First time at an Auction(not impressed) = First time fixing up tool cart

[SignalZero]

Went to my first auction a couple weeks ago. It was a Foreclosed Truss Company. No Reserves and 10% buyer premium, but it still ended up being a waste of my time. I figure there are just too many retirees and unemployed people looking to resell in this area as the auction was on a Wednesday(I work graveyard) but was still packed and everything went high. As one example, I saw an old Insignia(Best Buy house brand) 32" lcd tv sell for $200; Google search showed this model goes for around $30 online now. This was a good lot to gauge the crowd on as I worked at Best Buy in Home Theater in college. After the tv, I should've known to go home, but still decided to wait to see if I could get some tools or Napa cabinets. When the auctioneer got to the shop area with all the tools, boxes and cabinets it got much more ridiculous.
After wasting half of my day and getting constantly outbid on lots in the shop area, I decided not to go home empty handed. I bid on a lot tucked into a corner. $35 later I owned 2 seemingly unused furniture dollies(which I do need), 2 brand new metal garbage cans, and this Chinese tool box/cart. After rediscovering the cart was empty except for some scrap metal(wasn't planning to bid on this lot, so I forgot about it), I had that instant feeling of "WTF did I just buy?"
Trying to make the best of things, I decided to do something else I've seen on this forum, and restore the cart. The auction thing didn't work for me, but I was willing to give you guys another chance.

This picture was taken when I realized I forgot to take a before picture(excuse the messy garage; shameful, I know). The whole thing was this greenish gray, with orange trim on the drawer lips.

After:

I just might get some use out of this thing. It will at least hold me over until I fix the garage up a bit and get a nice work bench area in front of the cars(now I can stop setting things on the lid of my parts washer).

For those of you who like going to auctions and garage sales, I think I've found I just don't have the patience to constantly seek out either for a chance at a good deal. There is a local flea market though, which is run like a bunch of small yard sales(as opposed to the kind of "flea market" where everything is new chinese stuff). I'll probably keep going to this as I always find some good deals on tools.

 

[KEH]

Good restoration job. Looks like you didn't come out bad at all.

I went to an auction where the government was selling out this guy who was a smaller scale Bernie Madoff(worthy of a thread by itself) There wer some cattle corral panels and i though I could use a few, so I checked the new price first, $63 each. They went for $75 each. I commented to the person behind me that that was morfe than new price. That person was a young woman who was the winning bidder, so i shut my mouth and kept walking. There was a bunch of Cracker Barrel hang on the wall type old tools, one of which was a well rusted True Temper hatchet. I have one like it in perfect condition. The rusted one went for $25. I wanted to find the bidder and offer him mine for the same price. I may have $5.00 in mine, but probably less.

People go insane at auctions.

KEH

 

[SlowPoke-Canada]

Auctions tend to be like the last ten seconds of eBay spread out over several hours... people just lose their minds.
You did all right for $35 and some effort. That will make for a good dedicated detailing cart.

 

[Thumper68]

Auctions can be hit or miss, I have gotten great deals, ok deals and gone home empty handed. I tend to think of them as a day out.

Best deals I have gotten lately are the Napa shop cabinets in this thread http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=203823

2 sets of ridged cordless tools, 2 hammer drills, 2 circular saws, 2 flash lights, 1 sawzall and 1 jigsaw for $120, yes I had to get new batteries but the new lion bats fit the older tools and HD had them on sale for $55 so for all the tools and bats and a charger I have $270 invested.

Honda es6000 gen set with less than 100 hours on it for $600

The best auctions are the big ones that will go all day, people get tired and leave so at some point you are left with the serious buyers who know what stuff is worth, and won't bid stuff up.

A few years ago there was a local lumber/millwork shop that was going out of business, in the fine print at the bottom of the ad it said auction held rain or shine. It was pouring that morning, but we went anyway, there were about 40 people there and we were walking off with pallets of stuff for less than $50 I walked away with an industrial shaper with 200 or so heads for $180, after I cleaned it up I sold it for $2600.

