What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Among the worst was just yesterday. An anitique Jet in poor shape, 7 "
swing, no threading, no tool holding, chucks etc. rusty. $850.

My best deal ever was an orchard airblast sprayer and shed full of apple
pesticides. Bought it for $1000. Sold the sprayer for $3800 the next week.
Sold one small box of chemical for $500 the next week also. Kept another
$10,000 worth for use on my orchard. Not metal working but I still feel like
a theif over this one.

Karl




"cmorettz" wrote in message
ups.com...
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Back in the early 80's a local manufacture went tits up, The auction
included a bunch of other machinery and tools the auctioneer truck in as
well. Unfortunatly a lot of local farmers showed up as well. All of
the small stuff got bid up way over it value. A clapped out old Atlas
lathe that you could see the sway in the bed on went for a $1000, a 1"
plain mitutoyo mic went for $50 (more than new at the time). Even
bloody fire extingishers went for more than new prices. The only time I
even thought of bidding on something was if the farmers wouldn't know
what it was for :-)


cmorettz wrote:
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

cmorettz wrote:

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.



I was at a big plant auction, they had rooms full of welders and tooling,
a couple of large CNC machines, etc. A big vertical machining center
with about a 6' x 4' work envelope went for $30,000. The guys who bought
it were trying to figure how many walls of their shop they needed to
pull out to move the machine in!

There were a bunch of Kurt vises that had so many holes drilled in the top
that there was no un-drilled surface left. Obviously, these were on the
tables of drill presses used by idiots. They went for up to $400. I'm
not kidding, the tops of the jaws (not just the hard jaws but the entire
jaw) looked like a good simulation of the moon's surface.

Jon

"cmorettz" wrote in message
ups.com...
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Far too often, I see an Ebay auction for a used (or new) item sell at a
price well above the retail list price for the same item new. And that's
before the shipping costs are added on. The most outrageous cases are when
the seller posts the list retail price of the item right in the auction
description and the stupid buyers still bid the price over that amount. Talk
about auction fever!

At least during a live auction, a buyer doesn't have the benefit of time to
research the value of an item being auctioned before making a bidding
decision. But there's simply no excuse for this kind of over-bidding on
Ebay, especially when one can quickly look up the list price from any number
of online retailers.

- Michael

Far too often, I see an Ebay auction for a used (or new) item sell at a
price well above the retail list price for the same item new. And that's
before the shipping costs are added on. The most outrageous cases are when
the seller posts the list retail price of the item right in the auction
description and the stupid buyers still bid the price over that amount. Talk
about auction fever!

I see that all the time too. For example, I see 10-packs of MIG tips for which
list is $1.11 apiece, selling for $7 and demanding $5.99 shipping, for a total
price of nearly $13, or about $2 more than the worst price you'd ever pay at a
welding store. Sheesh.

But that's mostly about shipping, which is a known ripoff. I see items all the
time selling for 99¢ with $19.95 "shipping" which is ridiculous except they
don't pay ebay fees on the shipping. You'd think ebay itself would police this
better, because it's them getting ripped off, but they don't, sigh.

You can still get better deals on ebay than anywhere else, though. I just bought
a whole box of graphite plates for like $18. I checked my cheapest local vendor
and the price for any *one* of the plates would be over $200. Wow.

GWE

Grant Erwin wrote:
... a whole box of graphite plates ...

OK, what are you going to use them for?

"cmorettz" wrote in message
ups.com...
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Not my best deal, but one of my favorite acquisitions. I bought my Van
Norman #12 milling machine for $50, including a subhead and a lot of
tooling. Unfortunately I did not realize when I was at that auction how
valuable 5V tooling is. I saw quite a few nice drill presses go at that
auction for $10 to $30. That was about three years ago, prices have risen
since.

In general small power tools will go for more than they are worth, sometimes
more than retail. Some auction buyers have not heard of Harbor Freight,
they like to pay more than HF charges plus the buyer's premium, for Central
Pneumatic stuff. For example, $45 plus for an inline filter that's in the
current circular for $19. You can no longer assume that items at an auction
are old-line, American made. Sometimes firms that are going out start buying
HF stuff in the last few years of operation.
Unusual or big things will go cheap. Things that are a PITA to move will go
cheap. Steel bar stock is usually a good deal. It may not go for $50 but it
will go way less than wholesale if it's a big lot. Aluminum will draw the
scrap dealers and they will bid it up somewhere south of the scrap price,
but maybe a lot more than you had hoped to pay.

