Auctions

Been reading some posts below.
It's so true and why do people buy items at auction for just a bit less than you can buy new for? I went to an auction yesterday and walked around for about an hour if that. I looked at a lot of items and decided why should I wait here all day when I can afford to buy new if and when the time comes?

Ever try and buy steel posts or wire at an auction? A 3/4 roll of barbed wire will always bring full roll price if not more. Mom's cousin passed away last year. He had a lot of nice snap on tools that brought good money at the sale. He had a portable Lincoln welder with very few hours that I was interested in. List price for a new one was $3200. I was thinking $1600 would be my max. Started it, went to $2,000 and the dang thing sold for $2,800. What are these people thinking? Well, maybe they're not.

It is called Human Nature. People get caught up in the excitment of the auction chant and think they may get a Real Deal. I always laugh at a local auction they have here. People will pay a new price for old used T posts, gates and fence panels.

Three factors enter the picture.

They have no idea what it is worth and for a variety of reasons just keep bidding.

They have an emotional (family or friend) relationship to the item and are bidding against a bidder in category #1

They know there is a 300 dollar set of Williams sockets in the bottom of the box.

(oh I forgot one more) they thought they were bidding on the lot, and were bidding "each"

Jim

the old T posts are far better than the new ones, you can straighten an old one a new one will just break, new ones are also thinner anyone that fences will tell you that

I go to lots of auctions and notice that people will pay a new price for air compressors,welders and used steel fence posts....At some auctions things bring a fortune and then again I see stuff practically given away at another auction..

I recently skipped an auction and a well used non running wide front 560 Farmall gas sold for $700..A friend was there and said the buyer got it running and drove it on the trailer..

went to a small household auction about four years ago only cause I had heard from my Chiropractor that they would be some tools there and I had nothing else to do that day
Wish I would have had some money to take with me.
everything went wey way too low
bought a 8" Craftsman cast iron table saw on homemade stand for $15, blade was worth that. gave it away to a young man who had just bought a old house, 1/2" Rockwell electric impact for $10 and use it all the time.
stacks of good lumber $100-150 for 300-500 feet of cabinet grade, no money and no room right then
other sales just walk away as people are crazy paying more than new

Was at a aution 15 years ago this guy had AC tractors and equipt all over the place ,fence rows,pasture,woods, etc. the sale went from 9am til after dark about 4pm they started selling contents of the old run down buildings. Most were full of junk and didn't bring $20 ,we then went to his old shop and there was abig pile of trash in the second stall of the shop as hard as I could I tried to see what was in the pile but it was no use. Two guys gave $500 for the pile of garbage as everyone was walking out of the building I heard the one guy say to his partner I can't believe we got it for that, yeah we stole it, then they closed the doors on the shed so nobody would get in there. This has bugged me for years ,what was under the pile? The pile was big enough for a car or who knows? will never know? That is why I am hooked on auctions you never know what is out there.

Worst characteristic a person can have if they buy at auctions is a severe competitive nature. I've watched people bid double what something is worth just so someone else doesn't win. At that point, the "winner" becomes the other loser.

Local auctioneer also sells tractors and implements on his lot. He'll price stuff at 5 or 6 times what it's actually worth. People see the prices while browsing. Then they come back for the quarterly consignment auction, and the stuff brings double what it's worth and they think they just got a bargain.

Know what stuff is worth to you.

Know all the buyers premiums, taxes, and hidden fees. They add up fast.

If someone else is willing to pay too much for something you want, let 'em have it. Same thing will eventually show up at a reasonable price.

Don't get caught up in the "I've been here all day and I'm not going home empty handed" frenzy. I'd rather waste a day and go home with nothing than I would get bent over a barrel.

Just think about it this way. Almost all of us spend the next few days after an auction talking about some danged fool that paid 10 times what something is worth. Don't give anyone the pleasure of making YOU the one they laugh at.

