posted on July 26, 2001 04:38:44 PM
It's a learning experience. My wife was more experienced than I was at these. She teased me relentlessly because I raised my hand when the auctioneer asked for a $5 opening bid, and that was the only bid he got--I might have won the item at $1 or $2 if I had only waited for him to drop his asking price.
Another item at another auction was very high dollar. I was determined to win it, even if I had to go about $6000.00 to get it. I was too anxious to bid and stuck my hand up quickly when I thought I heard them asking for $1000.00 opening bid. I actually bid $10,000.00 because I didn't hear correctly. Thank God I was outbid and it finally went for $14,000.00.
Got any stories to share? Advice for the savvy-less?
posted on July 26, 2001 04:45:39 PM
Hi Loosecannon-
I have never been to a live auction yet. I want to, but so far haven't been able to make it to our local one.
posted on July 26, 2001 04:51:33 PM
It was a very special vintage guitar in primo, all original condition. Still, I think it went way high. Maybe I underestimated the value some, but the guy that won it won't make anything on it if he sells it. Pretty sure about that.
posted on July 26, 2001 05:09:19 PM
loosecannon
lots of things to do at a live auction :thats one thing that ebay lacks
if you are a regular at a auction open the bid for the aucioneer It gets boring when the actuioneer has to keep asking for a 10 opening bid on a 200 item
if the austioneer is asking for 10 you dont have to bid it yell out a 1.00 get things rolling you will be amazed at how fast it will go after someone starts it if you help the autioneer out this way enough he wil probly throw a deal or two your way .
if the person bidding against you hesitates raise the bid the next time around say the item is at 50 you are willing to go to 100 auctioneer ask for 51 bid 60 will usally throw the other bidder off.
also bid right away against a hesitant rival after the auctioneer cajoles a bid from them have your hand up or yell out immediatley ...now the ball is back in their court usully psyhs them out
lots of other tricks but you will pick them up
Cardnal rule DECIDE YOUR MAX AND STICK TO IT
dont get carried away .
spock here......
posted on July 26, 2001 05:31:36 PM
I was at an auction yesterday and I am still laughing about this one.....
It was for a lot of "no name" cd games for the computer. There were maybe 500 pieces in the lot. The auctioner started at .05 per piece. Nobody bid. He went down to .04, .03., .02. Finally a bidder offered .01 per piece. The auctioneer said "No, I won't take .01 each!" like he was miffed and passed up the lot!
posted on July 26, 2001 07:55:36 PM
" I raised my hand when the auctioneer asked for a $5 opening bid, and that was the only bid he got--I might have won the item at $1 or $2 if I had only waited for him to drop his asking price. "
Actually if you had waited for $1 then someone else says $2 and another says $3, it keeps going up from there....
So your $5 was a smart move.
I see it happen all the time, I go to a lot of live auctions, no one will open at $100 or $50 or $25 then someone opens at $10 and it goes up and it sells for $150 !!!
posted on July 26, 2001 08:13:42 PM
Every auctioneer runs his pitch differently.
I always advise my friends to NOT bid until they've had a chance to listen to the way a new auctioneer works so you don't get caught bidding a different amount than you intended.
One that I thought was borderline deceitful dealt in imported English furniture (more or less antique).
His chant would be "one hundred-two, one-hundred-two". If you bid, you were bidding two hundred. He hooked lots of newbies this way.
Also, many of the slur their chant so badly that even if you are attentive, you can get confused as to exactly what the bid is.
Some auctioneers will pretend not to notice that you bid 1/2 of the offer. Say he's trying to count by tens, and you want to offer $55 as opposed to the $60 he wants. He may jump you to $60 anyway. They try to make you think that you made the wrong signal.
Sometime auctioneers instruct their floormen not to point out obvious flaws or to hold the items in such a way that the flaws do not face the audience. The logic being that the bidders already had a chance to look it over and should have been aware of the flaws already. So, look close when you get there, you may not have another chance.
You should not risk serious money on an auction unless you've really had a chance to examine the merchandise, or you really know the auctioneer, cause otherwise, some will steal you blind.
The suggestion to quickly counter bid is on the money. You can easily rattle a newbie that way. Bidding early guarantees that the auctioneer will look at you before he takes bids from a 3rd bidder.
I agree with ALWAYS stick to your limit. If you told yourself that you would only bid $XXX; stick to it. You may have momentary regrets if you are outbid by one increment, but whose to say it would have stopped there?
If you can go without children, please do. Always bring your own chair to an outdoor auction, there are never enough.
Make sure you know whether it's a cash only auction. Lots of police/sheriff auctions are cash only. You can get great stuff at a pawn auction. Most of my jewelry came from those.