A few things that help at auctions,
Make eye contact with other bidders
Jump the bid (If the auctioneer is asking for $50 jump it to $100)
postion yourself near one of the auction helpers, make small talk between items
If the price is too high walk away.
If its a big auction bring a folding chair

 

[justanengineer]

Try not to be too discouraged, you really just need to realize a few things about attending auctions in order to find a good one. IMHO, most auctioneers are terrible bc 1. theyre slow and 2. they nickel/dime you to death. A good auctioneer can clean out a pretty good sized estate in 3-4 hours, is very quick to accept $1-2 bids, and will also quickly bundle things to get rid of unsellable items. They also cater to the buyer and not the seller, bc the buyers are the ones that pay the bills, and a good auctioneer is also usually pretty entertaining/funny/full of jokes. Find a good auctioneer and get on a first name basis w/them and you will be surprised at some of the deals you get. As for the auction itself, if its open to the public an auction inside of a major city simply isnt worth the effort. Too many people = too much competition. Find an auction in the sticks and not only will the average income/spending $$$ drop, but also the number of folks competing for deals.

 

[wellpoison]

Sometimes I see the same thing. It really depends who is there and who the auctioneer is. The last one I went to I was completely amazed. I bid a couple bucks on three vice grips one had the bottom jaw welded back on. They were just used old USA made Irwin brand. Sold for 20 bucks. But I scored a nice proto ratchet, an SK ratchet and some 1/2 in drive sockets all proto for 5 bucks. I couldn't believe it. You just gotta keep at it. And understand that most of the time when you see something go for a crazy high price and you standing there thinking your missing something your really not. It's just the other people are stupid. I've had days like you have and I've had some where I cleaned house.

 

[NHBandit]

We go to alot of auctions and a few flea markets. As others have said, auctions can be a **** shoot. Large well advertised auctions that post pictures on auctionzip.com will have great stuff alot of times. They will also attract bidders from all over and you'll be hard pressed to get any deals at all. I will only go to those if I see something on the website I simply HAVE to have and I'm ok with paying too much to get it. Small weekly auctions are better most times but those can be tricky too. If I know there's a small one going on at the same time as one of the big well advertised auctions I'll go to the small one knowing that most of the heavy hitters won't be there. On the subject of flea markets it's been my experience that almost all of the larger indoor fleas will have the same vendors selling the same Chinese dollar store garbage week after week or they will have cool unique stuff that's grossly over priced. Like one guy who has a permanent booth at the Bristol TN flea market. I passed on a large (but not old) Kendall oil sign that was for sale on craigslist for $200 one time because I thought it was too much money for a modern sign. The following week the flea market gas & oil guy had it in his booth for $900. WTF.. I know you gotta make a profit but holy hell ! The best flea markets without exception are the outdoor ones that are just a bunch of regular folks trying to make the rent by cleaning out their garage.

 

[jd_1138]

As one example, I saw an old Insignia(Best Buy house brand) 32" lcd tv sell for $200; Google search showed this model goes for around $30 online now. This was a good lot to gauge the crowd on as I worked at Best Buy in Home Theater in college.

Online prices for bulky things like TV's are usually lower because shipping costs so much. It might cost $100 or so to ship that $30 TV, so the online buyers figure that into the price, so they don't bid much. Whereas, if the person sold it locally, they could probably get $100 or so for a flat panel LCD TV -- no matter what the brand is.

With auctions, you just got to go to more and you might get lucky. But really, with the # of flippers/resellers, the prices are going to go too high, perhaps. I think there are some people with lots of money so they use auctions as a hobby to buy and sell items. If time is scarce, it might be better to use that time on other projects and spending time with your family.

 

[trainer]

I go to auctions a few times a year around here. They usually divide the sale into two rings with the household stuff in one ring and the 'manly" stuff in another. On less expensive items, the auctioneers generally wont let someone jump back into the bidding after bowing out, or let someone in late in the bidding. It keeps the sale moving and makes for fewer disappointed buyers. On big ticket items its open to any bid.

You can usually do pretty good later in the day when the crowds are thinning and most of the money has been spent.

 

[Super Sport]

I just started going to auctions recently, and have scored some pretty good deals. Of course, I've also seen a few things go crazy high.

I prefer tag sales because I can be in and out quickly first thing in the morning, but the prices I've paid at auctions have been cheaper that what I would have paid at a tag sale.

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

LOL...if you honestly value your time and resources, auctions are a waste of time.