Couple years ago a friend drug me to and qauction on a vary nasty day a two hour drive on good roads letlne on solid ice . The place was back a dead end road and everybody and his brother aunt uncle and cousins 10 times removed were there . We had to park a mile and half away and walk back this road on solid ice to the sale . He wanted a Miller Bobcat welder . It was nice with 600 hrs on it and he 3wanted me to do the bidding for him , why i have no idea but he always wants me to do the buying.When they started bidding on it it started out low and i for about a min. thought i had it bought , then out of nowhere someone threw in a bid on the second call and it went plum crazy . We could have drove down the street to the welding suppy shop and bought a brand new one with cables a cover and warranty for 800 bucks less . The only bargin at that sale was a 8600 ford that went for 3600 bucks . always keep in mind that it only takes two people to have and auction (1) the buyer and (2) the auctioneer . Fence posts , birds , or anything else can be bidding against ya. seen this happen way tomany times.

When I was farming, I was bidding on a Gleaner combine on a farm auction. Some kid was screwing around and bidding a dollar at a time. On a combine. I don't know why the auctioneer didn't stop him. I think he was trying to irk everyone else into dropping out.

I bid the thing up a ways and stuck him with it.

MF poor,most people who talk about the people who paid to much don't know the market.I've had people laugh at me for paying what they thought was to much and doubled my money later.My dad bought and paid for 4 farms off money he made buying stuff at farm sales and reselling.

This is just a theory but I believe a lot of people do not have a clue what the new price is of stuff so they go to auctions thinking they can get a good buy but with out knowing new price they pay new or more then new for things because they believe auction stuff always sells for below new price. Seen many many things go for more then new price and sometime for twice new. I can quote 2 times where I told the person new price and they about flipped. One time was for a welder a good old Lincoln buzz box and the guy payed $200 something and you could buy them new for $159.95

I've been at it for more'n 40 years, buying and re-selling used farm equipment. Made a living, bought my farm, all my equipment, put 3 kids amd now 3 grand kids through college, and even managed to save quite a bit of what I made. I know what stuff is worth and what is too much. I still laugh at the clowns who pay way too much.

I go to a lot local farm and estate auctions. You can get some real good deals or get stung. Once I wanted an old sears metal lathe. It wasn't the best made thing but I could do small things on it so bid. I noticed this other guy was bidding against me. His buddy kept pushing him to go up, so I ran him up to about three times what it was worth then dropped it. Hey if hadn't. Been there it would gone for nothing.
At another auction I bought a three axel big heavy duty 19 ft. Trailer. That brand new for $500 no one wanted it.
Funny how people buy at auctions there was an old single axel piece of junk that went for $1000 just before I got mine. I was sure it would go for big money but I was the only bidder. One thing that I look for is old black iron Proto tools these alway go cheap because they don't have shiney chrome on them. People don't know that the black line was Proto's top of line tools.
Walt

When the guy that I sold my dairy cattle to got out of it and had his auction,it was ruined by an auctioneer who was pulling bids out of his hat like that. About half a dozen cows in the bidder stopped the auctioneer and asked who he was bidding against. He said something like "oh,I've got a guy who wants me to buy X number of cows for him". He wound up averaging better'n $200 a head less than he'd given me for mine. Buyers weren't gonna stand for it that day.

I know folks who have paid way too much for items at auction. Here the funny thing to watch is guns. Everyone around here owns em but most folks have a very inflated idea of what they are worth. I've seen Marlin .22s that were worth about 100 buck sell for 250. Just crazy. Even the gun dealers around here don't attend auctions with guns.

First time I was ever at and auction they sold a 3 year old 826 IH with low hours. It sold for more than it cost new.

Here the auctioneer can make you good money or can ruin your day.