I love auctions, there aren't any worth a darn now that I've left Virginia.
posted on July 26, 2001 09:43:15 PM
I have the opportunity to attend a storage unit auction tomorrow evening. The contents of about 8 units are up for bid. They are auctioning the entire unit's contents at once. So I guess my question is would it be worth my while going? They have a preview an hour before but do they have everything pulled out so you can get a good look at it or are you gambling on the contents? How high would you bid on someones' "household goods"?
I wonder about the storage unit auctions. Most of the time I believe you can't dig through the items and can only judge on what you are able to see on the surface. On one hand, if the stuff wasn't any good, why would they pay to store it? OTOH, I think you are obligated to haul away the entire contents, trash and all.
What if there is only one or two (or no)"jewels" in the batch? What will you do with the "junk" that you can't sell? Haul it to the dump? That costs money and time too.
I want to see all of what I'm bidding on, and I would be too worried about wasting my time with junk and trashy items that I'll have to either haul to another auction or haul to the dump. OTOH, I'm sure there are people here who will tell you what fantastic deals they got going to these storage bin auctions.
By the way, beware of bringing home cockroaches. Some storage facilities have plenty of them and they just love paper and cardboard boxes.
[ edited by loosecannon on Jul 26, 2001 09:59 PM ]
posted on July 26, 2001 10:03:49 PM
LC ..... Capotasto is correct, sometimes it's a smart move to place a bid before the auctioneer gets down to the lowest level. I will often jump in at mid level, just to keep the newbies from getting into the action. Many times my one bid will take the item, and it's at far less than what I would have paid had I been forced to go the distance with another bidder.
As a buyer I hate bidding wars, as a seller I love them.
Also, if it's a long auction many tmes the auctioneer will be trying to get the sale over with and won't hesitate to say SOLD after my one bid is placed. They aren't going to screw around on $5-20 box lots at the end of a 7 hour sale. I picked up some great $10 boxes last week using this strategy.
While the vultures were waiting & hoping to get everything for $1-5, I was jumping in at $10 & before anyone knew what had happened the auctioneer had shouted SOLD.
posted on July 26, 2001 10:14:02 PM
Roaches. Now there's a thought. We don't see to many of them up here in Alaska for some reason. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen though. I may go and see what kind of a look see I can get and if the lot will fit in my van. Not having a man around to help haul things I don't want to get to big of a lot.
I'm not thrilled about buying anything sight unseen. I want to know I'm getting my monies worth. I could get lucky and it could be "all grandma's old junk" someone stored away.
posted on July 26, 2001 10:20:42 PM
Yeah! Darn right!
Heck, that thing I bid the $5 on was an old Harmony guitar that needed some minor repairs. Sold it for $75 after I fixed it so what was bad about that?
She finally quit teasing me about my "junk" buying when she saw me do a few good sales on things I had bought. A $3.00 buy sold for $50.00, a $55.00 buy brought $150.00, etc. Told me I needed to be doing it full time, no less! I couldn't argue with that since I was sick of being a truck driver for a living.
posted on July 26, 2001 10:32:44 PM
Alaska! In a few weeks the leaves will start turning brown. Perhaps the first snow by mid to late September, but it seldom sticks that early.
I remember when I was a kid, leaving for school in the dark and coming home in the dark during the winter. That was a long time ago.
[ edited by loosecannon on Jul 26, 2001 10:35 PM ]
posted on July 26, 2001 11:18:36 PM
The fireweed hasn't topped out yet. I've been up here 11 years. The sticking snow is always here by mid Oct. I know the winters are dark but aren't the summers wonderful!?
posted on July 26, 2001 11:25:40 PM
Better tell these Cheechackos what fireweed is or they might think you're talking about pot! Yes, the summers are nice when it's not raining. I remember one summer where we only got about 3 or 4 sunny days in about 3 months time. It was overcast or raining or both.
Oh, moderators, Cheechacko is not a cuss word. It's an Alaskan word that means greenhorn or tenderfoot.
[ edited by loosecannon on Jul 26, 2001 11:34 PM ]
posted on July 27, 2001 12:03:55 AM
Last Tuesday we broke the July 1958 record for rain. It's the pits.
Fireweed is a very pretty pinkish purplish flower that blooms from the bottom up (about 6" to a foot high) to the top. It grows like a weed up here and sometimes entire mountain sides are covered with it. Folklore says that when the fireweed tops out we've 6 weeks until our first snowfall.
posted on July 27, 2001 12:31:29 AMKiawok, I had a similar situation; I was at an auction like the one you described, running over time, and found I was able to win bids simply by keeping my number visible after bidding. The auctioneer seemed to prefer saying "Sold to 103", than wasting time saying "Sold to, uh, what is your number?"
posted on July 27, 2001 05:08:13 AMMake sure you know whether it's a cash only auction. Lots of police/sheriff auctions are cash only
Yeah. They (the police) could do something about a bad check much easier than you or I, so why is it people always complain about Money order only auctions?
