November 7, 2011

Went to a couple of auctions today; crowd about 30 (knew 25 of them); prices somewhat moderate until at the 2nd auction I went head to head with a regular who was either running me up or thought as hopeful about it as I did.

A 10 x 15...got it for a grand. Notable furniture piece was a nice birdseye walnut dressing table in perfect condition with mirror and stool. I don't have all that much luck with antiques but will give it a shot. (maybe $200 if lucky)

Along left wall...10 boxes high and when I got inside I was happy to see my guess was right...10 deep front to back as well, so 100 boxes give or take. Another 20 or so boxes along back and right side.

Some junk furn to break up or pawn off cheap on one of my buyers who will haul it away and throw me $20 to $50 depending on quantity and quality.

Took 10 boxes home and only put together 1 box out of 10 as trash. Four RC cars (one like new in box) and an envelope that said "Christmas card stamps"....turns out they were 42 cent stamps and there was a total of $81 in stamps....9 full books of 20 plus a partial book.  Well, that's not quite 10% of the cost of the lkr, but it'll do !

So, I think it will come out OK, but profit may only be in the couple of hundred range as it takes a bit to pay off a grand !  

I think the amount of watchers an item has is a good indication of interest, but its hard to say since I currently have bids with no watchers, and items with 5-6 watchers and no bids! 

The number of views and number of watchers is a good indicator for me USUALLY.

Sometimes I will have an item with 100 or more views and maybe 12 or so watchers. Then it doesn't sell.

I attribute this to maybe having 6 or so of my auction buddies watching my items just to see how they do AND to people who are either selling the same item who want to get an idea for a selling amount AND to hobbyists who are just plain curious about what their old tool is worth.

I recently listed an item twice with results as indicated just above. No sale 2nd time around, but a day after a fellow emailed me and asked if I was listing it again !  I emailed back that if he wanted it at the starting price I would list it for 1 day as a buy it now and he could "snap it up".  Haven't heard back yet.

I re-listed my mirrors as a 10 day international sale, seems like antiques would be a certain kind of item that would benefit from the exposure. Considering I got 0 bids when I listed it in US only, up is the only way to go. 

Well, the other direction from up is...no not down...but not selling it internationally also.

You indicated earlier a person in Holland wanted it. Be interesting to see if he follows through on new listing.


****

I had two bad experiences with Canada and that was it for me.

On the other hand a lot of things won't sell first or even 2nd time out, but a third or fourth listing might go (or not). Martin Luther King clock?

Best 360 bucks I ever spent and once I get these blenders sold, its going to be a hard unit to top. A quick search on the blenders turns up a $5,000 price tag.. and I got two!

Here's what I found on eBay (11 6 2011). Which of these do you have? (or another model ?)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p4712.m570.l1313&_nkw=patterson+kelly+twin+shell+dry+blender&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Frankly, in 8 years I have never refinished a piece of furniture to make it sell for more. I just haven't got the time, energy or drive to do it.

If it's really bad I trash it. If it's sellable I price it low so the buyer can do the work. Factor in your time if you are going to refinish an item...any item....the old saying "time is money" is certainly true in this biz.


Now if you just plain enjoy doing that kind of work, that has some value too of course.

Interesting numbers spread.

I think I've posted 3 or 4 polls over the last 10 months; never got more than 4 to 6 votes despite the number of members here; maybe now that there are more new members you'll get more responses than that, though the vast majority of member's here never say boo. (OK, now someone can post "boo") 

While you the buyer want to get the deals Cheap the auctioneer cannot make a living???
All people see is the auction not the work before and after an auction.

Well, let's take a couple of examples:

Example #1:

A batch of lkrs sells for $6000. Auctioneer might get 20%; if so that is $1,200 for 30 or so minutes of actual work.
That's pretty good money.

Even considering that the auctioneer had to drive x miles to get to the auction, had to update an online list and maybe a physical list to hand out, etc, etc, it still works out to a lot of money.

Example #2:

A batch of lkrs sells for $600. Auctioneer getting same 20% for 30 or so minutes of actual work would get $120 minus the costs indicated above.

I can't imagine anyone would complain about the pay that actually would fall between those two extremes.

***

Oh, I forgot to mention that in central California if the auction company cuts the locks and does a picture and paper work for the facility they typically get $25 per lock cut.  Cut 10 locks...get $250 for maybe 1 to 1.5 hours of work (plus the drive, gas, etc).

Sorry, I have no sympathy for the "poor" auctioneer.

Check out this link for the "loading ceremony" of a gun safe I sold Nov 1, 2011.

Pics of the move start at reply #162 I think.

http://storageauctionforums.com/index.php?topic=1611.150