Rick

Hi
I don't bother with sales now. Just find what I want private or buy new.A lot of machines in collective sales are dealer or farm junk round here, at least if it's private sale you go to the guys place, get the feel for the guy and see what a C$%P hole his place might be to decide if your gonna buy.
Use to spend days at sales and not come home with stuff so that also added to cost with wasted time and fuel truck/ maintenence.
The other thing I found was Id put fully restored tractors in to find they made half the money the same tractor that was wrecked made. The wreck needed $5000 spent on it to be the same.
The other thing we have up here in Canada at our season auctions is a guy called Norm Smith. He buys a lot of stuff, In reality it means Not sold as the reserve was not made. our guys want the commision on what reserve was if not sold. So if The Tractor was $50.000 reserve you do the math on what that cost to bring it home again.
Regards Robert

Flip side is, I once bought a Forehand and Wadsworth .32 DA revolver in 90% condition for $200. It dates to 1887-1890, and books for about $575.

However, it was the only firearm of any kind on the auction and I may have been the only one present with a handgun permit. The auctioneer told me in advance someone had left a bid with him, and that he'd bid on it himself up to that point. So, I may have been the only qualified bidder in person.

I went to quite a few auctions when I was a kid and we moved to the farm, a few more as a young adult. One estate auction I went to I spent $75.00 on tools, took about 1/3 of my newly acquired tools back to Sears and got $50.00 of new tools, got one Blue Point wrench in the box warrantied (odd wrench a 12 point flare nut) so I guess I came out okay. I course I attended all the County sales I conducted with them and started going to sales again. I am probably the kind of sale buyer the other buyers hate and the auctioneers love, If I see something I could use, maybe not so much want but could use I'll bid it up. One living estate sale I went to the guy had a lot of tools, I bid on them even if I didn't want them. I'd easily run a drill motor or saw up to $15-20. If I got it okay, if I didn't okay to, guess there weren't many bargains that day, although I did get a gas grill with a full tank of propane for $22, I bid the guy's turkey fryer(also with a tank) up to $30 before I quit. Once I got an auctioneer and date committed for the county I'd go to that auctioneer's sales for 2-3 months prior we'd talk up our upcoming sale and some of the neat stuff we'd be selling during the other sales.

After selling cars for a while and holding these sales for the county it often surprises me how many people have strong opinions of value that are wrong. Was selling county cars by sealed bid, one of the units was a 5 or 6 year old Ford Focus sedan, basic car with working air. One bidder offered us $2,200 and enclosed a long letter detailing everything he felt was wrong with the car to justify his price. We had 3 bids on the car higher than his, the winning bid was from a used car dealer in the next town over, he paid $4,100, it was on his lot less than 3 days. I sold Ford Tauruses (Taurusi?) at auction for excellent retail ($7,000 +) and at the same sale had troubles getting Malibus sold for reserve. Although the real vehicle bargains did happen. The County Board and administrator allowed me to set individual reserves on vehicles but I could lift the reserve if the group of vehicles sold for more than reserve, so when I sold that Taurus for $2,800 above reserve I was able to lower the reserve on the Malibu by $900 to make it go away.

There are bargins to be had at auctions but you have to go to several to determine what is a good buy and what is not. Every auction normally wipes out a whole day. If you were not doing anything and picked up some good buys on things you NEED and were planning to buy anyway you did well.
If you figure your time is worth $20.00 or whatever per hour it is hard to come out ahead buying small dollar items. The story is diffeent if you are not doing anything and going for fun.
Big dollar items like tractors are a little different. If I'm serious about one I go the day before the auction ask permission to start and drive it in all gears, etc. A rule of thumb around here (to be safe) with used tractors at auctions is take the price you pay and double it to get the tractor up in good working condition.
My thoughts/feelings anyway.

You're right that many people set a price something should bring with no basis in reality of what the item routinely sells for and then go around calling everyone crazy that'll pay more.

local auction every wed. night. haven't had to buy nails for my gun in about 5 years.always pennies on the dollar.just bought a ball joint press for 22.50, sells new for 222.00.

I go to at least 10 equipment sales a year. At EVERY sale there will be stuff people get stupid over and run up more than it was worth new. Also at EVERY sale there will be at least one thing that sells for less than half what it can be resold on the internet for.

Some folks talk about how over priced things are at auction and some folks fuss about how some people buy equipment at auction just to sell as scrap. Both groups can't be right.

Dave