Auction Rant

The last auction I went to was up in Massachusetts and the prices I remember were around 20000 for a hardinge toolroom lathe and I remember haas indexers going for more then you could get a rebuilt unit from the factory. Everything was overpriced the owner of the shop even put his own Mercedes up for auction after he saw the prices he was getting for everything. I knew a machinery dealer at the auction who said all the machines were getting shipped to Asia and that why the prices were going so high.
 
A friend and I went to a local auction in the spring. He registered and I did a walk around. After I had done a couple circuits, he did his and joined me in the back. We compared notes and he then asked what I thought. I said "It's all coffee filter stuff" he asked what I meant. I said the good stuff is not here, just the dregs. These were the left overs, the good stuff was sold private or moved to another dealers place. All the stuff was rusty, modified, broken, missing something etc. I could see there were a few well healed guys there and the prices were going to be stupid.
We left. No bids were put in as we knew it was going to be a waste of our time. The worst thing was we knew that there had been a lot of prime items but obviously they were moved or held back.

At least I got a good bacon and eggs breakfast out of it at a local mom and pop place.
Pierre
 
I think that too many of the auctions (particularly the online ones) suffer from having buyers that bid just to win and say to hell with the price. If they want it bad enough they will pay any price just so that they win.
 
As I see it there are only three reasons you are outbid.

#1 -- It's more than you wanted to spend

#2 -- The winner wanted it more than you did

#2 -- There was a third party "Shill" involved. I hate this one but it is fact.

You cannot put a price on something that will make someone happy. They will pay whatever it takes. Over paidf or not, they don't care.

"Billy G"
 
Of course this all depends on if you're buying or selling. Too bad most of us are buyers (accumulators).
 
2Tite said:
Of course this all depends on if you're buying or selling. Too bad most of us are buyers (accumulators).
Click to expand...

Accumulators <---- I like that - very descriptive & fitting. Sounds so much better than hoarding :biggrin:
 
Another reason you can be outbid is simple spite. I was at an auction and beat a guy out of a 100+ ton press because he didn't have his bid number with him. No number at the close of the item and you bid is void. He got way mad and the hi-lo airpack that I was after, he made sure that I wasn't going to get it. He was dancing with joy and flipping me off when he won it with a bid of about 5 times what I would pay. Should have seen the anger in his face when I asked if he realized that the big Chrysler that drove it had a huge hole in the side of the block...1500 bucks for a 2500 pound paperweight. He hadn't inspected it and was bidding just to keep it away from me. Wouldn't have been a problem for me, as the guy I was there with, had a dozen or more of those engines in crates at his place and had already offered me one real cheap to get it out of the way.
 
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