Noobie opening bid question

I went to my first auction the other day, woohoo! It was a U-Haul auction, and there was around 80 people there, (I think I'll do some calling of some smaller facilities, maybe a smaller crowd).

Anyway, here is the question: we previewed a unit and all I could see were loose piles of clothing and a couple trash bags full of clothes, the auctioneer started at $50, and without thinking, I blurted out $10. Is this like a faux pas, or is it acceptable if the locker appears to be less valuable?

Thanks for your input!

I went to my first auction the other day, woohoo! It was a U-Haul auction, and there was around 80 people there, (I think I'll do some calling of some smaller facilities, maybe a smaller crowd).

Anyway, here is the question: we previewed a unit and all I could see were loose piles of clothing and a couple trash bags full of clothes, the auctioneer started at $50, and without thinking, I blurted out $10. Is this like a faux pas, or is it acceptable if the locker appears to be less valuable?

Thanks for your input!

Thats what alot of people do. Instead of taking the first bid of what the auctioneer set it at, especially if you can see it is not worth what he is starting out at.

Most times the auctioneer will call out a price and if no one bites in 60 seconds or so he/she will ask for bids.  Or someone will just call out the $10 - $20 bid.  Most of the time the unit will then go up to if not beyond the initial asking price.  Most of the time it's people not sure of the price so they wait till people start to bid before they toss out theirs.  Thus, the price gets driven back up to the original.  I don't know anyone that is against this unless it's stated up front the reserve price or such is XX.

It all depends on the auctioneer.  At one equipment auction I went to the auctioneer got tired of people doing that.  So for a few items the first person that called his inital bid got "sold" and moved on.  After that people started to meet his initial opening if they were interested in the item.

Thats a big faux pas, you should have said $5! But seriously, bidding behavior is so funny, people will stand around a wait for someone else to bid when the auctioneer says starting bid is $50, then someone says $10 the next thing you know the unit is at $450! I guess so many think they will get stuck paying $50 on a $10 unit, but that NEVER happens in todays market. it will almost always rise above the opening bid. Sometimes on a "dirty" unit I like to throw out a high bid of $50 or $100 just to stop the enthusiasm of the crowd in thier tracks, unfortunately that dose'nt work with the nicer units. I yell out $500, and everyone else thinks I see something good so the bidding takes off from there.

I think people like to see lots of bids, so starting at $10 rather $50 and selling at $70, you'll see more bids. Personally I think it's a good thing for auctioneers to start really low because you usually have more people involved in the bidding which results in more competing against each other and driving up the price. If you start at $50 and you only have one bite after 15-20 seconds, most beginners won't bite because they think it's overpriced.