What happened to auction prices? Wow!

[Cash]

My neighbor across the street went to a local auction last night to see about picking up some tools (he's carpenter/contractor), so I went along for the ride. First time in maybe 8-10 years I'd been to one. I used to be a regular, back in the 1970s when I could fill the pickup for $20 at a country auction in rural Waldo County, Maine.

Holy Moly, what happened to prices? First, the place was packed -- antique dealers, flea market folks, scrap metal hunters, collectibles specialists, eBay hopefuls, you name it. The auction was a collection of three or four run-of-the-mill estates plus a bunch of consignment stuff from who knows where. Nothing special except for a small gun collection that really should have gone to one of the specialty houses.

Almost everything went for near-new prices! People were bidding up stuff I wouldn't waste breath on. A bundle of old light- and medium-duty extension cords sold for at least half again what it'll bring as scrap value. Two antique dealers almost got into a fight over a school desk from the 1960s. The guns ... I saw an old .38 S&W that was barely above wall-hanger level go for several hundred dollars! My neighbor tried to buy some ladders and a chop saw and gave up when the bidding went beyond his limit. We ended up going home empty-handed.

A lot of folks here are auction regulars. Was this unusual? Now that I'm retired I've been thinking about doing a little buying and selling on the side, like I did many years ago for beer and cigarette money (back when I drank and smoked). Not so sure about it now.

[HuskyBoris]

I went to a farm auction about 7 years ago,everything sold for around retail,a guy bought a steel tube corral for horses and such after he bid it up past retail new,,I figured if thats what auctions are like I'll never to go to another,and I havent

[Jim-mi]

Auction prices have been insane for a long while. There are infrequent bargains.
Ya never know when that bargain will happen....

[DSBlack]

My guess? I would wager that anything pre-modern (hand tools, draft animal implements, hand crafted furniture, etc) is falling victim to the grand American tradition of the 'get rich quick' scheme and the Pinterest-spawned Martha Stewart wannabes. I've been planning on building a serviceable forge/blacksmith shop as a hobby and one thing I find to be rather interesting is the number of people that like to use this stuff as decorative pieces.

Seriously, it's not a trendy lawn ornament that will make your neighbors gasp in pleasure at the mere sight of it, it's a hay rake.

[Ozarks Tom]

I only go to estate auctions, and then only on cold, wet, dreary days. I watched an old circular saw sell for more than new, without even knowing if it ran.

[JoePa]

Well - this tops them all - I was at an auction and a tool was being auctioned off - a guy in front of me finally bid enough to get it - he brings the thing back and then asks his friend what the thing was -

[clovis]

It must be an anomaly, or just your area.

Auction prices around here are depressed, to say the least. Some of it is luck, but most of it is the economy.

A few weeks ago, at an estate sale, no one showed up, even though they had a great sale bill. I bought a $700 table saw for $65. Prices were outstandingly low.

I flea market and ebay for a living, and I tell ya, while the flea market is better than it was 6 months ago, it is hard to sell anything unless you are giving it away. It is hard to have any pricing power in this market. 8 years ago, I could have gotten $300 for that saw, but I sold it for $200 to move it fast.

I promise you this: tons of stuff aren't worth but a fraction of what they used to be worth. It is hard to make a living in this game.

There have been a few auctions with steep prices. Last fall, there was an estate sale, and some of the stuff went crazy. A nice Craftsman tool box full of tools that I thought was worth $200 tops, and only because I wanted the box for myself...the opening bid was $400, and sold for $500, plus 10% buyers premium.

Another sale last fall brought people out of the woodwork, and STUPID prices. It was a closed Allis Chalmers and general store that closed eons ago, and the remaining inventory was put into storage. Absolutely INSANE price, even for commonly found used items.

But again, for the most part, auction prices have been really low for the past few years, and it is hard to sell anything at the flea market.

[Phil V.]

If you want to see crazy prices go to a tractor auction. There's an auctioneer near where I live that has an auction once a year that's all tractors. Seen a Unstyled John Deere AI tractor go for $37,500 and a John Deere 435 go for $45,000 and the same guy bought both tractors.

