Whole Bin or By the Piece?

I work for a small auction company(5-6 ppl)...we do "By the piece" type auctions.
the main reasons we do this is the auctioneer owns and runs a small flower shop, and the help(including me) all have regular 40 hr jobs...
 We like by the piece because you just bid/buy what you want, no "Junk" to haul off.

just wondering what you guys/gals prefer?

At an auction house/industrial auction, by the "lot" and storage unit, by the unit.

I much prefer the whole unit much better chance of getting something good and you do not end up with half of something as often.

There is one place here that does by the piece. They often do 30 to 50 units at a time and at one piece at a time it can take all day to get them done.

As the person brings the single items out of the locker, one thing we have noticed is that jewelry boxes go immediately to the little trailer they roll down the aisle....in other words THEY get the gold and silver.

I have never made it past 2 hours at these auctions I don't have the patience for an all day wait to maybe get a single item.

That by the piece crap takes all the real profit out of doing the auction. Can't stay afloat that way so I wouldn't bother with it. I'd go to a full unit auction first.

I wont go to piece by piece auctions. Seems pretty obvious that good stuff would be gone by the time the general public got to take a look.

I'll pass on the nasty old thongs and socks knowing you took the gold, electronics and antiques.

I wont go to piece by piece auctions. Seems pretty obvious that good stuff would be gone by the time the general public got to take a look.

I'll pass on the nasty old thongs and socks knowing you took the gold, electronics and antiques.

Yea I take all this stuff right out to the table and sell it just like everything else....If you knew the "Law" then you would know that...Piss off Wanker!

There is one place here that does by the piece. They often do 30 to 50 units at a time and at one piece at a time it can take all day to get them done.

As the person brings the single items out of the locker, one thing we have noticed is that jewelry boxes go immediately to the little trailer they roll down the aisle....in other words THEY get the gold and silver.

I have never made it past 2 hours at these auctions I don't have the patience for an all day wait to maybe get a single item.

Sorry to call BS on this, but it is against the law....and you should know better!

Hard to tell Roger Mack who you are addressing the two posts directly above this. I am simply reporting what happens at an auction in my area. I have no association with the auction company.

Could you explain where you are coming from in your comments?  Thanks.

What are you English? Odd choice of insults. Also, no need to be so hostile.

I know the law is you guys cant go through stuff, thats not to say it doesn't happen. I dont think it happens as often as some may think but I imagine the temptation of some is ther, even more so when they are allowed to go through the units to make the bins as opposed to regular acutions where your really not supposed to be going through at all except maybe making an inventory of things in plain view through the door for the ad.

Bin units, not only would it take too long but with good stuff in plain view prices will be higher. Maybe I find a unit of old clothes that I get for $50 could be a jewelry box in there and I make out good. If the jewelry box is right out in plain view I'm not gonna get that bin for $50.

I would never go to a bin auction, I think many others on here and in general feel the same way for a variety of reasons.

Agreed, Bin Units are a no go for me. I don't even like it when the manager cuts the locks and puts their own on the day before or morning of the auction. Most managers are probably ok but it would be human nature to sneek a peek and even more human nature to just step in and have a look and then who knows what from there.................Yes it is illegal in most states and probably not that prevalant. I'd like to see state troopers run a sting on a couple facilities like rent a 10x15 stuff it 2/3 full with seized merchandize from drug raids and such and have a big screen, a gun ot two, an unopened jewelry box sitting where they could be seen but not obvious, then default on the unit and go to the auction with pictures and a complete inventory in hand. When the auction starts, Identify themselves as state troopers and that this is a sting and then inventory the unit. If anythings missing arrest the manager for theft by taking and breaking and entering for cutting the lock. A couple stings like that even if there was nothing missing and everything was legit would set the rest of the storage facilities on alert so that they would hopefully follow the laws.

Hard to tell Roger Mack who you are addressing the two posts directly above this. I am simply reporting what happens at an auction in my area. I have no association with the auction company.

Could you explain where you are coming from in your comments?  Thanks.

Sorry to have been so aggressive in the post but I just get pissed off when people say things like "I wont go to piece by piece auctions. Seems pretty obvious that good stuff would be gone by the time the general public got to take a look.

I'll pass on the nasty old thongs and socks knowing you took the gold, electronics and antiques"

And,  "one thing we have noticed is that jewelry boxes go immediately to the little trailer they roll down the aisle....in other words THEY get the gold and silver"


If you have storage companies and auctioneers doing these type of things...report them to your states auction board...what they are doing is against the law in most, if not all states!

we run a honest auction, if you have ones that aren't REPORT THEM!!...doing those things just gives us all a bad reputation.

here is a story for you:...back in 2002 we found a 1oz Krugerrand(South African Gold Coin) in a unit
when "M" handed it to me he said "I don't know what kind of foreign coin this is, but it's very heavy"
now my choice was to tell everyone what it was and let them take a good look at it or just slip it into a box and buy it for myself for several dollars.....what do you think I did???.....well it sold for 95.00(gold was 250.00 then)

What would you have done??? and be honest with yourself!

In all my years of doing this I've never overpaid for anything at our or anyone else's auctions

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Roger...in reply to your last post.

Well, as I said I was just reporting what I saw, and I was reacting to "...you should know better."  I would guess that someone locally has complained to the appropriate authority about this, but I hear it still goes on, so I don't know if the reporting didn't take place or the laws are different here, but I don't go to that auction anymore for the "boring" reason, so really don't care.

Neither I nor the other poster were saying anything about you or your company.

If YOU would like to report them, the name is Derrell's.

I think for the most part auctioneers or storage facility managers are probably honest and things being taken from units is probably not a big issue. I still think it's probably more common in bin units than full units.

That said that whole issue aside I just don't like hte idea of bin auctions. I think it would take too long for everything to be auctioned off.

Also I think prices would tend to be higher sicne more stuff is visible.

Most importantly to me it kinda takes the fun out of the whole thing. I like buying a unit and finding things in the back I didn't even initially see. I think bins kinda takes a lot of the surprise out of it, alot of the fun out of it.

Though I do occasionaly hit up different types of auctions, going out of business sales, etc I prefer storage auctions. Doing bin auctions to me is more like a regular auction as opposed to the unique aspects of storage auctions.

I'm about to go to a unique auction today....this guy sells both ways...he'll open the door and ask is there anything anyone wants to bid on separate...then they'll pull that out and sell it....after that's done he'll call bids on the remaining contents

when I went to his auction 3 months ago...people picked the units almost clean...so there wasn't much left over to sell as "Whole Bin"

I was able to pick up a pair of Bose 601's speakers for a dollar...a credit/debit card machine along with several other items in a boxlot for a dollar, the kicker was when I got the boxlot home, it had 2.56 in change in the bottom...so actually got the stuff for free!

we'll see how today goes

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