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 . . .

Hi.  I am a new buyer here in Southern California too.  I went to my first auction a few weeks ago and scored a great unit for only $280.  There were only about 10 bidders there with 6 units for sale.  I thought, "this is easy!"  My second auction had about 50 people with crazy high prices for junk. I guess it is very random around here.  I think the more advertising there is, the more money it will be because of competition.  I am learning fast.   I am going to a couple more this week.  We will see how it goes. . .