First Sealer SS Auction

Went to my first ss auction.

It worked as below...

Hours 10:00 to 4:00 on a SUNDAY
5 lockers
They walk you thru the lockers and you turn in you bid.
They would take a group every half an hour or so.
They call to tell you if you win.
End of story...

A couple of issues come to mind.

There is no opening the locker once and your through with it. Go or no go.
IF you happen to win the bid, you have no option of securing it from staff with keys. They used a red lock and I noticed some lockers with just a red lock and some with 2 locks. (red and other)

When I turned in my bids, 10 or 15 minutes after walking thru, in the office. There was no other bidders around, just a group out looking at the lockers.  The manager, I beleive, opened it up and looked it over, did not say anything. I ask a couple of questions and left.

Also, they do not have a process of bidders to find out who won or better yet what the winning bid was.   

Is this how a sealed bid would work?


Thanks in Advance with any comments that may set me staight.

Wayne

Sealed bids are normally published right on the spot. Never have i heard that they will call you later that day.
To me this sounds fishy, and i would not attend a auction that way.

Like you said, you have no way of securing your locker, and theifs are everywhere.
Do i trust storage facillity managers and other people who work there?`NO! 

If you come across this again, just walk away from the auction.

Yea usually you look at the locker turn your bid in and the auctioneer sifts through them right on the spot and announces the winner then you can put your lock on it

Run away fast and far from any auction where you don't win or lose on the spot and get to secure it on the spot. Also, unless you are going to stay at that facility and empty the unit on the spot following the auction, make sure you use a really good virtually uncutable lock (without a grinder). I have heard of lookey loos just following the auctions around to get a look into a unit then come back that night cut the lock and take the goodies out that they saw earlier that day. Ya gotta watch out for number one.

I think I read about this approach somewhere else in this forum. Might do a search for sealed bid and see what other threads come up.
 
I agree with the others. Run away fast...too many chances for mischief.

You COULD be in the last group to go through though; at least that way you would be able to wait for the outcome, but the idea that the other bids are not told to you is BAD ! But if in the last group you could pay for it and lock it up....unless they just were firm and said "we'll call you".

I think I would just pass on that facility.

Edit: How many people were there that they had to take them through in groups? What size were groups?

I would like to thank everyone for their response.

An Update… To answer a couple of the questions. The groups were 15 to 20 and there were 3 groups that I know of that went thru. It was for sure a low budget event. There was ONE guy showing the lkrs; he would get done and then go again. I had a chance to talk with him and he was a friend of the owner. The bids were turned in to one person in the office.
I called and they gave me the bids, after they checked to see that I did in fact bid on them. I bid to see if I was anywhere close to what they may go for. I knew I would not get any of them just by the number of people being there.

Locker 1. Vanity with no top, car top carrier, Pepsi machine without a compressor, and a 2 door cooler of some sort. Sold for $82.00     

Locker 2. Dishwasher, clothes, tool box, coffee can with some wrenches, dresser, stuffed chair, boxes, totes yards tools; shovels, elect blower, elect trimmer, elect chainsaw, mower, totes, 2 camping stoves  Sold for $616.00

Locker 3. Several 5 gal buckets of paint, chair, rug, several boxes Sold for $276.00
Locker 4 Soft bow case, fishing pole, lead weight and molds, pull golf cart, mower, totes, chest of drawers, boxes, blower, old style chest. Sold for $1127.00

Locker 5. Can’t remember that one at all (the mind is the second thing to go!) Sold for $705.00.

To sum it up it was an experience, I was not even close on pricing. I will not be going back there.

Again, thanks for the response.

Wayne