Do you have a smart phone? Do you use it as auctinos to look up prices?

Just curious how many of you guys out there have smart phones?

Do you use it at the auctions to look up prices of items?

Has it made you lots of money or saved you from losing by looking up a price?

Just curious I finally broke down and bought one after having an ancient flip phone for years. Not just for auctions for other things as well but figured it would come in handy.

I havn't used it much at storage auctions but have used it for other auctions and just general resale purposes.


What made me buy it was I was at a Blockbuster out of business sale the other day and they had tv series on dvd for 99 cents. Sex & The City, Rescue Me, Weeds, etc, etc, etc.
My gf had her iphone with her so I was looking up prices on it.

Prices were pretty high on ebay so bought a bunch, even a bunch of the same series's. Took some to disc replay for a quick easy profit and the rest will be going to the flea market and listing on ebay this week.

Another example was police auctions, there you acutally have a few hours to inspect things if you show up early.

I can see it being useful for storage auctions but most of the time my best stuff isnt' visible and if it is hard to tell model number and things like that but can see it being very useful for both storage and other auctions and resale purposes.

Is a Blackberry a smart phone??...sometimes I wonder...

If so, then yes...almost at every sale

I buy gold/silver coins...use the memo function to keep a spread sheet
of the spot price...with the value of 90% "Junk" silver coins and prices
of each coin and per roll...for a quick calc of the highest I'm willing to bid

also can hit coinflation.com site that has a built in calc, that's updated
several times a day as the spot price changes

Ain't Technology Grand....

The six or so people I know who look stuff up ....ARE DOING SO AT FLEA MARKETS.

As I walk around in the morning before I set up, these folks are looking stuff up on eBay completeds to see if
they want to buy them at the flea for resale on eBay.

The BEST of these (from what they tell me) is the Iphone. There are of course others who provide this service as well..that is looking stuff up on the internet, and NOT through Wi-Fi.

I bought a smart phone from Virgin and a $25 card to use with it. I wasn't satisfied with the interface or the screen size and so I returned the phone for full refund at Best Buy, but I was out the $25 airtime.

Personally I can't justify the $50 to $60 (or whatever it is per month for the service). I have a cell phone, but I only use it for outgoing calls primarily (not as my main phone) and it only costs me $10 a month for the little I use it.

There are times I wish I COULD look something up, but overall, not a big loss not to have one.

There is not enough time to look up the value of items you see from the door then make an educated bid on the locker. Thats a body of knowledge you just have to keep in the ole memory banks. They are great for flea markets and yard sales. Download the Bar Code Scanner App, it scans product bar codes and UPC numbers and then you can find the retail price and ebay price of the item pretty quickly.

Actually one of the reasons I have got more into storage auctions as opposed to yard sales and flea markets, is because of technology like the internet, ebay, smart phones, the average seller has become a lot more savvy at pricing thier merchandise. I stopped going to yard sales because soo much of what I found was priced right at the Ebay ask price. Guess what people say when you offer a lower price? "Thats what it's going for on Ebay!" I say, "No, thats what somebody hopes to get for it on Ebay!" Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of great deals at yard sales and flea markets for the serious hunter, but I just got tired of all the driving and gas bills.

Couldn't do without my iPhone!

I will be getting an Android here soon, cant say I would have time for it during bidding at a storage auction. Sometimes they go by fast, especially if you are not paying attention. I would be using it for everything else on the resale side of business.

And of course great way to pass the time while waiting for an auction to pass

Yeah, smartphone is a must. I have a iphone and a HTC Thunderbolt. Both with unlimited plans. This gives the freedom to look up anything at any time.

These two have become my best tools in this business.

In my area the crowds are such that there's more than enough time to look stuff up if your one of the first ones to look at the unit. I normally walk away and can get a cigarette in before they start the auction so wont be doing a ton of research but more than enough time to do a quick google search or even an ebay search and just take a quick peek at autions ending soonest to see if things are actually selling and if so for how much.

I agree though for the most part storage auctions arent as practical for doing this. Often times can't get a close enough look to see model numbers and stuff and though its great to find that one gold mine item at least for me its a whole unit thing more than one item.

For police auctions and other types of auctions its great as there's normally a few hours of veiwing time prior to the auction and the auctions move slowly.

I picked up an evo recently love it. Big screen so makes using internet easy but best of all quick. Also has the voice recognition so can talk your searches instead of typing.

I have a Droid X, but with my ipad, I hardly ever look anything up on the phone.  It's just when you have a 10" screen, why mess around with a little 4" screen?  I keep my auction schedules and auctioneer info on the desktop, and I can easily access my ebay and craigslist ads.  Makes everything simple, and it's still a lot easier than carrying a laptop.  If I didn't have the ipad, I would be doing all the same stuff on my phone. 

As others have noted, you usually don't have enough time or are able to get close enough to get enough detailed information to actually be able to look up items during a sale.  I do look up stuff as I'm digging through the locker after I bought it though.

I thought that I had a smart phone but the browser keeps taking me to free storage auction list. It must be broken.

I wouldnt be without my IPHONE, that said, when your at a storage unit auction when and what the hell do you have time or sight of to look up? You can't see the good stuff 95% of the time, especially the gold silver coins and the like then you only get 60 seconds or so to look from the door so what does anyone see that they then can have or take the time to look up? I use it after I win if I find something of value but there's no time when the auction starts and I have yet to see those gold coins spread out on the floor at the door face up with mint marks and dates showing so I can say wait everybody til I look this up. Just not practical given what you can see and the seconds you have.............After you win and find the goodies its a great tool but not much use before a standard storage unit auction. IMHO

I use the search app. For example, a few months I was at an auction where a Hummer mountain bike was in the front of the unit. I know a little bit about the values of Cannondales & Treks but I had never priced a Hummer before. On the voice search app, I just say Hummer Mountain Bike Ebay and I can see what they are selling for. Takes less than a minute and it could help you avoid making a mistake.

I use the search app. For example, a few months I was at an auction where a Hummer mountain bike was in the front of the unit. I know a little bit about the values of Cannondales & Treks but I had never priced a Hummer before. On the voice search app, I just say Hummer Mountain Bike Ebay and I can see what they are selling for. Takes less than a minute and it could help you avoid making a mistake.

I will have to check out that app once I get my droid, thanks

Voice recognitino is great, I can't believe how well it works as my previous experience was calling in fedex pickups and their voice recognition stuff sucsk but the phone is about 90% accurate for me.

I agree smart phones are not a be all end all for being at the auction. Most stuff is hidden. Does help if there's high end bikes or some high dollar items you can look up one of two things and maybe realize a price point at which you can  get in and at least be able to make your money back even if the rest of the unit is a bust.

Smart phones are better for other types of acutions where you either get an auction catalog or can look at things before then.