At the end of the auction if it is a motivated seller and you have the means
to move stuff out, you may get offered a lot of stuff for free. That's why
my back hurts right now :-)

"cmorettz" wrote in message
ups.com...
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.


How about an almost new McEngelvan 2 chamber heat treat furnace, 23KW, for
$50? Retail, when new, was $11,000. Thanks to the wisdom of our school
administrators, this one sold at a high school liquidation when they closed
down all the industrial arts programs. Bidding opened @ $100. No one bid.
Auctioneer dropped to $50. I bid, but no one else did, not even the dealer
that had sold it originally. I had talked to him before the auction began
(at the auction, I didn't know he'd be there) and told him I was interested
in the furnace. He was going to buy it back for resale. He was the
perfect gentleman, not bidding against me.

Harold

cmorettz wrote:
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

I don't go to machinery auctions in person because there are hardly any
round here. But I find that at auctions in general stuff commonly goes
really cheap (if only one person is bidding) or for a crazy figure (if
lots of people are bidding).

On eBay I recently got a pair of bolt cutter jaws for £5 and an engine
fuel tank for £0.50. Usual prices for these are about £45 and £10
respectively. Shipping was pretty low too, so all in all a good deal.

If you want bargains, you just have to make sure you don't get carried
away with bidding. Some people seem to think it's the end of the world
if they lose an auction, then the next week something identical (or
better) comes along.

Chris

I scored a two ton chain fall with trolley for 70 dollars. I thought that
was pretty good. When I was inspecting lots a guy I knew from the shop
next to where I worked was looking at them. I told him I wouldn't bid
against him. I was standing with him when the bidding started. He was
bidding against some dealer across the way. Just as the price hit 65
someone tapped the dealer on the shoulder to talk to him. The auctioneer
took the 70 dollar bid looked over to the other guy talking and shouted
SOLD! The next words were " Do you want the one or both?" that's how I got
the second chain block for 70 dollars" The look on the dealer's face was
priceless.
This same auction had 130 fiberglass front ends for Wesetern Star
trucks with a variety of front axle setbacks. They came up for bid and a
trucker wanted to bid only one hood. The auctioneer refused. It was late
at night around 11 and they still had a lot of stuff to go through. The
poor trucker had to bid on all 130 hoods. He got the lot for less than 600
dollars.!!! He made a killing selling them off to truck body repair shops.
Randy


"cmorettz" wrote in message
ups.com...
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Electrodes for electrolytic derusting. They don't get eaten away and they
don't make the solution cruddy. I might use one in some hot work too, sort
of the way you might use a firebrick. Don't know until I see it -- I got one
of those "grab bags" off ebay. - GWE

Bob Engelhardt wrote:

Grant Erwin wrote:

... a whole box of graphite plates ...


OK, what are you going to use them for?

In article ,
Christopher Tidy wrote:

cmorettz wrote:
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

I don't go to machinery auctions in person because there are hardly any
round here. But I find that at auctions in general stuff commonly goes
really cheap (if only one person is bidding) or for a crazy figure (if
lots of people are bidding).

I stopped going to auctions in my area, after putting in the high bid
sor something and have 'no sale' because the secret minimum bid was not
met. I don't mind a minimum but if it's a secret then I just waste my
time if I'm not willing to pay that much.

--
Free men own guns, slaves don't
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5357/

I have learned that auctions are like garage sales. You gotta get out of
the car and look around. Some people go to a yard sale and never get out of
the car. There can be just one item there that is worth the whole trip.
But if you don't look around, you probably won't see it.

Yes, there are idiotic practices at auctions regarding reserves and other
practices. And then there are just plain vanilla idiot varieties of
bidders, sellers, auctioneers, and auctions.

I personally don't think any rules are hard and fast and apply to all cases.

Steve

"DeepDiver" wrote in message
...
"cmorettz" wrote in message
ups.com...
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Far too often, I see an Ebay auction for a used (or new) item sell at a
price well above the retail list price for the same item new. And that's
before the shipping costs are added on. The most outrageous cases are when
the seller posts the list retail price of the item right in the auction
description and the stupid buyers still bid the price over that amount.
Talk
about auction fever!


I have seen the prices on FleeBay go out of sight too, but I have scored
some good deals on ebay. The latest deal was this dayton/wilton VS 20" drill
press
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7511913725
for $280.00 in all most new condition the MSC blue book lists it for
$5780.00 I have been looking for one for years!

William.....



