Auction Shill Bidding Bots

[Karl_T]

that's why the callers at the auctions speak so fast. the faster they speak the less time you have to think about it. you are trying to understand them, so you have less time for your processing.

I got screwed at a tool auction because I didn't correctly hear the lot #. I was looking for the next lot, I though he said what I wanted to hear. I paid wayyyyy too much for junk.

I had just the opposite years ago. It was a very large auction and they just split from one into two rings. People were still deciding which auctioneer to follow. Anyway, one auctioneer went into the steel supply room and started trying to sell one rack for $200 strarting- nobody bid. then he said, "the whole room" 200 dollars - I held my hand up. Nobody else bid. I got maybe 40 tons of steel. Lots of people were ****** - they did not hear him change from one stack to the whole room.

I had a 24,000 lb. ffith wheel trailer and it took me two entire days just to put the stuff on pallets and haul it home. more than a dozen trips. Oh- I sold the steel rack that was too big for me to load for $150.

Anyway, I could share a few more tales of extremely good deals. But this was all in the days before online auctions ruined it.

 

[Papa Charlie]

I had one auction where I purchased a huge pallet (lot) full of a specialized liquid toner for an industrial printer, I think I paid $125, plus auction fees and sales tax. The lot was 25 cases with 4 double boxes of canisters in each case so a total of 200 canisters which had a value of about $40 each them, depending on the source. Could not sell them for love nor money. Most people were cautious about buying an industrial toner from an unknown source. So after about 2 months of not selling any of it. I put it back up for auction with the same auction house. I had gotten to know the staff pretty good with all my buying and after talking about it with them, we decided to divide it up into small lots for the auction. I think we put it into 25 lots, one case per.

Well sold it all for more than 5 times what I had paid for it after auction fees. Was totally shocked.

Those days are gone, but for about 3 years I made a lot of money buying and reselling items from auctions. Between machines shops, construction, laboratories, warehouses, and many other types of businesses, the types of items varied greatly, I kept some items for myself but most of it I sold. I would buy cases of new items (Sodium Light bulbs, switches, disposables, etc) still in the box and ship them to Amazon to inventory and sell for me. Couldn't be easier.

One of my favorite items I kept was from a lab. I got a Sartouis analytical scale which had just been certified. Sold new for over $3000 and I got it for $200. I still use it for measuring my gun powder for my competition rounds. Also got a bunch of other stuff from that lab that I kept as well. All adapted to my shooting. Kick myself for passing on a lab oven that went to 2200F.

Based on what I see today, those days are gone. I know I have said this many times, but it totally amazes me what people are paying for used tools, equipment, supplies, etc. It seems rare to have something go for a bargain.

 

[rabler]

It will be interesting to see what the current economic trends do to auctions. I could see it going either way, more people shopping for "bargains" driving prices up, or tighter money driving prices down.