I want to see all of what I'm bidding on, and I would be too worried about wasting my time with junk and trashy items that I'll have to either haul to another auction or haul to the dump
To quote the Ferringi, sometimes "You have to speculate in order to accumulate".
I bought a storage unit full of stuff one time. They opened the door, and we where allowed to look inside, but not go inside. I spotted 2 pieces I knew where good, so I bid, and got it for $110. Turns out there was several good peices (about $1600 worth) and lots of junk.
posted on July 27, 2001 06:11:09 AM
When we were collecting cutglass, we got to know the many of the auctions very well.
Many sellers put the items they think will bring the biggest prices up in the middle of the day when the dealers are all there & they get the largest crowd of buyers. By late afternoon, the "just came to look" crowd is gone as are many of the dealers. We often got some good bargains by waiting to the end & picking up some pretty nice things w/no-one to much bid against us.
A couple of funny stories:
My husband was in SC on his 2 weeks active military duty and, with nothing to do one weekend, wandered down to an auction. They had an early 1900's English carousel horse up. I've always wanted one so he bought it.
Not wanting to lug it around in the car for another week, he muscled it up into his motel room & laid it on the extra bed & covered it up to make sure it couldn't been seen.
I can only imagine what the maid must have thought, peeling back the bedspread to find this horse laying there! Sounds like a scene from The Godfather!
Another time we'd gone to a rather nice auction place to try & pick up some more cutglass. They had a really nice early Mercedes 2 Seater Sport Roadster in the auction which I've always wanted.
It comes up for auction & I'm not paying a lot of attention because I know it's going out of my price range. The bidding is getting on up there & I suddenly notice the auctioneer is pointing to ME when the next bid comes in.
I look over to discover my husband has gotten his own paddle & is happily bidding away on the car.
A rather "lively" discussion ensues between my husband and me about his sanity. Then I find the auction has ground to a halt while we argue this out, bemusing the entire audience.
Mercifully I got control of his paddle, the bidding resumed & someone else got it. His only defense was "Well, you SAID you'd always wanted one & your birthday was coming up." Geez!
I still haven't gotten a roadster but he did buy me the sedan for my birthday that year. And he's no longer allowed to have a paddle at ANY auction.
Sounds like mine! I have to force hubbys paddle down everytime we go! Once, we were in Washingston State at an auction, and he bids (and wins) on a stamp collection that has three wheatback penny "books" with it, for $20.00 (I dont sell stamps, nor pennies) I was furious! We were discussing it in front of one of the auction handlers outside, and he said "well maybe the books are full of old coins" Yah, maybe. They were EMPTY!!!!! I could have killed him! Luckily, I got most of the money back out of the stamps on EBAY. Some stamp dealer or collector probably got a steal! He is an auction addict! He bids on everything! Anyway, the advice in these posts are pretty good....it is addicting, and you MUST examine the items before the start....you can really get burned! (But you can also pick up some great stuff, if you play your cards right. On the shed thing....we bought a shed full of stuff sight unseen (other than the front of it) and more than doubled our money by selling on EBAY, and at the swap meet, and there was a lot of "junk". so far, only hauled off the broken/mcdonalds toy type stuff....
posted on July 27, 2001 08:49:07 AM
I've read about "signals" in live auctions, but as of yet I have not been able to find out exactly what is what. Could someone please give us some leasons?
posted on July 27, 2001 08:52:41 AM
Friends of ours manage a self storage facility. When they acution off a unit they let you look from outside, can't go inside or paw through it.
Many people store absurd junk - bent wire hangers, broken toys. They do this for the same reason they kept it in the attic or closet before something made them put it in storage. Fear - might need it some day. Sentiment - it was great grandmas, baby played with this when he was 2.
Many people store cars. Show cars, antiques. Or racing models and there is no room in the garage at home.
One unit they sold belonged to a homeless man, it was stacked full of plastic trash bags, stuff like old paperwork records, old clothes. Under the stack was a vintage Mustang.
They had a real smell problem once when the plug to the freezer fell out of the socket in the storage belonging to the animal crematorium...
If I were buying storages I would partner with a furniture consignment store to deal with the large pieces, and I would develop a relationship with the storage managers to be allowed to dump at least a certain set amount of the trash in their dumpster.
A lot of flea market dealers buy storages - no shipping worries on large or odd shaped items.
posted on July 27, 2001 09:55:23 AM
loosecannon
Not being a dealer,the best advice I could give,would be to get to the auction early, check the items you want very close, write down the lot #, condition and max bid.
I'm a collector. As a collector, my bidding is much different than a seller. When I bid on a item it is to add to my collection.
Should be at a auction,with a strange crowd. My first bid is to remove the sellers & find the collectors in the crowd. My max bid would depend on what percent it would increase the value of my collection, not the value of the item.
Should I know the crowd,I make one bid or leave a absentee bid & move to the next auction. This is showing respect to the crowd by not holding up the auction process.
