Antiques and the Arts Weekly Q&A: Allis Ghim

This article appears in the September 6, 2024 issue of Antiques and the Arts Weekly

Most auction houses added an online selling component to their sales if they were not already doing so when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020. Since then, online auctions have become de rigueur for most auction houses who like the global reach an online auction affords. There are several online platforms available for auction houses to choose from so when we saw that one of them — Bidsquare — was setting auction records, we talked to CEO Allis Ghim for some insights on what benefits Bidsquare offers to auctioneers and bidders alike.

Bidsquare recently announced the online platform had broken some company records with Coeur d’Alene Auctions’ (CDAA) July 27 auction. Can you give us some specifics?

At $17.2 million, the Coeur d’Alene 2024 auction was the highest grossing single auction in Bidsquare’s
history, with 33 percent of all lots sold to bidders on Bidsquare.com. This contributed $3.6 million in hammer, $4.33 million with buyer’s premium.

CDAA’s sale beat the previous overall sale total by more than $1 million — what was that sale and when did it take place?

Bidsquare’s previous record-high single auction was also with Coeur d’Alene, which took place in July 2023 and sold $2.69 million in sales, or 26 percent of the total sale, to Bidsquare bidders.

CDAA’s top lot from the July 27 sale was “Dangerous Sport” by Philip R. Goodwin, which hammered at $650,000 ($786,500 with buyer’s premium), which is now the highest single lot ever sold on Bidsquare. What was the previous record?

The previous record for highest lot sold was Fernando Botero’s design for a backdrop for the opera Carmen; an oil and graphite on canvas that had a hammer price of $379,403. This was auctioned by Morton Subastas in Mexico City.

What do you attribute these new records to?

In general, bidders are becoming more comfortable bidding higher amounts online. In addition, bidders cite how easy and intuitive it is to bid through Bidsquare.com, which helps facilitate their comfort level with bidding at high price points.

Bidsquare is one of several online auction platforms auctioneers have to choose from when selecting platforms to launch their sales on. What advantages does selling on Bidsquare offer auctioneers?

Bidsquare offers several advantages to auction houses: 1) Our innovative and reliable tech: We created a custom widget for Coeur d’Alene that allowed bidders to register for the auction on their own website and place absentee bids directly through their platform. This allows them to capture bidder registration and absentee bids, and then run the live auction through Bidsquare.com with all data being synced between the two sites. Coeur d’Alene also took advantage of our live audio and video streaming which boosts engagement from online bidders allowing them to experience the thrill of the auction online. This proprietary technology that allows synced bidding between Bidsquare.com and a client’s own website is a unique feature that allows for maximum competitive bidding. The auction house benefits by building trust with their bidders who have the security of bidding directly with the auction house, yet it also extends the audience reach to open up literally a world of bidders that may not visit the auction house online. 2) Opt-in marketing services: We offer robust marketing extensions that ensure the auction house’s event will reach as many targeted bidders as possible. We
leverage our website, email marketing, SEO/SEM and social media to provide as much promotional support as possible. 3) Exceptional client service: We also are very proud of our exceptional client service. We receive consistent feedback from our auction house partners on how confident they feel when listing on our site knowing how seamless the experience is and that the Bidsquare team will be supporting their auction in case any questions arise.

Does Bidsquare offer bidders the ability to bid in ways that are markedly different from other platforms?

Through Bidsquare Cloud, our latest cutting-edge software solution for auction houses, in addition to a custom branded white label and synced bidding with Bidsquare.com, we also provide auction houses with their own custom mobile app that allows bidders to stay on top of the auction wherever they are. By providing multiple channels and avenues to bid from, bidders can choose their preferred bidding method which allows auction houses to reach and maximize bidding based on how they prefer to bid. There are limited mobile app providers in our category, with some companies even sun-setting their mobile app products.

Can you share how many unique registered bidders are in the Bidsquare database? Of these, how many are US-based and how many are overseas?

Unfortunately, this is proprietary data, but we’ve seen the international bidder base grow significantly over time. Over the last 10 years, international bidders have grown from 12.5 percent of our total bidder base to 41 percent.

Have you seen trends in how these numbers have grown?

We are seeing an increasing number of auction houses choose to use Bidsquare.com as their exclusive third-party partner, which has definitely contributed to our growth. This was the case with Coeur d’Alene’s 2024 event.

—Madelia Hickman Ring