The Jim Seacrest mega-collection

Simon Winter posted:

hibar posted

 

Unlike Ebay no snipers here, the bidding does not stop until the highest bid is in. [emotion over rules common sense] at this point the buyers premium tends to be forgotten. just saying !

Buyers Premium.....One of the great all time RIP OFFS. The buyer is getting NO service from the auction company, so why should he pay a premium? Charge the seller and be done with it, but GREED prevails. Figure the buyers premium right into the price you are willing to pay.

Simon

While I agree that the concept of a buyer's premium is a rip off, at least Stout's clearly displays the total amount before you hit the "bid" key.  And there's no reserve.  Pretty simple and low-stress - just submit a bid for the highest amount (including fees) you are comfortable paying - and either you get it or you don't. 

No question about it, Ebay has been a boon to people trying to get the most money for their stuff. Virtually gone are the days that wheeler dealers could go in and pay a widow pennies on the dollar for a deceased husbands "toys" and then resell them at huge profit. One particular individual who is now deceased comes to mind, who would take old catalogs to show and pay the "full list price" for old Lionel toys.  Anyway, the problem comes about when everyone wants to get a "deal". They bid less than the item is worth and then get angry and frustrated when they are outbid or someone snipes them at the last moment when they THOUGHT they were gonna get a "deal". If you look at an item and determine what you would be willing to pay for it and bid that amount, then if you get it great. If you get it for less then you were willing to pay you DID get a "deal", and if someone else is willing to pay more, then walk away.

The ONE best thing about Ebay is that if you wait long enough, there are always more of the same fish in the sea. If you did not get the item you craved, there will always be another one up for sale, eventually.

Live auctions like this one though, I don't quite understand how that works. Some of these items are now on Ebay too. So what, does the live auction START with the bidding price of what the item was bid up to on Ebay and go from there?

oscaletrains posted:

Live auctions like this one though, I don't quite understand how that works. Some of these items are now on Ebay too. So what, does the live auction START with the bidding price of what the item was bid up to on Ebay and go from there?

You are correct that all items for this auction are on Ebay. Ebay works as a bid catcher for us for the week leading up to the auction. Folks can leave absentee bids through our site, Ebay, and Invaluable. Come auction day,  our computer gives us the second high absentee bid and that's where we start the bidding. For example if you absentee bid $100 on a lot, but the internet is only at $60, we start at $60. We CAN NOT see your high absentee bid, so at that point it's the absentee bids vs. the live bids on both the internet and the floor. Hope this helps explain it. 

OK, so IF there were something you really wanted at any price, you could just bid $10,000 or whatever on it and then if a live bidder stopped bidding at say, $2,300 your cost would be what?

$2350.  The bids go up by $50 after $2000.  Just hope no one else uses the same strategy on the same item.  Best to pick your maximum (including the buyers premium and shipping).

Good explanation John. So what do the bid numbers on the invaluable site mean? Are those maximum bids and are`nt they visible with a cell phone to the in person bidders during the auction?

oscaletrains posted:

OK, so IF there were something you really wanted at any price, you could just bid $10,000 or whatever on it and then if a live bidder stopped bidding at say, $2,300 your cost would be what?

Whatever the minimum bid increment is.  I'm not sure how/where that is revealed for a  Live event, but it's listed for any standard ebay auction, I believe.

So if the bid increment is $100 as an example (for something in the $2300 range, that may be realistic), you would get it for $2400.  That's why some people bid odd penny amounts to fend off  someone who actually enters a high that is just over your max bid by a round number that equals the bid increment (success with this can be debated I guess). 

It's not that the other bidders can see your max bid, of course, but if I bid $2300.49, and you bid $2400, I believe I would be the winner since your $2400 doesn't meet the minimum bid increment ($100) over my max with the extra $0.49.  If you bid $2400.99 (or anything over $2300.49), I think you would get it for $2400.49, since your max included enough money to beat me by the bid increment.

{edit: John typed much faster than me }

-Dave

Live bid amounts are even.  You cannot bid $2400.99 live.  If you prebid that amount the system will only allow you to make the next acceptable bid during the live auction - which it shows you.  You do not enter amounts during the live auction (takes too long and is error prone), you only press the button for the bid amount shown on the button.  You will then see your bid in the running total. You will then see any subsequent bids higher than yours, should there be any, and gives the chance to press the button for the next acceptable bid amount.  They do about 100+ lots per hour so individual lots do go pretty fast.

There is also an option to show the max buyers premium for a bid amount.  While I too would prefer if the bid amounts included the buyers premium I am not aware of any live auctions that do not work the same way.  The bid amount goes to the seller.  Even Christie's charges a buyers premium on  million dollar paintings.

Watching this on line live, I have only seen one item I would have been willing to pay more for than it sold for.

Some low prices on passenger and diesels and firm pricing on freight.  

Who who won the Santa Fe stock cars?     I would like to work a deal for one.

Typical auction. Some go real high and some for what the listing said. I have never bid before but tried this time. Didn't win any but enjoyed the attempt. Spent my cash in Chicago.

DIck

Dripped an absentee bid on a caboose, didn't get it but tried to get in for the guarantee at the live auction  and couldn't get logged in so I just missed it. Nothing lost as it went for pretty much retail. Maybe there will something better jsut around the corner. There is no shortage of trains to buy