The better auction advertising and tigher economy make auctions a sucker's bet...more demand than supply..so there are NO bargains.

I will say that if the auction item is a ONE OF A KIND (a condition I have seen a few time in life), then you need to go to THAT auction and bid what it takes.

You also need to realize that there are so many ways to get screwed over in an auction setting that the odds are against you for coming out on top.

You will also hear story after story from the auction faithful about "I got this one thing that I made lots of money on". What they don't tell you is while they may have scored on that 1 out of a 100 item they bought and sold, they lost money on the other 99 items in terms of time spent, distance traveled, etc....again a sucker's bet.

I see someone made the comment about being a buddy with the auctioneer...if you have an auctioneer who is handing out bargains, he is cheating the seller and is committing fraud. I have been to a number of auctions over the years where I have seen the auctioneer sell the "good stuff" to his cronies for a cut of the return...and then later sued by the seller when they realized that they had been cheated.

 

[egnorant]

Auctions can be odd and change in an instant. Had one fellow that did not want to go to $20 on a toolbox full of old screwdrivers and turned and wandered off, auctioneer suddenly added 2 more boxes of pliers and electrical stuff! My 20 buck bid got them all and the guy who wandered off was ticked off because he wanted the toolbox with the test probes and such (Craftsman Crown Top Cantilever). Bottom of the screwdriver box was 2 air staplers. About 80 screwdrivers (25 keepers) and 50 various pliers most were great!

Saw a large Snap-On compressor go for more than list price! Still had a tag from the pawn shop it was in with a $1399 price on it and it still sold for $2300! I was out at $800.

Brother bought a box of trailer wiring, lights and such for $9. He must have been the only guy to dig to the bottom and realize the 3 boxes he saw packed into the bottom were exactly what the label on the box said they were! 18" Rigid adjustable wrenches, brand new, still in boxes...6 of them!

If I find 1 item worth buying at every 10 auctions I consider it good, but I am EXTREMELY cheap.

Sometimes it is just a fun day poking around stuff with a meal at an out of the way place, sometimes it is a mad scramble to get my brother to get over here with a trailer and more money!

Once went to an auction that was advertised with a lot of model train stuff. It went for stupid money and once the train stuff was gone a lot of folks left. Then I spent the next few auctions buying those little blue coin collecting book full of coins for less than face value of the coins they contained! Bought a misprinted $100 bill for $80!
I got all the silver stuff before someone realized that they were selling money for less than face value and I was out.

And yes, I too have bought stuff that turns out to be ****, Usually I have my limit and just stick to it. Still often end up with 100 pounds of **** for $100 and the one item I want is 6 ounces and is the justification of my $100 bid.

Or I could stay home and watch Dancing with the Stars!

Bruce

 

[Thumper68]

BTW I forgot, nice clean up on the cart, good job.

 

[warmpancakes]

you have to know what you are buying and bidding on at auctions, I only go to auctions run by 2 local auctioneers, as they are fair honest and FAST they dont play , They policy is going once SOLD . I have made very good money at their auctions. they sell tools by the box lot so if you know what to look for theres bargans galore

One of my favorites

http://www.narhiauctions.com/


Im the guy in the Red alabama hat

 

[SignalZero]

Thanks for the compliments on the cart. Now that it's cleaned up, I don't have the buyer's remorse feeling I instantly had loading this stuff up in my truck. LOL I wish I had taken an actual "Before" picture as that thing was just UGLY. Now it looks good and will be a useful addition to the garage.

As for the auction, I felt the auction company was great. They moved pretty quickly, and when an item/lot was complete ****, they were great about taking offers and moving on. What killed me were the people in attendance. As stated, this auction was on a Wednesday, and I was surprised to find the place was packed.
One frustrating thing I noticed is when the auctioneer threw out the first price, no one would speak up. They would then take a lower bid, however, people then had no problem bidding the item WAY past the first price thrown out. For example: Start at $50...take $20 starting bid, and item sells for $200. IMO, the auction would've gone much faster if not for this stupidity.
Waiting the auction out was not much of an option, as most of the stuff I wanted was in the shop area where the company serviced their vehicles. They started the auction in the office building, then did the few vehicles, then hit the shop area at about 1pm. I actually left and came back before they got to the shop area. There were a few manufacturing buildings after the shop, but there was nothing I was interested in those buildings. I think most people were paying, packing up, and leaving when they finished in the shop area.

