Do you have a problem keeping the shelves stocked?

[clovis97]

But I don't see that as a bad thing because I bet most on here will have their gig expire long before me. All it takes is one other guy at your favorite little auction and the big gains are over.

And yes, that does happen on occasion.

There is a local weekly auction here, and part of the problem is newbies showing up and running prices through the roof.

I'll never forget a dude that started coming, and let his testosterone and stupidity kick in. If someone bid an item to $5, he'd bid $6. He bought so much that it was crazy. The other bidders started running him. It seemed that at $15, he'd drop out of the bidding, so that guy paid $14 per lot for a bunch of items.

These were mostly box lots that normally would sell for $2 to $5, and as a reseller, you might find a few $20 to $50 items mixed in. This dude had no clue of what he was buying, whatsoever. He came to every sale for months on end. At the time, I was reselling only part time and was too young and dumb to know what might resell on ebay, so I went home most nights empty handed. It cost me a lot of money, and it hurt my wallet pretty bad.

I thought I could end that losing streak by attending the best estate auction of the year...just to find yet another guy who showed up to outbid everyone on every item. The auction company was so worried that they pulled him aside to verify that he had the funds to pay for all the items he won.

One thing was different though; the pro resellers were at the top of their game, and ran this guy on everything. I watched him pay $80 for a small box of junk milk bottles that wouldn't have sold for $2 each, and $100 for four cheap baseball gloves from the '70s.

I have spoken to both of these guys, and to this day, both still have all that junk in storage. In all, it cost me abut 4 months of buying. Of course, I know more now, but at the time it hurt pretty bad.

 

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[Iron Patch]

And yes, that does happen on occasion.

There is a local weekly auction here, and part of the problem is newbies showing up and running prices through the roof.

I'll never forget a dude that started coming, and let his testosterone and stupidity kick in. If someone bid an item to $5, he'd bid $6. He bought so much that it was crazy. The other bidders started running him. It seemed that at $15, he'd drop out of the bidding, so that guy paid $14 per lot for a bunch of items.

These were mostly box lots that normally would sell for $2 to $5, and as a reseller, you might find a few $20 to $50 items mixed in. This dude had no clue of what he was buying, whatsoever. He came to every sale for months on end. At the time, I was reselling only part time and was too young and dumb to know what might resell on ebay, so I went home most nights empty handed. It cost me a lot of money, and it hurt my wallet pretty bad.

I thought I could end that losing streak by attending the best estate auction of the year...just to find yet another guy who showed up to outbid everyone on every item. The auction company was so worried that they pulled him aside to verify that he had the funds to pay for all the items he won.

One thing was different though; the pro resellers were at the top of their game, and ran this guy on everything. I watched him pay $80 for a small box of junk milk bottles that wouldn't have sold for $2 each, and $100 for four cheap baseball gloves from the '70s.

I have spoken to both of these guys, and to this day, both still have all that junk in storage. In all, it cost me abut 4 months of buying. Of course, I know more now, but at the time it hurt pretty bad.

Yep, sometimes the newbies can be way worse than those with experience, because not only do you lose the big profit, and the small profit, you lose the item completely. The good thing is a person tends to learn lessons pretty quick when they're losing money so most get weeded out.

 

[clovis97]

Yep, sometimes the newbies can be way worse than those with experience, because not only do you lose the big profit, and the small profit, you lose the item completely. The good thing is a person tends to learn lessons pretty quick when they're losing money so most get weeded out.

I couldn't agree more.

There was a guy who was trying to be a big time eBay seller a few years ago, but was buying only on credit cards. He was using a shotgun approach and "see what sticks" with his buying.

At one of the largest train auctions I've ever seen, this guy spent over $7,000. I talked to him during an auction break, and he was trying to sound like an authority on Lionel, while also acting like he was a wealthy, private collector.

I watched what he bought that day, including a repro Lionel engine that he paid $1,500 for, plus 10% buyer premium and 7% sales tax. Had it been a 1930's issue, it might have brought $5,000+, but this was the modern re-issue. He was running his mouth about how it was an 80 year old train. (It was hard not to laugh.) I think he finally sold it for $550 on the bay.

In all honesty, he did well on a few pieces, but all in all, I think he lost, at minimum, $3,000. I haven't seen him at another auction since then. Nonetheless, guys like him can mess up an auction and send prices through the roof.

