Not so much "strange" as annoying. The main auctioneer around here like to get the costs of the units up by announcing the more valuable items he sees in them.

Most auctioneers do that, don't they?

I used to see this a lot, recently not so much. I guess gas prices have gotten in the way of profits for these people.

Without knowing provenance, I would put a price of $80-$100 to start. Being that it's hammered, I would expect that it's more of a dairy bucket, or something that was more for household use. If it were a fireman's bucket, that's big money.

just wanted to say props to you, it takes balls to go out and invest in yourself and try to do something like a store. awesome idea with the free stuff as well. hope you continue to succeed

Thanks!

I tried HTML edited ads for 2 weeks, got zero hits. Changed back to standard ads, made like 15 sales this week. The market has spoken!

In Raleigh/Durham there are 40-50 auctions a month. Attendance ranges from 10 people on the light side to 70 people for auctions advertised on AuctionZip. In Florida (before the shows) I lived north of Tampa about an hour. 15-20 auctions a month in my traveling radius. Average crowd of 10-15 people. When I lived in NJ (eons ago) I went to auctions with my grandfather who owned a "used goods" (thrift (sorry grandpa)) shop.. He hated calling it a thrift store.. There were 15-20 auctions a month. Many of which were sealed bids.. I can't remember a time where there was more than 8-10 people.

In my area I have to deal with Raleigh regulars and Durham regulars. Very few people cross the city line. The whales do, and me. Durham regulars pay more than Raleigh. Raleigh regulars are more friendly. Durham regulars are older. In either city the regulars make up a very small percentage of the crowd. Most are either new or drop in and out of the game.

Guitar cases still have some value and power cords can be replaced very inexpensively. It's only bad because it wasn't ideal, but there's still money in the bad..