Auction

[OldForester]

I have to agree with clkrik on the auction. I went to the preview in Yakima yesterday and looked at nearly every lot, and decided on those items I wanted to bid during the on-line option. I bid on those items ahead of time expecting they would sell as individual lots. Turned out that every item I wanted was combined with other lots I didn't want or couldn't study in time for the bidding, since they were usually combined at the time the auction was ready to commence on that item.

If there was any intent to let an owner buy something it would have been helpful to combine the lots before the auction into something that an owner or an on-line bidder could actually study before the bid. In my case, the item I wanted most and bid the most, actually had a higher price than the average price of each item sold in the combined lot, and was worth many times my bid. Apparently the auction company pays no attention to pre-bids before combining lots.

It looks like the auction company's objective was to sell all the lots in the time allowed rather than get the maximum price for the items, especially those that had a pre-bid on an individual lot.

I feel like I wasted a day and a round trip to Yakima for my personal desire to buy some parts. I've got pre-bids for some items tomorrow but I don't think I'll get them unless the auction company changes its approach and recognizes higher on-line pre-bids for items before it combines lots.

If nothing else, I've learned that on-line auctions like this don't work well. If you really want some of the items at one of these type of auctions you need to be there in person where you can see the combinations of lots and make a quick decision.

[EngineerMike]

I wondered how they were going to gavel down 1500 lots per day. I listened for maybe 30 minutes, and the average bid was for 2+ lots during that time. If I was the bank, I wouldn't be impressed w/my return, as this was certainly easy for the auctioneers. On the bright side, they sold some stuffed chairs for what seemed to me to be a lot of money. Overall though, a sad day.

[PintailRV]

anybody have any info on how the auction went? did they sell everything?

[rurallady]

We stopped at Uhlmann's RV yesterday to pick up the realy nice chair that I had won as a door prize during their Grand Opening at their new digs.

The folks there said that most --if not all -- of the 5th wheels went to Canada. They also commented about the combined lots as well -- some of the tools they had hoped to buy were in combined lots that they really didn't want. Said they went awfully high.

I guess that's typical of what happens in auctions sometimes...

Sad times.
Char