At least during a live auction, a buyer doesn't have the benefit of time
to
research the value of an item being auctioned before making a bidding
decision. But there's simply no excuse for this kind of over-bidding on
Ebay, especially when one can quickly look up the list price from any
number
of online retailers.

- Michael

On 13 Jun 2005 12:46:36 -0700, "cmorettz" wrote:

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

I wanted a grader blade for my tractor. One was at an auction so
I went, prepared to pay about half new price, including commission &
GST, ie $450 - $500. Bloody idiots bid to $925 + $46.25 commission
+ $97.12 GST, total $1068.37 --- a new, better one is $880
including GST. I went to $450 and stopped.
At another auction I picked up 2 new fire pumps for $245 total,
sold one later for $250 and the buyer thought he had a bargain (true,
as one from a shop would have cost about $500 ) - I had the real
bargain with my FREE pump.
Alan
in beautiful Golden Bay, Western Oz, South 32.25.42, East 115.45.44 GMT+8
VK6 YAB ICQ 6581610 to reply, change oz to au in address

Worst: Import transfer punches for $68.00 (never go to Saturday
auctions where farmers are...)

Best: Yuasa 5C CNC spin index and control, $5.00
(it was on a pallet of crap, missing one pin on the clamping yoke,
works perfectly though and often used on the Barker mill for cutting
gears now...)

On 13 Jun 2005 12:46:36 -0700, "cmorettz" wrote:

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

I think you're the winner so far...


Felice Luftschein and Nicholas Carter wrote:
Worst: Import transfer punches for $68.00 (never go to Saturday
auctions where farmers are...)

Best: Yuasa 5C CNC spin index and control, $5.00
(it was on a pallet of crap, missing one pin on the clamping yoke,
works perfectly though and often used on the Barker mill for cutting
gears now...)

On 13 Jun 2005 12:46:36 -0700, "cmorettz" wrote:


What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

cmorettz wrote:
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.


I've scored on a lot of stuff at auctions, and anti-scored on a few too..

BSA Royal Star- very nice, very low miles.. $10. Sold it for $650.

BSA Bantam rolling frame with a burned Penton 125.. $1.00

Another Penton 125, good runner.. $15

Those were from the best auction I've ever attended, I spend $120 and
hauled stuff a twelve mile round trip for more than 12 hours. Made a lot
of money from that one.

Bought a Manitowic ice machine for the wife's restaurant a couple years
ago, it was about a year old.. $40. New price around $1700, plus hopper.

Got 6 explosion-proof light fixtures with bulbs, paid $3 and sold them
for $50 each.

A good example of an anti-score was a box of good quality grease guns I
bought at a heavy equipment auction.. got 'em cheap, found out pretty
soon that every one had been run over by something.. Heads, tubes and
end caps, all slightly flattened.

John

In article ,
wrote:

On 13 Jun 2005 12:46:36 -0700, "cmorettz" wrote:

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

I wanted a grader blade for my tractor. One was at an auction so
I went, prepared to pay about half new price, including commission &
GST, ie $450 - $500. Bloody idiots bid to $925 + $46.25 commission
+ $97.12 GST, total $1068.37 --- a new, better one is $880
including GST. I went to $450 and stopped.
At another auction I picked up 2 new fire pumps for $245 total,
sold one later for $250 and the buyer thought he had a bargain (true,
as one from a shop would have cost about $500 ) - I had the real
bargain with my FREE pump.
Alan
in beautiful Golden Bay, Western Oz, South 32.25.42, East 115.45.44 GMT+8
VK6 YAB ICQ 6581610 to reply, change oz to au in address

Watched two guys get into a bidding war over a Marlin lever-action .22
rifle. They bid it up to $185 before one dropped out. It wasn't a
rarity, commemorative model, etc, just a plain vanilla Marlin 39A.

He could have purchased the same rifle for $79.95 at K-Mart by driving
10 miles -- and keeping his testosterone level down a bit.

Obviously you haven't priced a Marlin 22 lately. Although the bid was too
high to me it was in line. Used 39A's go for 250 and up on Gunsamerica. You
are thinking of the brazilian made clones.

