I was at an auction on Tuesday and one of the unit's owner sent someone to bid on his unit up for sale.  It was a very big auction, with 26 units for sale so the auction went really long.  It was 2 hours before it was over!  The unit was in beginning of the auction and the person won the unit and then left, expecting to come back and pay later.  The auctioneer noticed he had left so at the end he auctioned the unit again to someone else.  Needless to say, when the guy returned he was really pissed when he realized that the unit was sold to someone else.  Personally, I think it serves the defaulting owner right.  He should have at least been careful enough to have his guy stick around till then end anyways.  

Hi.  I decided to venture out and attend my very first auction a few weeks ago.  There were 6 units for sale and 9 bidders there.  The first two had nothing at all exciting in them (it looked like baby things and some boxes of paper work for a business) so I was surprised when they sold for about $50 each.  The third unit had tons of furniture but it did not look like very high quality furniture.  I was afraid of that for my first unit.  It sold for $180.  The fourth unit is where I bit.  It had an old steamer trunk, some musical instrument cases, a pottery barn type storage bench and various boxes and bags.  Even though it was my first auction ever I decided to go for it.  I made a few noob mistakes and bid against myself once (or twice.  I am not sure) but I won the unit for $280.  I was very excited since I thought I could make my money back just from what I saw in there.  Of course, as soon as I opened the first bag of drum cymbals and noticed that almost all of them were cracked my heart sank.  There was one good one in there though.

Anyways, at this point I spent $280 but I have made over $700 on the unit (only $420 in profit).  Some of my finds were $300 in gold and silver jewelry (which I sold to a jeweler but might sell to an auctioneer next time) some actual cash, $20 in foreign bills and $4 in change) the cymbal and some stands sold for almost $200, the furniture sold for $100 and some DVD's that sold as well.  (There were also a ton of empty DVD cases in a box too. Do people keep empty DVD cases?  That is weird to me) Anyways, I kept the steamer trunk because I really like it, as well as some collectible rocks and geodes.  Also, one antique Asian jewelry box is up for auction and might bring an additional $100 to $150 on top of all of this.

So, I am wondering if I am just really lucky or if if maybe I have a good eye for this?  I am not sure, but so far I am having way too much fun with this. Of course there was a bunch of trash and very strange items in the unit that I had to toss and go through (why in the world do people hold on to old batteries and sex toys?  Weird) but other than that it was not hard work at all.  Will the fun wear off, did I have some beginners luck?   I guess it waits to be seen . . .