 

[diggummup]

This past year has been especially hard for me to keep the shelves empty. I mainly list items for sale when work gets slow. That didn't really happen too much this year. That is a good thing as far as that goes. But it's a bad thing when I continue to buy every weekend and only list a few items a week. Finding items to sell is the easy part. Finding time to list them is the hard part. On the flip side, if work ran out or I broke my leg or something , I could support myself for at least a year or two without ever buying another item. The thing is, I can't stop buying and the cupboards are overflowing, lol. Houston, I think we have a problem. Beats drinking though, I guess?

 

[inspectorgadget]

And yes, that does happen on occasion.

There is a local weekly auction here, and part of the problem is newbies showing up and running prices through the roof.

I'll never forget a dude that started coming, and let his testosterone and stupidity kick in. If someone bid an item to $5, he'd bid $6. He bought so much that it was crazy. The other bidders started running him. It seemed that at $15, he'd drop out of the bidding, so that guy paid $14 per lot for a bunch of items.

These were mostly box lots that normally would sell for $2 to $5, and as a reseller, you might find a few $20 to $50 items mixed in. This dude had no clue of what he was buying, whatsoever. He came to every sale for months on end. At the time, I was reselling only part time and was too young and dumb to know what might resell on ebay, so I went home most nights empty handed. It cost me a lot of money, and it hurt my wallet pretty bad.

I thought I could end that losing streak by attending the best estate auction of the year...just to find yet another guy who showed up to outbid everyone on every item. The auction company was so worried that they pulled him aside to verify that he had the funds to pay for all the items he won.

One thing was different though; the pro resellers were at the top of their game, and ran this guy on everything. I watched him pay $80 for a small box of junk milk bottles that wouldn't have sold for $2 each, and $100 for four cheap baseball gloves from the '70s.

I have spoken to both of these guys, and to this day, both still have all that junk in storage. In all, it cost me abut 4 months of buying. Of course, I know more now, but at the time it hurt pretty bad.

Yep, sometimes the newbies can be way worse than those with experience, because not only do you lose the big profit, and the small profit, you lose the item completely. The good thing is a person tends to learn lessons pretty quick when they're losing money so most get weeded out.

I couldn't agree more.

There was a guy who was trying to be a big time eBay seller a few years ago, but was buying only on credit cards. He was using a shotgun approach and "see what sticks" with his buying.

At one of the largest train auctions I've ever seen, this guy spent over $7,000. I talked to him during an auction break, and he was trying to sound like an authority on Lionel, while also acting like he was a wealthy, private collector.

I watched what he bought that day, including a repro Lionel engine that he paid $1,500 for, plus 10% buyer premium and 7% sales tax. Had it been a 1930's issue, it might have brought $5,000+, but this was the modern re-issue. He was running his mouth about how it was an 80 year old train. (It was hard not to laugh.) I think he finally sold it for $550 on the bay.

In all honesty, he did well on a few pieces, but all in all, I think he lost, at minimum, $3,000. I haven't seen him at another auction since then. Nonetheless, guys like him can mess up an auction and send prices through the roof.

You are all correct! The newbie buyer that even runs his mouth about how HE is gonna run everybody else up when in reality he only runs himself up! No big money idiot guys like that show up at our auctions just guys with $100-$200 to spend tops & the pros get em to spend it all up real fast on a lot less than he could have gotten for that much cash! These people come & go but they never last more than 4 weeks & they make very little off what they buy because they overpay by so much!

I am very guilty of recognizing the newbie "over spenders" & then running them thru thru the roof! I do it so they don't wanna ever come back again & it works very well! I have been a part of helping to run many people off after just 1 week! These people really have no business being there to begin with. Just cause they watched a TV show & think hey I'm gonna go strike it rich at this auction & yet they just mess a whole portion of the auction up. Those people just need to GO away & believe me they do go away!

The auction that is the best here is so big 10 newbies couldn't mess it all up & we still run em off!

My best advice to newbies is go watch the auction a couple times before you go jumping all in head first. Get a feel for what stuff NORMALLY sells for & maybe get to know some people who are regulars there. I'm not against newbies at all, I'm just against the idiot, know it, all mess it up for everybody types of newbies!

Being a serious regular at any auction & building friends there is a great way to work it! While it is illegal to conspire to keep bidding low it's not illegal in any way to not bid against those "friends" that don't bid against you & vise versa! A "gentleman's unspoken agreement" so to speak. I get many items cheaper than I would & they get items cheaper & in the end it works out great I mean you might not get everything you wanted but you paid much less for what you did get than you could have.