Bob Brogan wrote:


Well, having gone to a considerable number of auctions and bought a lot
of tools that way, I'd be surprised if any auctioneer let this guy take
the rest of the planes for the "same money"(that's the same price for
each of the rest of the planes for the auction challenged) when they
were auctioning off ONE plane only.

I'd more suspect that you may have missed the auctioneer saying they
were doing the planes "as a group" but you bid on one and take what ever
number, and the rest are offered to the second bidder at that money.

In the UK this is referred to as "selling the blah WITH THE OPTION"

This mystic "with the option" phrase is easy to miss, and
is completely unintelligble until it's explained.

It's most commonly used (at my local auction house)
when selling pile of (say for example) 50 planks. The first
plank is sold "with the option". This establishes a price,
and the winning bidder is asked how many planks he
wants at the price. If he doesn't take all 50,
the process is repeated.

BugBear