--

Clif Holland, KA5IPF
www.avvid.com


"John Husvar" wrote in message
...
In article ,
wrote:

On 13 Jun 2005 12:46:36 -0700, "cmorettz" wrote:

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

I wanted a grader blade for my tractor. One was at an auction so
I went, prepared to pay about half new price, including commission &
GST, ie $450 - $500. Bloody idiots bid to $925 + $46.25 commission
+ $97.12 GST, total $1068.37 --- a new, better one is $880
including GST. I went to $450 and stopped.
At another auction I picked up 2 new fire pumps for $245 total,
sold one later for $250 and the buyer thought he had a bargain (true,
as one from a shop would have cost about $500 ) - I had the real
bargain with my FREE pump.
Alan
in beautiful Golden Bay, Western Oz, South 32.25.42, East 115.45.44
GMT+8
VK6 YAB ICQ 6581610 to reply, change oz to au in address

Watched two guys get into a bidding war over a Marlin lever-action .22
rifle. They bid it up to $185 before one dropped out. It wasn't a
rarity, commemorative model, etc, just a plain vanilla Marlin 39A.

He could have purchased the same rifle for $79.95 at K-Mart by driving
10 miles -- and keeping his testosterone level down a bit.

In article 9hGre.10964$9a1.142@trnddc01,
"Clif Holland" wrote:

Obviously you haven't priced a Marlin 22 lately. Although the bid was too
high to me it was in line. Used 39A's go for 250 and up on Gunsamerica. You
are thinking of the brazilian made clones.


When that little bidding war occurred, Marlin 39As sold for $79.95 just
as I said. It was about 30 years ago. There were no Brazilian made
clones that I was aware of then.

That sweet little lever-action has been around a long time and justly so
IMO.

"cmorettz" wrote in message
ups.com...
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.


The worst auction I've attended was the one at the old Boy's High School in
dowtown Milwauke a year or two back. It was a huge school, maybe a full
block or more in size that was apparently being shut down and the the shop
items used for vocational training were up for auction, including more SB
lathes than I've ever seen in one location. They ran out of catalogs before
the auction started, which was a bad sign. They started with some of the
upper class lathes, which were only tooled with the very basics and started
auctioning them off in groups of 5 or so. Not a bad policy for a dealer,
but bad news for the guy looking to equip a home shop. Partway through that
they decided to auction the cabinets on the walls which turned out to have
the tooling and accessories for the lathes just sold. It was announced that
the cabinets & contents would be sold and they then decided to auction off
just the cabinets and declared that the buyers of the lathes could fight
over the tooling. It was about then that we decided to leave, after just an
hour or so. Dave Ficken (when he still operated Meridian Machine) attended
and, AIR, later reported that he bought abround 20k lbs worth of stuff but
had major problems getting all the stuff he bought out, disputing charges
for items he hadn't bid on, and trying to get security to stop someone else
from carting off something he'd bought..

The whole thing seemed one of the most poorly organised auctions I've
attended. Anybody else here attend that one?

Mike

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:03:43 GMT, John Husvar
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

On 13 Jun 2005 12:46:36 -0700, "cmorettz" wrote:

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

I wanted a grader blade for my tractor. One was at an auction so
I went, prepared to pay about half new price, including commission &
GST, ie $450 - $500. Bloody idiots bid to $925 + $46.25 commission
+ $97.12 GST, total $1068.37 --- a new, better one is $880
including GST. I went to $450 and stopped.
At another auction I picked up 2 new fire pumps for $245 total,
sold one later for $250 and the buyer thought he had a bargain (true,
as one from a shop would have cost about $500 ) - I had the real
bargain with my FREE pump.
Alan
in beautiful Golden Bay, Western Oz, South 32.25.42, East 115.45.44 GMT+8
VK6 YAB ICQ 6581610 to reply, change oz to au in address

Watched two guys get into a bidding war over a Marlin lever-action .22
rifle. They bid it up to $185 before one dropped out. It wasn't a
rarity, commemorative model, etc, just a plain vanilla Marlin 39A.

He could have purchased the same rifle for $79.95 at K-Mart by driving
10 miles -- and keeping his testosterone level down a bit.

Now days Marlin 39s go for at least $250 used in this neck of the
woods. If you ever find one for $79...let me know what you want to
trade for it. Im joneing BAD for one.

I traded for one last year..only to discover it was a transitional
piece..no parts are available even though Numrich..and its missing
"stuff"

Sigh

Gunner

"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Worst item won then lost:
Bid on and won a Starrett 24 x 36 2 ledge surface plate for $20. At
check out they had no record of my bid. They must have wrote ome
other bidders number on their tally sheet. When I protested and
asked them to check their recording ( whole auction was tape recorded)
I was told that the tale was "not available".

