimum Bid box - if it has a price, it is available for bidding, but if it has NFS there, that means it is Not For Sale, and is there for display only.

When you’ve found an item for sale and you want to bid on it, write the name you gave at bidder sign-up and your bidder number on the first vacant line on the Bid Sheet. If you’re the first bidder, you must bid at least the minimum bid listed. After that, you must bid more than the previous person. All bids must be in whole dollar increments. You can see some example bid sheets at a bidder sign–up table.

If all the written bid lines get filled, the item goes to voice auction. This means a piece is popular enough that it goes to a live, real-time voice auction so that everyone interested can bid until the highest bidder is declared. Until then, no further bids can be put on the sheet and if it doesn’t get any further bids at the auction, it’s sold to the person who penned the final written bid.

Can I change my mind on a bid?

NO. Except under highly unusual circumstances that would make it necessary such as an emergency, and if that does happen please contact staff right away — preferably well before closeout starts. Otherwise, if you change your mind or overextend yourself, you’ll just have to hope that someone outbids you. You must be careful budgeting your bids because if you win an item you are responsible for paying for it — no exceptions!

One of the reasons you can’t take back bids is because other bidders are factoring in what they might win into their own budgets — it wouldn’t be fair for someone to see that they were outbid, allocate that money toward something different, and then suddenly win both items and be overbudget!

Can I bring my phone into the Art Show?

We do not allow you to have your mobile phone out of your pocket while you are in an Art Show gallery room, but if it stays in your pocket it’s fine. This is out of respect to the artists, and to protect their artwork, security cameras monitor and record all activity within the Art Show gallery rooms. If you get a call while in an Art Show gallery room, do not take your phone out of your pocket! Leave the room and go into the corridor first!

Can I just check my texts?

No.

Can I just take it out real quick to check the time?

NO.

But I promise I’m not taking pictures!

NO.

What is Closeout?

Closeout is the process by which we declare the bidding final on each piece. We start at a designated point farthest from the Art Show entrance and go one artist at a time. We will announce what artist we are at and everyone will have one final chance to bid and counterbid before we declare that artist closed. Once a section is closed, it is blocked off so that the winning bids are marked for each piece and nobody else can tamper with the bid sheets. After closeout, if an item doesn’t have any bids and it does have a price after closeout listed, then it becomes available to buy for that price during sales pick-up to whomever picks it up first.

How does sales pick-up work? When do I get what I bid on?

Sales pickup for both galleries is Sunday from 2 PM to 5 PM. Go through the gallery and collect all of the items that you have won. (You did keep track of them on the handy Bidding Record sheet, right?) While you are picking up items you won through bidding, any items that received no bids and have a Price After Closing listed can be purchased for that price, so feel free to collect any that catch your eye.

Bring the artwork to a cashier to pay. Make sure that you bring your badge (with your bidder number sticker!) to the cashier with you — that’s how we make sure the correct bidder picks up only the artwork they bid on!

If you are buying items from the Mature Gallery, please carefully stack them face-to-face or bag them so the artwork is not visible when you exit the Mature Gallery area to go to a cashier. Bags will be available on tables outside the Mature Gallery rooms.

What forms of payment do you accept?

The payment terminals work with chip and magnetic stripe cards (credit / debit / gift), as well as contactless cards, phones, or other “tap to pay” devices (such as Android / Apple / Google / Samsung Pay).

What happens if I miss picking up an item that I won?

Keep track of your bids! There are Bidding Record sheets where you can write down the titles, locations and bid amounts of the artwork you’re bidding on, so you can find them later.

If you do miss an item, don’t worry — we’ll contact you after the convention to arrange for payment. If you paid for other artwork at the con and overlooked a piece or two, shipping is free.

Can I just head out and have you guys ship me my stuff?

Please don’t! We’ve worked hard to bring you a great Art Show, allow us to rest after the convention is over! Also, it’s less expensive for you to pick up your artwork at the con. Packing and shipping expenses can run upwards of $50 per package or more.

If you fail to pay for your unclaimed artwork, you will be banned from attendance at future Anthrocons. If you do not pick up and pay for your artwork at the con more than once without good reason, you will not be allowed to participate in future Anthrocon Art Shows.

ART SHOW BIDDING RULES

The formal contract you are agreeing to when you sign up for a bidder number, it explains things more thoroughly than this concise Bidder’s Guide.