[WoolyBear]

I stopped going to auctions when they started charging the 6% sales tax, the 10% buyers premium and the 3% surcharge if you used a credit card. That's 16-19% extra fees...um no. Then asking new prices for old stuff...um no. I'll shop on amazon thank you.
We did go to a steam and craft show yesterday. DH found a couple of new chisels for $1, 4 nice heavy t-shirts for $10, a gas tank for a boat motor $10. DD found sunglasses that she had been searching for - 2 pair..$20, but they fit her face good.
Me.. I found my fresh ground cornmeal that I buy every year.

[FarmboyBill]

Jim, your right
.
Sometimes a whole auction here seems high, sometimes, the whole auction seems low. Sometimes its fractionally both. Figuring out the fractions is the issue.

I have to drive around 70 miles to go to the one I go to once a month. IF I see something I need, or want to buy, I consider that IF I don't get it, I will leave empty, and that 140 mile round trip will be for nothing. Sop I tend to take it WAAAAAAAAAAAAAy high, IF its something I cant buy anymore at any price. I take it to a new price, IF it CAN be bought somewhere else, as im not there at the place it is new, and I don't want to go there, making a even more expensive gas trip.

[bja105]

I still get deals. Last Saturday, I got an All American Wisconsin pressure canner for $65, a set of big wrenches for $6, a Bighorn pony saddle for $20... and some worthless junk I already threw out. Best part, the saddle fits the pony, and the wrench set had the two sizes I needed for the tractor!

Now the livestock auction, thats a different story. Holstein bull bottle calves over $200/cw.

[FarmboyBill]

Sat before last I paid $40 for a Havahart trap, a big one 4 ft deep, 2ft sq, and $2 for a trombone sprayer. Ive wanted one of those for several years, as I have a wheelbarrow sprayer tank, but the pumps shot. I got all the parts for the pump, but cant find THOSE size leathers, as there smaller. Anyway, it would be a 2 man operation if it did work, one to pump, and one to point the wand. With this I just stick the baffle? end in the water and start playing the stars and stripes forever like I was in J P Susas band and I can do it myself. I more or less is just a spritzer, but I suppose that is about all one would want to put on spray for corn borer

[Rectifier]

No point in going to auctions now as prices are wild (people are wild?)
I find what I need rusting in someones yard and try to deal on it privately.
I have a grain truck that used to auction for $500 regularly. Last month a similar truck hit $8k at auction. What??
I have a $300 swather well those are worth $1500 at least now... don't get me started on tractors especially acreage sized machines.

If you're gonna sell it looks like auction's where its at but I don't know who's buying who has any sense.
I've seen guys bid up unwanted items because "that's too cheap he should be paying more" what pointless ill will to someone who may need the item and not have much cash.

Auctions aren't worth the fuel to attend. If I'm gonna drive that far I'd rather go watch a rodeo or something!

[flowergurl]

It is hit and miss, sometimes things i want go for more than new. Other times I get items almost given to me.
If i go to an auction and I see things are going sky high i usually leave.
No point in wasting a whole afternoon to crazy people.
Last auction i went to tho, I got a singer sewing machine in the cabinet and it's one of the older solid models.
They couldn't get a bid on it, and I got it for a dollar.
Now these machines came out of the 60's and were still built to last then.
The girls down in the sewing forum here confirmed this for me later.
These sewing machines sell for anywhere from $50.00 to $180.00 just for the machine now.
The auctioneer apparently wasn't in the know about them and nobody in the crowd sewed.
I get lucky most times and I can fill my car for under $30.00.
I have a big yard sale twice a year and sell my auctions finds in it.
I got a huge box of tupperware for a buck that day too. I will wash it up and clean it and make a killing on it.
Weather doesn't seem to matter here on prices. I've seen horrible weather bring high prices too. Nice sunny days things can go cheap too.

[rambler]

You can find deals, but generally stuff goes high.

But think about it.

New stuff is made in China, has no parts or things you can take apart and fix, has poor steel in it the few places they can't use plastic, the electric motor is a throw away and odd size so you can't put a new motor off the shelf in.

Gates or fence panels are made of thin metal or wire and poor quality welds, you can bend the tube in your hands much less what the livestock can do to it.

And so on.

But something old, it has more value than a new item any more. Folks are finding this out.