Best sco (gloat)
Spotted a Hardinge dividing head mixed in with some accessories for an
old Clausing 14" lathe. I asked to auctioneer it seperately, but no
dice. After the lathe was sold, I bought the dividing head, an
Aloris CA toolpost, and a cheap little spin indexer from the buyer of
the lathe. Also got a toolmakers microscope the no serious bidder
wanted. Less than $200 for the lot! Sold the Aloris and covered my
outlay. Sold the microscope for big bucks. And I still have the
Hardinge.

John Normile

"Mike Henry" wrote:


"cmorettz" wrote in message
oups.com...
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.


The worst auction I've attended was the one at the old Boy's High School in
dowtown Milwauke a year or two back. It was a huge school, maybe a full
block or more in size that was apparently being shut down and the the shop
items used for vocational training were up for auction, including more SB
lathes than I've ever seen in one location. They ran out of catalogs before
the auction started, which was a bad sign. They started with some of the
upper class lathes, which were only tooled with the very basics and started
auctioning them off in groups of 5 or so. Not a bad policy for a dealer,
but bad news for the guy looking to equip a home shop. Partway through that
they decided to auction the cabinets on the walls which turned out to have
the tooling and accessories for the lathes just sold. It was announced that
the cabinets & contents would be sold and they then decided to auction off
just the cabinets and declared that the buyers of the lathes could fight
over the tooling. It was about then that we decided to leave, after just an
hour or so. Dave Ficken (when he still operated Meridian Machine) attended
and, AIR, later reported that he bought abround 20k lbs worth of stuff but
had major problems getting all the stuff he bought out, disputing charges
for items he hadn't bid on, and trying to get security to stop someone else
from carting off something he'd bought..

The whole thing seemed one of the most poorly organised auctions I've
attended. Anybody else here attend that one?

Woah Mike!

You're the winner on bad experiences in this thread. Who was the
auctioneer?

George.

On 13 Jun 2005 12:46:36 -0700, "cmorettz" wrote:

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Best score. A late model bass boat at a city auction near the busiest
lake around. The boat was sitting on the muddy ground and there must
have 30 people standing around it before the auction. A kid that
worked for me piped up, "Too bad it was sunk". I asked how he knew
that. He said there was a big hole in the bottom and the wrecker
driver told him it was full rocks when they recovered it. The crowd
just melted away.

I bought it for $300. No hole. No rocks. Sly kid.

"Andy Asberry" wrote in message
news
On 13 Jun 2005 12:46:36 -0700, "cmorettz" wrote:

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Best score. A late model bass boat at a city auction near the busiest
lake around. The boat was sitting on the muddy ground and there must
have 30 people standing around it before the auction. A kid that
worked for me piped up, "Too bad it was sunk". I asked how he knew
that. He said there was a big hole in the bottom and the wrecker
driver told him it was full rocks when they recovered it. The crowd
just melted away.

I bought it for $300. No hole. No rocks. Sly kid.


And surely no...uhh..."coaching" from his boss, I'm sure.

"George" wrote in message
...
"Mike Henry" wrote:


"cmorettz" wrote in message
roups.com...
What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.


The worst auction I've attended was the one at the old Boy's High School
in
dowtown Milwauke a year or two back. It was a huge school, maybe a full
block or more in size that was apparently being shut down and the the shop
items used for vocational training were up for auction, including more SB
lathes than I've ever seen in one location. They ran out of catalogs
before
the auction started, which was a bad sign. They started with some of the
upper class lathes, which were only tooled with the very basics and
started
auctioning them off in groups of 5 or so. Not a bad policy for a dealer,
but bad news for the guy looking to equip a home shop. Partway through
that
they decided to auction the cabinets on the walls which turned out to have
the tooling and accessories for the lathes just sold. It was announced
that
the cabinets & contents would be sold and they then decided to auction off
just the cabinets and declared that the buyers of the lathes could fight
over the tooling. It was about then that we decided to leave, after just
an
hour or so. Dave Ficken (when he still operated Meridian Machine)
attended
and, AIR, later reported that he bought abround 20k lbs worth of stuff but
had major problems getting all the stuff he bought out, disputing charges
for items he hadn't bid on, and trying to get security to stop someone
else
from carting off something he'd bought..

The whole thing seemed one of the most poorly organised auctions I've
attended. Anybody else here attend that one?

Woah Mike!

You're the winner on bad experiences in this thread. Who was the
auctioneer?


The auction company was something like Gerlach. I've avoided their auctions
ever since, but maybe they just had an off day.

