Auction House a worthwhile venture???

[MarkV]

Rick,

Let us know what Tilt Meters sell for at auctions?/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Of course I am kidding. I do admire your entrepreneurial attitude. I know from your past post you are hard working, always moving forward and don’t give up. Where you separate yourself from many others that strive for the business dream is you don’t compromise what you think is right and fair for those who put there trust in your ventures.

<font color=blue> As far as honest, Myself, daughter, and wife have vowed
that no matter what, there will be no favorites in the audience,
no one planted in audience to run prices up, etc.</font color=blue>

I don’t know enough about the auction business to know if this is a good or bad move. I will predict that as long as you maintain your standards, your time is coming.

Good luck,
MarkV

 

[Anonymous Poster]

MarkV,
Thank you for the kind words. I have been going to auctions
for probably 30 yrs. and I have learned from experience
that some auctioneers plant friends in the audience to buy
things at a cheap rate. Most common trick is to say "sorry
sir, I didn't see your hand. Last year I was bidding on a
tractor but the auctioneer (a local ) looked right at me and
sold the tractor to someone else. The tractor now sits on the
auctioneers small farm. Coincidence ? Maybe he bought it
from the first buyer ? Gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Until it happened again a few weeks later on a pickup, and
again on an antique car. He is now campaigning for city
council seat. He will not be getting my vote. I believe
everyone in the audience should have an equal chance to buy
the items. And the person that consigned the item should
get the best price someone is willing to pay. When the crook
came to my house campaigning, I asked how the auction
business was going, and he said he could not seem to get
any consignments or estates to sell. No wonder !!!
I have bought a few real bargains at auctions. Two years ago,
I was at a heavy equipment auction, and bought a self
contained gas powered welder/generator for $50.00. No one
bid on it, and the auctioneer started asking for a $500.00 bid
but had to come down to $50.00 to get a bid, and I was the
only bidder. I sold it to my cousin for the $50.00 I paid.
He's a good guy, and needed a welder, so why not.
Rick

 

[8NTX]

I would guess that in just about every state, it is illegal to have a "schill" in the audience. This is someone who secretly conspires with the auctioneer to bid something up, or to bid for the auctioneer's benefit. The only way to stop this is to complain to the licensing authority for your state. After enough complaints, assuming that they are well-funded enough to investigate, the auctioneer could be shut down for good. But this is a big assumption. Just like any other business, there are good ones and bad ones. Fortunately, many of the bad ones get a reputation and ultimately fail because of it.

 

[Golfgar4]

I'll see what I can find out and get back to you.

 

[Golfgar4]

<font color=blue>ask him if he thinks we can
make a go of it by just doing in house auctions</font color=blue>

I talked with my auctioneer friend today. I don't know if this is good /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif news or bad /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif news, but here it is anyway. He said to make it today, you'd have to do everything - your auction house and private auctions. I did explain that you already had the auction house started and that you had your own building and inventory. Well, that made him feel a little better. He said that you have half the battle won. The other half is keeping a steady stream of inventory coming in. But he still strongly recommends that you get into doing private auctions too.

Hope this helps! Will I get some kind of contributors discount now /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif???

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Golfgar4,
You bet ya.
Come on down, and we'll let you help tear out a few walls to
help make the place bigger. We thought the main part of the
building was big enough until we got chairs and merchandise
in the place. Now it's way too small. So this week end it's a
tear out more walls party. Thank you for talking to your
friend. Rick

 

[Golfgar4]

I'd love to come down....er.....where /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif? You haven't registered yet, so I don't know where down is /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif. I didn't notice anything in any of the posts. For some reason, I get the feeling that it might be Texas?

 

[ChrisR]

Hi Rick

I've been going to auctions for years and along the way have picked up many bargains, but one thing I'm noticing more and more is the smaller auction houses and farm auction companies are now charging Buyers Premiums. Now I Know the big auctioneers have had this for a while, but it seems now that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. I went to a small auction the other day and they were charging 10% on the Hammer price plus GST which is another 10% (this is in Australia) so on a hammer price of $1000 you will actually pay $1210 this has certainly made me think twice about buying things this. Do you have this in the States ? I think it's making more people go back to buying things through the local papers etc.

Regards

Chris

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Hi ChrisR,
We do have a few charging 10% buyers premium, but most
do not. We will not be charging it. What is GST ??? General
sales tax ??? I went to a used office furniture warehouse
yesterday to buy more metal folding chairs, and while there
I noticed just the very top part of a wooden chair sticking up
above a few hundred plastic stacking chairs. Dug it out, and
it is an antique ladder back chair with hand woven hemp
seat, in PERFECT condition. Not a reproduction, the real
thing !!! Bought it for $10.00. Still some bargains out there.
Thanks, Rick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Golfgar4,
We are located in Riverside Missouri. We are surrounded by Kansas City on three sides. We are just south of K.C.I.
Airport about 5 miles. If you are ever in the area I will buy
you an Auction house hot dog. Hey, no big thing, CUT THE
APPLAUSE ! It's just the kind of guy I am. LOL.
Rick