Auction Houses ?

Haven't read too much here about buying at auction houses.  What has been your experience?

There is one locally and I went to a preview day but wasn't that impressed with the contents. I talked to a guy who bought a pair of small figurines of comic book characters. Forget what he paid for it, but seemed like a lot to me....then he finished the story.

Turns out he was buying a case of them (even he didn't know that), so he was happy when they brought it forward and he got maybe 10 times the quantity he thought he was buying.

You?

For me this whole thing started at the auction house. I remember as a young kid sitting and watching every Wednesday night at all of the crazy prices people would pay for things and all of the fantastic deals that could be had. My dad buys a lot of tools for his business at auction. He is also an avid gun collector and has bought to many of them as well.

My home is furnished from the auction. Furniture, lighting, tools. The prices can be great if you are there at the right time. I have found that things are cheaper in the summer as people don't attend as much. Avoid a rainy day always. Stay to the very end if you are looking for the best deals. Most people leave before it is over. Know your local auction houses and their reputations.

I have two here. One goes big on the advertisement just like their prices. One relies on their post cards and website. The latter is the one that does storage auctions. Since they started doing storage auctions I have seen their attendance at the barn go up quite a bit. Still there are good deals to be had.

With out the local auction house I would have never gotten into this crazy business. 

I buy and sell at auction houses. Pretty much my last resort for selling.  I sell the stuff that I can't sell anywhere else. Stuff that is too big or fragile to ship and hasn't gotten a bite on craigslist. Gotta watch the commissions though because some auction houses are really expensive. The one near me that gets the highest prices also charges 50% for items that sell from $0-$150 so not really worth it in the long run. I do have one that will try to sell almost anything and I have done well with stuff that I would otherwise have taken to the good will or sold at a garage sale for almost nothing.