Tell me aout your experiences with estate auctions

[fastfredracing]

High school friend passed away a month ago . I went to his estate auction today . He was a drag racer, and so was his dad , They had a lifetimes accumulation of cars, parts, and tools .
I had my eye on his 1968 ss 396 camaro . So did about 50 other guys. I recognized some of the heavy hitter dealers, and gearheads in the area, and I decided to just take my ball and go home, figuring that the car will bring strong money . It had no drivetrain, but was beautiful , would be a really easy project to bring back .
Most of them I have gone to , the good stuff brings close to retail . Seems people get caught up in the bidding .
Now, if you want to buy coffee mugs, and rusted wrench sets, there are deals to be had .
Your experiences ??

[masraum]

Hell, estate sales and garage/yard/rummage sales usually seem to be way overpriced to me. I think the deal is that some folks are "addicted" to them. There are regulars that go and buy a ton of stuff that they don't need and due to their compulsion, will overpay. When we had a house, we used to have a yard sale from time to time, every 3-5 years. We priced our stuff so we wouldn't have to take it back inside or throw it away at the end. We priced everything a little bit over what we wanted so we would make the people happy by dropping the price. We were selling it because we didn't want it any more, so no reason to charge a ton.

I've seen old tools that were practically priced at retail. Screw that.

I do understand that you can get some fantastic deals, but I am not willing to wade through an ocean of crap and overpriced stuff to find those gems.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by masraum

Hell, estate sales and garage/yard/rummage sales usually seem to be way overpriced to me. I think the deal is that some folks are "addicted" to them. There are regulars that go and buy a ton of stuff that they don't need and due to their compulsion, will overpay. When we had a house, we used to have a yard sale from time to time, every 3-5 years. We priced our stuff so we wouldn't have to take it back inside or throw it away at the end. We priced everything a little bit over what we wanted so we would make the people happy by dropping the price. We were selling it because we didn't want it any more, so no reason to charge a ton.

I've seen old tools that were practically priced at retail. Screw that.

I do understand that you can get some fantastic deals, but I am not willing to wade through an ocean of crap and overpriced stuff to find those gems.

My latest haul. I Came across just a few that might be good for guitar amps, and offered $100 for the whole lot. There's a lot of NOS stuff in here, with a few being worth quite a lot of they're in working order... including some giant military AM radio transmission tubes.

Picked up a great 1950's Singer sewing machine in cabinet for $35 a few weeks back.
GF bought a 1902 book for $2... Turned out to be the first appearance of Peter Pan. The Little White Bird, in great condition.
We're headed to a couple today. One has a bunch of car stuff... and a '31 Ford Roadster chassis...

[porsche4life]

They are having an estate auction for my grandmothers stuff in September, keeping my fingers crossed that the crazy bidders show up.

[fastfredracing]

Looks like I was right, I was chatting with a buddy there, and said that that Camaro would have been a steal at 15k. I guessed it would go for 17. It brought 21.5. A local bar owner bought it and their 10 second 65 chevelle for 24k
He has a pretty nice car collection. I was glad to see it not go to the flippers .

[GWN7]

A buddy sold his 69 SS Camaro 396 4 speed (no motor or trans) for $35K two years ago. Someone over paid or your bar owner got a deal.

[tabs]

Friend of mine huge and expensive spoon collection went to Carol Watson's auction in OC. Some went expensive and some went cheap.

For instance he had a Steven Dodd Hughes custom1877 Sharps Long Range built for 30k that was absolutely flawless (pictures of it have been published). It sold for 12k. A Homer Dangler custom flint Pennsylvania rifle that would cost 6k or better to build for 1800. Or a Ed Brown Marine Corp tactical 308 rifle with a $2500 Unertl Marine corp scope for 2300. But then again his 3 inch Python went for 12k.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

I worked at a car auction and general furniture auction house in my youth, watched 1000's of auctions

It was always interesting to watch the battle of wits between the bidders and auctioneer on who is actually controlling the bidding.

A good auctioneer tries to whoop up excitement, create a fast pace of frenzied bidding to drive the price up beyond the limit mentally set by the bidders. The clever, experienced bidders only bid once and they only show themselves to the rest of the room once the auctioneer confirms they have the winning bid.

All this waving arms in the air, fist pumping and screaming you see on the low rent TV shows is just a bunch of dumb asses grabbing their moment of fame. It's good fun to watch but not the way to get yourself a bargain.

The tactics are exactly the same if you are buying a muti-million dollar car or you're buying an old radio at an estate sale.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

I worked at a car auction and general furniture auction house in my youth, watched 1000's of auctions

It was always interesting to watch the battle of wits between the bidders and auctioneer on who is actually controlling the bidding.

A good auctioneer tries to whoop up excitement, create a fast pace of frenzied bidding to drive the price up beyond the limit mentally set by the bidders. The clever, experienced bidders only bid once and they only show themselves to the rest of the room once the auctioneer confirms they have the winning bid.

All this waving arms in the air, fist pumping and screaming you see on the low rent TV shows is just a bunch of dumb asses grabbing their moment of fame. It's good fun to watch but not the way to get yourself a bargain.

The tactics are exactly the same if you are buying a muti-million dollar car or you're buying an old radio at an estate sale.

In the long run the best stuff I bought was one bid past what my limit was going to be. If it went past that my card came down.

Sometimes I never even got a bid in. On a few occasions I decided I wanted it and I went after it..in other words I chased it. But never to the point of ohhh my gawd.

I had a rep with the West LA antique dealers of knowing quality, value and not over paying.

[Por_sha911]

From what I've seen with an "Estate Sale", the auction company makes a deal with the selling family and buys the really good stuff like antiques, jewelry. The bidders never see it cross the block. Unless you are looking for odd stuff (like vac tubes), I don't think there are much deals to be had.

[CurtEgerer]

I go to at least 3-4 estate sales per week (sometimes as many as 10-15) buying items to flip for a profit. Nobody is going to get a deal on something like a vintage Camaro drag car because everyone knows it has value. I buy things that are pretty much under the radar, often finding them on the last day at 1/2 off after there have been 100s of people thru the house (vintage cameras, watches, binoculars, and much more). $5 finds that sell for $100s are fairly routine. Finding treasure is simply a function of how many sales you go to and having knowledge of what is in demand.

[dad911]

I rarely stop, but I did today. End of sale, make an offer....

24' extension ladder in new condition for $25.
$20 for a case of carbide router bits, some 1/2" shank, most unused.