On the subject of flea markets it's been my experience that almost all of the larger indoor fleas will have the same vendors selling the same Chinese dollar store garbage week after week or they will have cool unique stuff that's grossly over priced. Like one guy who has a permanent booth at the Bristol TN flea market. I passed on a large (but not old) Kendall oil sign that was for sale on craigslist for $200 one time because I thought it was too much money for a modern sign. The following week the flea market gas & oil guy had it in his booth for $900. WTF.. I know you gotta make a profit but holy hell ! The best flea markets without exception are the outdoor ones that are just a bunch of regular folks trying to make the rent by cleaning out their garage.

This is why I had stayed away from flea markets. A year or so ago, I went to a big indoor flea market looking for a cheap fishing pole. Instead of "flea market," I felt "dirt mall" would have been a more proper term as all the booths looked permanent and all the items was new/cheaply made stuff. The tool booth wasn't worth stopping at as long as there are Harbor Freights in this area.

I did find a Flea Market that I've already attended twice in the past month. It's the kind that is just like a bunch of yard sales in one spot. My first visit I scored a brand new 18-piece set of Craftsmen (pre-laser etch; so WAY before the chinese C-man stuff) 6pt 3/8 deep drive sockets for $20. There's also a regular guy who always has different used tools. I've got a few good USA made wrenches from him for $1 or less a piece.

I've tried yardsales, but I started to get the impression those were just unemployed people selling junk they found in the trash. The other kind were middle class families with baby clothes and furniture.
The regular guy at the flea market told me he gets his stuff at estate and yard sales. I'm ok paying him a small profit to go to those for me. Then I'm done at the flea market in less than an hour and have the rest of the Saturday to myself.

LOL...if you honestly value your time and resources, auctions are a waste of time.

The better auction advertising and tigher economy make auctions a sucker's bet...more demand than supply..so there are NO bargains.

It really sounds like you've hit the nail on the head as far as the auction I went to goes. There were no bargains due to the combination of people bidding things too high, and some of the lots just being too big.

Also, now I know how long a foreclosure auction for a giant business takes. Between my house, yard, and project cars, I have too many projects to waste my days off trying to get a good deal on something I may not really need. I really was just curious, but now I have the auction thing out of my system. At least until I catch up on my projects...which may be never.

 

[justanengineer]

LOL...if you honestly value your time and resources, auctions are a waste of time.

You will also hear story after story from the auction faithful about "I got this one thing that I made lots of money on". What they don't tell you is while they may have scored on that 1 out of a 100 item they bought and sold, they lost money on the other 99 items in terms of time spent, distance traveled, etc....again a sucker's bet.

I see someone made the comment about being a buddy with the auctioneer...if you have an auctioneer who is handing out bargains, he is cheating the seller and is committing fraud.

Sounds like youve never been to a decent auction. Ive been going to them weekly since I was a kid, so have a bit more experience than most in this area, currently going to ONLY ~50 auctions/yr. Frankly, with minimal effort I could make at least $50-100 buying 1-2 items every week for 2-3 hours total time invested and sell them in under a week, so yes the deals are out there. If they werent, the local antique dealers wouldnt use them to fill their stores. Last week I sold a current model Cman Pro radial arm saw for $75 that I bought for $20 while keeping the accessories for myself.

As for being friendly with the auctioneer, there is a difference between "handing out bargains" and keeping a reasonably fast pace flowing, the latter caters more to the buyers as they should bc most folks are buyers. IMHO, the auctioneer should NOT cater to the seller in the sense that they nickel/dime the buyers to death as it makes for an unnecessarily long auction. Being friendly with an auctioneer and also being a regular customer does help quite a bit, especially in situations where ties happen - two bidders wanting an item for the same price which happens regularly. Several of my pneumatic tools were bought exactly like that earlier this year - everybody wanted to pay $15 for choice, then $12.5, $10, $7.5, and $5 but Im one of the regulars so I got the last bid several times. Myself and another guy ended up with all of the SnapOn and IR while others/non-regulars got second choice lesser brands for the same money.

