Looking at another of the Bidspotter auctions:

No bids at $50 open for Powermatic DP:
http://www.bidspotter.com/forms/stat...&gallery=11197

Clausing 12 x 48 lathe (OK, it has a little rust) for $50:
http://www.bidspotter.com/forms/stat...&gallery=11197

Bridgeport for $140
http://www.bidspotter.com/forms/stat...&gallery=11197

And I'm always whining that there's no auctions near me (this one was 38
minutes away).

Question (for Iggy, I guess): I didn't see anything about inspection.
Do these online auctions have inspection times or do you bid blind?
Blind bidding would explain some of the dirt cheap prices. (Yeah, I
know that there's a picture, but gimme a break.)

Bob

On 2010-06-26, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
Looking at another of the Bidspotter auctions:

No bids at $50 open for Powermatic DP:
http://www.bidspotter.com/forms/stat...&gallery=11197

Clausing 12 x 48 lathe (OK, it has a little rust) for $50:
http://www.bidspotter.com/forms/stat...&gallery=11197

Bridgeport for $140
http://www.bidspotter.com/forms/stat...&gallery=11197

And I'm always whining that there's no auctions near me (this one was 38
minutes away).

Question (for Iggy, I guess): I didn't see anything about inspection.
Do these online auctions have inspection times or do you bid blind?

They always have inspection times. I was to something like one
inspection to date. IOW, I usually bid blind. I do sometimes call
those factories and ask questions.

I had some disappointments, but few and far between. The reason for
this is that I only bid so ridiculously low, that almost all surprises
are good surprises. I do lose money only extremely occasionally, but I
sometimes (more often) lose time.

I suspect that had I gone to more inspections, I would have snagged a
lot more good deals due to knowing more about stuff and bidding
more. I rarely have an opportunity to do so however.

Blind bidding would explain some of the dirt cheap prices. (Yeah, I
know that there's a picture, but gimme a break.)

Actually with some learning curve, you can become pretty decent at
noticing important details on pictures. Kind of like CIA analysts
looking at pictures from satellites.

i