Old well cared for tractors, you all know the new stuff now has computers and lots of anti pollution stuff on it, needs a second tank of DEF fluid (nitrogen salt water...) that has to be burned through the exhaust to keep the EPA happy. That adds $5000 to a new tractor, and tends to burn out and need replacing every 10 years, who wants to own a new tractor lets see a show of hands???? The old ones are seen as a good long term investment, shade tree mechanics can rebuild them over and over the new tractors are mandated by the govt to be throw away, you won't find replacement computers and can't afford a DEF reBuild every 10 years. New tractor you need to rack up 6000 hours in a three year lease period and get rid of it, lease another new one.

You know chain saws are going to need computer chips and so on to meet EPA standards in just a year or two, they will need to be complex to meet the regs. No more tuning them up on your workbench and go cut wood in winter at 5 below, they will be finicky tuned to work in whatever the govt seems a good working environment to put out low emissions.

And on and on.

If you want to live old style, you need to pick up old stuff - and there is less old stuff every year.

It brings good money at auctions, to those who realize where we are at.

Paul

[MushCreek]

I haven't been to any auctions since I moved to SC, but I went to several regularly when I lived in FL. Most of the time, I just sat on my hands, but once in a while you'd get a deal. Even if I don't buy, I enjoy watching the action.

I shop on craigs and ebay a lot. Folks around here seem to think craigs is the lottery! I routinely see things listed for more than you can buy it new. I'm not talking about older, quality stuff, but late-model, Chinese junk. There are good deals, if you check often and can drop everything to go pick them up. I bought 10 matching antique doors for $100! The good deals go quick, though. I still find deals on ebay, oddly enough. There are tricks to searching for things that are poorly listed, and once in a while you find a deal that is buy-it-now.

There are regional differences for many things. Antique tractors are dirt cheap (pun intended) around here.

[mnn2501]

You answered your own question

the place was packed -- antique dealers, flea market folks, scrap metal hunters, collectibles specialists, eBay hopefuls, you name it.

[Allen W]

I agree with mnn2501, the flea market people seem to really drive prices up here. Then there is auction fever, I bought it at an auction it's a bargain mentality.

[Tiempo]

I've quit going, $300 for a 10x10x6 chainlink dog kennel that is $260 new at Family Farm and Home, used hog panels, same quality as the new ones for more than retail...people have lost their minds, plus you have to hang around like a lump on a log waiting for your item to come up only for it to bid up to a silly price.

[DryHeat]

In a time range around 5-12 years ago, I was both doing occasional eBay collectibles sales plus picking up any sort of "prepping" supplies and equipment. There was really only one vigorous auction company operating, combining several estates plus bankruptcy plus consigned mixtures perhaps once a month, maybe upwards of a hundred people attending. It was a 30-mile round trip for me so I had to factor that in as well as the time. For several years, it was well worth attending, especially when they had odd-mix sorts of "box lots" set out. Caught some camping supplies like a box of several good sleeping bags $20, same for several tents, sometimes a mixture of MRE packs plus a Coleman stove, sometimes everything from several households' worth of 3/4-full garage and kitchen spray cans and fertilizer and bug spray for $5 a box. Trick was to dig through a cluttered box and spot a couple of things you'd soon buy new anyway and keep it in mind. Generally it looked like the other real bargains were things that would require a heavy vehicle, or paying a contract service, to move... china cabinets, sofas, dining room table sets, appliances like freezers.

Then perhaps five years ago, that place started having many fewer big sales and trying to do more storage rental auctions (which I never had any luck looking at), with me often not buying anything at their estate auctions due to poor selections and high prices, then sort of faded away to where their web page now almost never has anything scheduled. I figured there were a series of things going on. There was a bit of competition, several new auction houses (which have faded out also); several weekend "estate sales" companies that researched prices and tagged items all through a house with percent discounts late in the day; AND a very visible upward price trend at the Goodwill and Salvation Army type thrift stores, like prices there doubling and tripling over a couple of years. It seems clear to me that it's really simple now to do online searches for the going prices, eBay in particular, and elsewhere, for anything with a model number or easy description so well worth assigning an employee to look things up then set your price at some percent. Some of that seems to me to be just idiotic accepting "buy it now" inflated pricing as standard and tagging stuff at 80% or 100% of that level, thereby discouraging folks like me from even dropping by to look, nor at auctions since prices there are inflated by the tag prices.

AND, since things have gotten tougher for folks across the board, there have been more buyers trying to bargain-hunt. AH, and a factor of relatives and friends of the estate owners having picked through everything earlier more often nowadays, too?