Auction House a worthwhile venture???

[Anonymous Poster]

Golfgar4,
Well, we have had our first two auctions. Had 51 bidders at
first auction. Apparently broke bidders. Or curiosity seekers.
We bought alot of good antiques cheaply, to re-sell, just to
get the buyers in the place. Expected to at least break even.
Lost alot of money. Second auction was even worse. Going
to have another one next Tuesday night. This one has even
more, high quality antiques. If it doesn't get better soon, I
guess we will write it off as a BAD investment, and get out
of the business. Wish I could attend an auction like the one
I had. I could completely decorate my house in good stuff
for pennies on the dollar of their real value. Example: I gave
$90.00 for a beautiful antique dresser with mirror. It sold
for $25.00. I had two knowledgeable antique dealers look
at it before the sale, and both said it should bring minimum
of $350.00 to $400.00. But $25.00??? OUCH!!!!! Guess I
should stick with tiltmeter business and forget about auctions.
Rick

 

[Golfgar4]

Rick,

Sorry to hear that you're first attempts weren't too successful. Knowing nothing about the auction business, I can't offer any advice other than hang in there. Sometimes it takes a few tries to figure out what works. Have you talked with any experienced auction participants? Maybe if you ask people who frequently attend auctions - the buyers, not the sellers! - what they'd like to see different, that could give you a direction to go.

We've never been down to KC. I guess the closest we've been is Branson. We are planning on doing a bit of traveling in the next year or two after I retire, so maybe we can get down in your area. Wifey calls it our Walk-about /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif We're planning on takng off for a year and just travel all over the country, then go to wherever we decide to settle (probably southern Wisconsin) and build our compound.