 

[Clubber]

I've been to good auctions and bad. Picked up a nice worm drive saw for $50 and a salamander heater for $15 at one. Another was a night club that sold out, they were selling beer while having the auction. Needless to say, the drunker people got the crazier the bids went. I also bought a skid of mason jars 24 boxes of 6 per box all new for a $1 of which I had zero use for at the time. Sold them for $3 box over time, gave some away used some to store small screws and bolts and such. Had to move those boxes and store them a half dozen times between 2 houses. Overall NOT worth my time, lol.

 

[oilfieldtrash4]

I've given up trying to find deals at these places. I find the time spent and gas is much more costly than the price I'd pay for something new. I'll go if I just feel like it for entertainment purposes only but that's where the expectations end.

 

[Fordman7795]

Too_Many_Tools is still mad about a previous thread so just ignore him and carry on about auction talk

 

[Craptain]

Auctions can be fun. Preview early if you can and stick to your prices. Sure get to know the staff, it makes for a better sale and a good auctioneer will still be fair to buyers and sellers. Actually if you are a regular buyer rather than just an attendee, they will get to know you and your wants and point out potential deals at the viewing.
I only go when there is something I want or if it seems to be the best entertainment on a given day. I have a budget and I stick fairly close to it. I take my car, always so that I (not friends, esp GF's) set the agenda. Take the trailer if I am shopping for large items. Take cash, and or CC's as many auction houses don't take checks unless you are an established buyer. I use cash as that limits any urge to overbid and there are some smaller places that ONLY accept cash.
Go with the right attitude and auctions can be a great day or part day out.

 

[kid_charlie]

I'm sorry to hear that your first auction experience was a sour one but don't let it put you off. You'll find that, like anything new, there is a curve in familiarizing, finding a comfort zone, and establishing realistic expectations. The day wasn't a total loss. You got some great stuff for a decent price and you learned the most important lesson of the auction for free, not to get carried away. The frustration never ends watching treasure pass by and rubbish getting overbid but there is no shortage of stuff in the world and Tums has calcium, so eat up, hit auctionzip.com, and get ready for the next one. Best of luck and nice work on the cabinet.

 

[NHBandit]

Here's my story about an auction that completely blew my mind. Regular twice weekly auction in Concord NH we used to go to alot. Mondays are regular household **** & Thursdays are antiques & collectibles. Thursdays brings out the heavy hitters & dealers. Sitting there one Thursday night and the auctioneer holds up an old oil painting with a large hole in the center of it. Unsigned as well. He says he was loading up stuff at the house where a man had died and getting ready to haul it all to the auction house when one of the family members came out carrying the painting and put it out by the road with the rest of the trash. The auctioneer said let's put it in the auction anyway because you never know what people will buy. It sold for 9k ! That tells me that at least 2 people had a pretty good idea who painted it and it was worth enough money that they could have it repaired and still make a profit. Another time at the same auction there was an old drum with an American Eagle painted on it. No top on it and the wife said let's try to buy it and use it next to the fireplace to put kindling in. Not realizing that there was a name carved into the inside of it and that it was from the Revolutionary War.... A dealer friend of ours paid 11k for it and had a buyer from NY already lined up who was willing to pay 15k for it.

 

[Rixter58]

The one thing you absolutely know at an auction is that everything sells for more than everybody else at the auction thinks it is worth. That said, I've bought a ton of stuff at auction and made good money on it.

 

[wellpoison]

Here's a good one. Last night I went to an auction. Lots of used tools. There were two sets of craftsman RP wrenches. The same exact sets you can get at sears new for 7.99 on sale from time to time. I think it's a 7 piece set. I know this because I bought both metric and standard some time back. Auctioneer gave choice on them. Either metric or standard. I was stunned when they sold for 25 each. The guy who bought them took both. I just sat there and laughed. It seems people, at least in my area go nuts over craftsman but Mac, proto and others are looked at as less quality brands. I think a lot of people just don't look at stuff first or don't care what they pay for something.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Your cart turned out quite nice. It looks to have a decent set of casters on it too.



Auctions, I went to my neighbors auction last year and got a few deals. I knew what I wanted and knew when to stop. I also threw out a few verbal bids a few bucks over where the auctioneer was at. When I did that, nobody else bid after that.

Generally the auctions I want to go to, I have to work or have something else planned. When I don't have to work, I don't have the extra cash laying around.