MySotheby's: Greatly Improved Website Still a Work-in-Progress

I deliberately waited a couple of days before discussing the new, souped-up Sotheby's website, because the Sunday launch, while fully functional, still looked interim: It was visually barebones, and "receive" was misspelled twice as "recieve." Don't techies use spellcheck?

Today it's proofread, dressed up and ready to go, although still not officially launched, I suppose, because no press release has yet hit my in-box.

What did hit my in-box, at 12:15 a.m. this morning, was a reminder about the imminent auction of an object that I had put on my "Track Lots" list. I had wanted to see how that feature worked, so I naturally chose the most newsworthy lot-of-the-week, "Artemis and the Stag," to be sold Thursday as a highlight of the deplorable deaccessions by the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo. The e-mail, titled "Tracked lots auction reminder," arrived despite the fact that I specifically had turned off the feature for receiving e-mail auction alerts when I had set up my Track Lots request. What I DID ask for was an e-mailed condition report, but there is still no such report available for that object at this writing.

I've previously discussed, here, some of the site's new features, with more complete details at the link I provided to the auction house's February press release.

Perhaps the most crucial improvements are the features for tracking lots (unsolicited reminders notwithstanding) and for creating wishlists for lots meeting specified criteria. In this, Sotheby's plays catch-up to Christie's longstanding Lot Finder. Also nifty is the ability, with selected Sotheby's objects, to magnify details and view three-dimensional lots from different angles.

And Christie's website offers nothing comparable to the Sotheby's Café Cookbook---40 recipes, some illustrated with objects sold by Sotheby's, along with "eight complementary articles exploring the relationship between food and art." The essays may be complementary, but the book is not complimentary: It's a pricey $50. Fascinated foodies are advised: "To learn more visit the café website." But that broken link bumps you back to the auction house's home page.

A more serious letdown came when I clicked the "Place Bid" button on the Albright-Knox bronze (not that I actually possess disposable millions, but I wanted to see where this led). The initial mySotheby's press release had promised "features that provide the instant gratification of placing a bid." But in this case "instant gratification" meant a downloadable absentee bidding form that had to be filled out and either mailed back or faxed.

For true "instant gratification," there's online, real-time bidding at Christie's Live, functional for some, but not all, auctions, once you register and download the required software. Sotheby's, five years ago, had tried online bidding in conjunction with eBay, but found it wanting and has no wish to try again.