What Is Everyone's Feelings About Auctions?

There are a couple of GOOD online auctions.......NOT ebay...

rkrj,



Step One:

It is imperative to always have a maximum price in mind when you bid on any item at an auction. Then never change your target price once the auction has begun for that particular item.

Many folks can easily become involved in the frenzy of an auction and begin to bid abnormally high: great for a seller but catastrophic for a buyer that finds out that he/she has grossly overpaid for an item.

Another trick I have learned with more experienced auctioneers is that many times they will initially start out by yelling a very high price in the hopes that some sucker will bid on that inflated price.

The emotion of the ‘fear' of losing the item can entice a bidder to jump in at that higher price without following a more conservative and ultimately more productive bidding pathway.

Step Two:

Always let someone else or the auctioneer set in the initial bid because if you are interested in that item, ample time will always exist for you to throw in your bid later in the bidding process.

This too avoids overpaying for an item that should have started out for a much lower price.

Step Three:

Let's assume multiple items are up for bid and the auctioneer is selling choice for these items. Then when the auction ends for these items let's assume that you have lost the auction but an item still remains that interests you in this lot.

In this particular example you were bidding against only one other bidder (the winner).

A sharp auctioneer will ask you if you would like to choose one of the remaining items at the price that the winner just received it at.

For 'fear' of losing the item nine out of ten bidders will usually take one of the remaining items at the recent win price that the initial winner just won it at.

The auctioneer might even classify you as a ‘backup' bidder which gives you the right to purchase the item at this recent price.

The sharp bidder, however, will decline the auctioneer's request to buy now and instead wait until the item is run again by the auctioneer.

Because in this example only one other person was bidding against you it is probable that this same scenario will exist the second time around but the winning price will be lower (99% of the time) when the auction ends with you as the winner.

Because you waited until the item was put up for auction for a second time you saved $s and allowed the emotion of ‘fear' of losing the item to be secondary to any other thoughts.

I hope you find my comments useful and please let the CC know if they work for you.

Good luck out there and do your preliminary research (if possible) before engaging in any bidding war...

fyi,

mdpmedia

PS: These examples obviously apply to in-person auctions.

Yikes...an hour later, I'm still on that site. Thanks Omaha. Would be nice to snag a few things I see. I even put in some bids, nowhere near where the end prices will end up, but it's still fun and who knows. Also, be aware that there is an 18% premium that goes to the AH and 3% to the seller. You also have to pay for shipping and what not. FIgure that into your costs before you bid.

They are fun but for some reason every coin auction I have gone to have had the prices end up well above fair market value. Whether it's just uneducated buyers thinking that things have to be worth alot because they're old or other shady things going on, every auction has turned out that way.

On one auction when silver was much much lower, and melt value for silver dollars was around $12, the beat up Peace and Morgan dollars were going for $20-$25. One guy kept bidding them up so we asked him why he was paying so much. His claim was that he was buying them to resell to a local refiner and that the refiner was paying MORE than melt. So his story was b.s. from 2 standpoints....one that refiners dont do that as far as I have ever seen, and two that the melt value was closer to $9 and he was paying $20 or more for each. Even if the dollars were one pure ounce of silver, he was still paying well over what he should be based on his claim. We pointed out the error in his ways and he became VERY defensive. It made us all wonder if he was a shill bidder for the auction house, and many of us walked away without buying anything.

Anyway, it's still fun to see the coins and other things so like others mentioned above, if you plan to bid you need to pick your max and stick with it. Dont get caught up in the auction fever and get carried away.

I attend quite a few coin auctions and offer the following:

- make sure you examine the coin(s) before hand, more that once I have been surprised after I got the coin in hand and gave it a good look.
- don't get caught up in the excitement, have a price in mind and stick to it. There will be more coins to come today and in the future
- do keep good notes to establish where trends. Is silver selling at melt, below or above?
- look for deals, even if you don't need something picking some stuff which is clearly a deal, can be rewarding
- if it's a long auction, the later in the day can be best. Some bidders may be out of money or tired
- coin only auctions will have the best selection but also the most dealers/serious collectors.

Good luck and have fun.

My wife would force me to go with her! (Amazing how a 115 lb lamb can convince a 225 lb lion into doing things.) Point is, I always ended up having more fun than her. Go figure!

I tried Auctionzip a few times. Make sure you look at the FEES and the SHIPPING.
You have to be careful. You might think you are buying silver under melt but by the time they add 15% and a $12 minimum shipping and handling fee and a 3% credit card fee you pay way over. I always bid low hoping something would come my way but it never did. I think it is kind of a scam, be careful. But what do I know..

Welcome to CC Steve!