Why do people lose all sense of value at auctions ?

Shopping a couple of local estate auctions and noticing some serious delusional bidders - and some absolute steals of late.

On the delusional side - checked out a old farmer/equipment sale. Overall nice used stuff - nothing too unusual and it’s all been used - but taken care of.

A recent low end Stihl string trimmer (retail value 299) at 285 plus tax and 15% buyers premium. Worse a Stihl 170 chainsaw (sell for around $170 new) is at $265 with bidding ongoing - WHY ?!? You can buy new with a warranty and return policy cheaper ? Keep in mind sold online and assumed to be working - but not guaranteed. What do you do if it’s not running after you overpaid ???

Some other equipment too is well above book - but at least that I get. It’s not as if you can drive down the street and buy this stuff - so overpaying is more a function of immediately available supply vs buying and shipping from out of area and the mistaken belief that well cared for means it will never break down. But small tools - people are just stupid bidding. Similar on a bunch of Harbor Freight tools - I can buy them cheaper at HF with coupon and have an exchange available for 90 days if they break.

On the other hand / a bunch of old craftsman tool boxes filled with stuff struggling to get out of single digits bid wise. I’ll snap those up all day - not new craftsman stuff - the tools from 1950-1970 that were well built and quality with lifetime warranty.

Similarly - bought a bunch of pocket knives recently. Old guy must have been a collector - bunch of Case from the 1990-2000 range - nothing special - all selling for 50-100 a piece for what it basically junk in my opinion. But bought a Buck 319 Rancher for $10 - a XX from 1976 for $20 and about 15 other older knives for a couple of bucks apiece - old timer and case and some others I’m sorting through. Just never understand people I guess - I get getting caught up in the flurry and excitement - but we are talking a week away from close on some of this stuff - and it’s online - so no excuse to not do a simple google search before bidding.

 

I suspect it's some kind of subconscious mentality of having to "win" when bidding against others, exacerbated by the terminology used by the auction companies and eBay and all the rest, no doubt.

 

I have been known to overpay for certain items, but I know what I like and what they're worth, and I have/can/will overpay on certain things again. Other stuff that I know nothing about I might overpay for because I think it's cool and I've never seen it before (oops). My historical best bargain was finding a genuine Hutch chrome complete BMX bike at a Pawn Shop for $25. I milked those profits for weeks before I went broke again LOL.

 

Guns and ammo bring out of this world prices around here. It must be the mentality.

 

I’ve always wondered same thing. Set aside a whole day for an equipment auction about 4-5 years ago. Get there and people are nuts. Like the money is burning a hole in their pocket. Paying 10-15% over normal prices on stuff that is readily available. I left after 30 minutes. Sure enough everything I was interested in sold for more than it was worth.

 

My experience with auctions, especially farm auctions, is that the demographic going to auctions is generally people who have no clue what current retail prices are either through ignorance or technological ineptitude preventing them from taking the 3 minutes on a phone to find out an item's real value. Basically hillbillies and old timers. They're used to the idea from back in the day that auctions were places to buy stuff cheap and don't realize that times have changed. To them if it sells at auction, it simply has to be a good deal.

 

gotta say...hype and stupidity....my 2 cents

 

Wife and I went to an auction of junk from two old spinster sisters. When the two found out how little their "collectables with certificate of authenticity" junk was selling for they wanted to stop the auction. Nobody wants your TV dolls or plates.

 

Like I said - I understand “unique” or “uncommon” items - or even those cases where someone is overpaying for a used vehicle and approaching the price of a better used version.

But we are talking crap tools from Harbor Freight selling for more than the store sells them for. I get someone paying for a old set of craftsman wrenches / a rusted set of Pittsburgh wrenches not so much.

Found it even more funny - I googled the weed trimmer and actually found it half the price at a pawn shop - shipped to my door. Jumped at that one - looked like new too and had 14 day approval.

Don’t get me started on the “pre made” collectibles - the late night TV crap that comes with a COA - in general if it comes with a COA - to me that’s just someone trying to convince you it’s really collectible and not crap. Hamilton Mint et al - stuff is just a waste of money investing wise / fine if that’s your thing and you like it - but expecting to retire when you sell like the grandmother on Antiques Roadshow who found a ‘52 Mickey Mantle in the attic - no way.

 

A few years ago I had time on my hands and decided I would hit the local auction place for totaled vehicles. I like doing that kind of work and though picking up a wrecked motorcycle for cheap and getting it going would be a fun hobby.
So I paid my annual fee and started going to the sales. Problem was that here in Tucson being so close to the border, people would come up from Mexico where they don't give a shit about stuff like a salvaged title (or well performed repairs honestly) and bid the prices up so high that it just wasn't worth it. I never purchased a single thing.

