Got Two Lockers Today....and Got LUCKY Doing it!

Went to a small facility today.  Nice crowd, mostly regulars.  Anyway, this place is a "silent bid" type auction.  First unit I got had three top boxes showing....you know, the big ones that sit on a bottom box and hold lot's of tools.  There was also one bottom box showing, and a couple of smaller tool boxes.

I hate to disclose my secrets in case one of my locals reads this and starts bidding against me, but here goes:

I whipped out my bid slip, and I tried to give it my best guess what it might be worth and how much some of the other bidders might go.  I ended up bidding $375.88 (I never bid a solid number on silent bid......I always add some cents).  Anyway, all bids are in, and second bid was $375.00!  I won it by .88 cents!

So we do a few more lockers, I lost another one by 30 bucks, didn't bid on a couple of others. and came to another locker I was kind of interested in.  Had a perfect armoire in it, and nice table with leaves, another glass table with the glass, a nice persian style rug, and some mattresses. 

I don't like mattresses that much, but I have sold quite a few and made money on them.  I also know that most of the guys there would be scared away by the mattresses.  So I asked the owner if I bid on it, would he give me more time to clean it out.  He said I could have an extra week.  Cool!

So, I bid 101.88 on it.  Okay, this is no BS, and there were lot's of witnesses, but second bid on it was 101.01.....I won it by .87 cents!  I couldn't believe it....two in one day and I only left 1.75 on the table!  I'll NEVER get that lucky again!

That's what I hate about the silent bid auctions the most....you want to win without being 100 bucks over the next highest bid.  That was close!  As a note, a friend and I lost one at this same facility a couple years ago by .01 cent!  That was a bummer!

Anyway, started going through the tool box one.  I was going to take a picture before I dug in, but got excited....sorry....

So far, I got three top boxes, one craftsman, two other I forget at the moment.  I got two bottom boxes of which one went with my craftsman top box.  Now the good part......tons and tons of tools!  Usually they aren't there, or they're all chinese junk, but I got a lot of craftsman stuff! 

Also, got a snap on tool cart!  I was using that to move stuff back and forth to my truck....I may keep that at home and not sell it!  Got a newer video camera, and jumper box for starting cars, a car floor jack, a 1/2" impact gun and a 3/8" impact gun.  A really nice craftsman tool box....like an ice chest with handle and wheels, like new. 

Anyway, I'm far from through it all, but in addition to the tools and other stuff I've already mentioned, so far I have an army foot locker, nice crab ring with rope, (perfect time to sell that!) sewing machine in cabinet, lot's of fishing gear and a nice large plano tacklebox, dewalt screw gun, mechanics creeper, ton's of Chiltons manuals, brand new pair of boots, couple pairs of converse and shaq tennis shoes, some pretty nice jackets and lot's and lot's of other stuff I haven't even made it to yet.  I am thinking I will do very well on both! 

As I clean them out over the next couple of days, I'll try to get some pictures up here. 

Very nice teacher.  I've learned also to start to use odd cents.  I've lost an auction last month by $.30.  Sounds like a really nice unit you snagged.  Have fun sorting.

Very nice teacher.  I've learned also to start to use odd cents.  I've lost an auction last month by $.30.  Sounds like a really nice unit you snagged.  Have fun sorting.

We used to have ONE facility that did silent bidding, but they are NOW using Doston's outfit. 

Even when silent there was no splitting a dollar bill with a "cents" measurement. Had to be in even dollar amounts.

As far as winning or losing by .25 cents or $25 I never cared much about that. If I did a silent bid of $400 and got it I didn't really care if the next highest bid was only $225. I made the bid because I thought it was fair for what I could expect in the way of a return on the investment, and sure if I had bid $250 and gotten it I would have made more profit, but that's part of the process. I was sure to get it at the $400 and I still made money.

I think it's like any other bid process really ..... if you know the other bidders around you.  A bunch of newbies always throw a monkey wrench in things if they have more money than sense.