By comparison the farm auctions around her in the Very Far Western suburbs
of Chicago are a pleasure to go to. It's fun to watch the yuppies bid way
more than market value on "antique" items, though I've done that myself on a
tool or two. In general the auctioneers hereabouts seem to be a decent
lot - one of them stopped a bidding frenzy abruptly when he asked the next
high bidder if she really wanted to raise her husband's bid. I've never
seen areserve price item at these and there usually isn't a buyer's
premium.

Mike

Mike

Watched two guys get into a bidding war over a Marlin lever-action .22
rifle. They bid it up to $185 before one dropped out. It wasn't a
rarity, commemorative model, etc, just a plain vanilla Marlin 39A.

He could have purchased the same rifle for $79.95 at K-Mart by driving
10 miles -- and keeping his testosterone level down a bit.

In '86, I went to an auction of a gunsmith's shop. I bid $20 for what the
catalog called "trash can full of gun barrels." No one else bid, so I got it. I
included:

..303 SMLE barreled action minus a few small parts
Marlin 12ga pump shotgun missing a butt stock
Winchester 12ga Model 25 pump missing wood w/ bent barrel
Mossberg 51(m) .22 semiauto barreled action
Unknown .22 barreled bolt action.
Springfield M1922 .22 barrel

about 10 different barrel blanks, shotgun & rifle.

I sent off the barrel blanks and a few odd parts to Gunparts, who sent me a
check for $45. I put a buttstock on the Marlin 12ga pump and sold it for $100. I
still have the rest, some are projects I hope to get to Real Soon Now.

And I still have the trash can....

David

Last auction that I went to was a real disaster for auction company.
Finally got it going about 3 hours late and loosing about 30% of the
bidders. Got about 20 minuets into selling off all the raw stock when
the owner stopped the auction and demanded that the auctioneer
repackage all the raw stock and sell it as giant lots. ****ed about
another 15-20% of the bidders off and they left. Finally got to the
equipment and the owner kept vetoing every sale the auctioneer made by
suddenly stating that there was a minimum price on that item. And there
had been no mention of minimums at the annoucement session or in the
catalog or anywhere. These sudden minimums even caught the auctioneers
by suprize. By this time almost 90% of the registered bidders had left.
When the owner started making deals with people while the auctioneer
was trying to sell the same item, I got hacked and my partner and I
left. We told the guy in the auction office what was going on on the
floor as we were leaving. He told us that things had turned so bad that
less than a dozen of the lots that had finally been sold had been pair
for and that most people had refused to complete the sales on much of
the others. I ran into one of the auction crew a couple of weeks later
and asked him about the final outcome. He said they managed to finally
sell off and get paid for about 45 of the 700+ lots. The ban that had
forced the auction came in about a week later and seized everything
left in the building and sold it off a few weeks later at a
considerable loss.

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

A few years back I went to a slide show auction for a shop being
liquidated. The owners had decided to retire and auction off
everything. Lathes, milling machines, forklifts etc were only bringing
$200-300. I actually was waiting for a milling machine from another
shop coming up later so didn't bid on much but bought a steel table
loaded with tooling, tool posts, holders etc. for $15.00 and a few
other small items. Really felt sorry for the owners watching their
lifetime accumulation being sold dirt cheap.

On the other end of the stick I went to an auction to try and buy an
old Bridgeport. When I got there I found it was really worn - holes in
the table, could turn knobs a full turn or more before table would
start to move etc. I figured if it went real cheap I could have it
reworked. Two guys got into a bidding war and went to $5500.00. I
figured there must have been drugs in the base and they were the only
two that knew about it. At the time there was a local dealer selling
several excellent machines w/ DRO for $4900.00 so I don't know what
was going on with these two idiots.

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 22:14:55 GMT, "DeepDiver"
wrote:

"Andy Asberry" wrote in message
news
On 13 Jun 2005 12:46:36 -0700, "cmorettz" wrote:

What are the best and or the worst prices youve seen at auction?
outrageous prices? Auction fever? One second late?

Lets hear it.

Best score. A late model bass boat at a city auction near the busiest
lake around. The boat was sitting on the muddy ground and there must
have 30 people standing around it before the auction. A kid that
worked for me piped up, "Too bad it was sunk". I asked how he knew
that. He said there was a big hole in the bottom and the wrecker
driver told him it was full rocks when they recovered it. The crowd
just melted away.

I bought it for $300. No hole. No rocks. Sly kid.


And surely no...uhh..."coaching" from his boss, I'm sure.


I only wish I was as quick as he is.