 

I’ve been to a couple or three live auctions, the first one I left with a pretty nice 12’ aluminum boat I didn’t plan on buying. I paid a very fair price in my mind, even though many others bid on it.

Others, well, they were still better than going to the mall.

 

I searched for 2-3 months for a non JBL with nav factory head unit on this site to no avail. Went to eBay for a couple of weeks and saw prices in the $800 range (2014-2019 models). Finally bit on a $500 one and am totally satisfied with it.


2 weeks later. Or maybe even less someone sells theirs here for like $250.
Shoot me.

Auctions are wild I guess.

 

Shills….
Used to go Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale every year.
My favorite spot for watching was inside the main tent after staging right before the cars went on the block. Saw each car close up, close to the auction and didn’t need a bidders badge.
One year, not long after they instituted on-line bidding, there was one bidder in the crowd that got bid up by an on-line bidder. The live bidder bowed out leaving the on-line bidder the winner. The auctioneer utters, “looks like we just bought ourselves a car”.

 

oh that is BS...

 

Salvage auctions - don’t even get me started on the crap I have seen.

Dealt with them for years in my job / bidders paying more for a wrecked car than what they likely could have bought a clean used one for - just because they “needed” a part off it - hoped to resell later and recover most of their investment (rarely happens).

Foreign buyers are a weird lot - again - paying way more for wrecked Toyota than what they could buy a non wrecked version for at a used car dealer - but used car dealers don’t have the connections to ship to abudabi and the duopoly that is IAA/Copart does so they over pay.

Of course some of the salvage monitors at insurance companies are just as delusional - never forget - had a RTV900 I handled - and knew someone who needed an engine. Offered me 5k for the wrecked RTV with good engine - pretty decent price on a unit that at the time sold for around 9900 new. Walked down to my salvage guy and asked if he wanted to sell/what they would take “11,000” - I looked at him and kinda stunned asked - you know what these sell for new right ? Yea - but lots of people buy them for parts - so it’s worth more. Confused - I asked if he felt wrecked/parts donors were worth more than new based on parts being worth more than the whole - why wouldn’t dealers start breaking down new for parts instead of selling them ? Because that would be stupid of course - asked what’s stupider oaying 9900 and having all new parts to resell or 11k and having used parts and a non useable frame ?!?

I actually had to pay a man back a grand once on his wrecked 70s Triumph - totaled it - went to salvage and the stupid salvage sold for a grand more than I paid to total it. This was an exception though - uncommon bike - 2 buyers both desperately needing the bike for parts on their projects and they couldn’t get parts anywhere else - so they had to overpay. So since we couldn’t show a “profit” handling s claim - the customer got a check they weren’t expecting.

 

"Why do people lose all sense of value at auctions ?"
I dunno, but it's why people sell at auctions.

 

Yes - certain things I’d probably ONLY do an auction for.

Anytime you have something like real estate - it’s always an “auction” even when there’s a “list” price. Offering more than list is the norm - and sometimes expected.

Of course there’s that person for will list an old item worth a few bucks on eBay for something stupid like $500 opening bid - just in hopes of finding a sucker.

I will also say these auctions can get somewhat addictive - bidding on crap I don’t need because the “price is right” - key is discipline though / set a max and stick to it. Bid early - throw up a max limit and never check to see if your outbid.

If you get it - great - take the deal and flip for a profit (hopefully). Take funds and reinvest into future deals. If you miss out - remember it’s a “for profit” enterprise and winning every time rarely generates a profit. It’s kind of like gambling - you can win 99% of your bets and still be a loser if your betting at astronomically high odds - likewise - I’ve known players who would be lucky to hit 1/3 of their bets - but they played underdogs and made a nice profit doing so. Everyone wants to be on the “winning” side - to the point they will forget the point of playing.

 

Wow - just finished another - STUPID prices

I mean paying price of new item - or slightly more - then you need to add 15% buyers premium AND sales tax - so basically 15% above new or more.

Still the occasional bargain to be scored - got a Honda self propelled mower for $50 - the kind with the composite deck that never rots - will probably swap out that for my current Honda and use the current at farm if no one needs it. Also got a nice 6 drawer craftsman tool box and various tools and socket set (circa 1960-70 era) for $45 - again pretty good deal compared to what you’d pay for even a cheap set at Lowe’s these days - and the quality is much better.

But some of the heavy equipment - could not believe the prices - made me want to sell all my stuff and retire. Must be alot of people buying the hype that stuff is going to keep being scarce - or at least feeling the pressure to spend now for fear of inflation. IDK - seems silly to me paying those inflated prices.