Strange auction sale

I went to a sale yesterday and I have never been to one like it.The auctineer was from 160 miles away and he new posted any flyers around or adds in the paper. When I went there were no signs on the road or in the yard. I found out about it the night before from my wife and many people there just drove by and thought it was a yard sale. On this sale there was 18 guns and none brought over 150 dollars and all were old. The auctioneer did not know the make or size of any of these. There were a lot of tools some old and most new in the box. There was a bunch of trac carbs and mags all new or in good shape. To start off the auctioneer upset many of the people there by comments he made about the north part of the state and many left. All total there were about 30 people there and stuff went cheap. The table of carbs and mags did not get any bids because the auctioneer and helpers did not know what they were and he sold the whole table for 1.00. I bought a box of vise grips that had 15 pairs in it for 10.00. Bought my wife a sewing basket for 1.00 and in the bottom of it was some magazines from 1922. There was a set of skidder chains like new and they sold for 5.00
 
And this is an example of why you need to be careful when you hire an auctioneer, cheapest might cost you the most. Okay so what did he say about Yoopers? Actually one of the better auctioneers I dealt with was from the U.P.
 
(quoted from post at 17:54:10 10/26/14) And this is an example of why you need to be careful when you hire an auctioneer, cheapest might cost you the most. Okay so what did he say about Yoopers? Actually one of the better auctioneers I dealt with was from the U.P.

You have that right. There is an auctioneer here that I like an he puts on good auctions but he gets in a hurry and stuff tends to go cheap. Another one who has good auctions because he works hard to sell stuff gets most of the really interesting stuff but things go high because he draws a crowd. I don't go to a lot of his auctions but he always greets me if I'm at one and is very friendly to everyone. I know who I'd hire out of the 2. got another one here that's just an idiot and full of himself. Can't trust a word he says. He had an auction a couple of years ago and the flyer claimed tractors in good to poor condition. An 826 IH he described in the flyer as great shape had a sign on it saying there was a shifting problem with it. Another that the flyer claimed to run had a sign that said the engine was frozen. People were showing up, looking and leaving. He's about run himself out of business. He's now doing a weekly consignment junk auction and his help is his wife and a clerk.

Rick
 
One comment he made was if people knew how to read they would be better off. He tried to sell some yard sticks and kept saying that he sold them for 5.00 a piece in Grand Rapids all the time. After saying this several times because no one was bidding my son said we get them for free up here and take them to Grand Rapids and put them on the auctions.
 
I went to one in Cohoctah yesterday. Auctioneer forgot he was supposed to auction off one of the hay wagons. I stayed to the end because a lot of stuff went REAL cheap. Only myself and one other guy bidding on the wagon. Ended up with a nice little Case running gear with a heavy treated wood top on it...$200.
 
Art Smith out of Kent City Michigan is one of my favorites, especially if selling. He can ring more out of guns than anyone I have ever seen. His crews are knowledgeable as well.

Larry
 
Saw something similar happen here locally. An acquatance of ours had to have an auction to clean up because he had sold his place. He had auctioneers look at it and most including a friend of ours weren't even interested in working with him because he is stubborn and the place was litterally a junk pile. The better of the two auctioneers that was willing to work with him made it very clear how it was going to be done and made it clear to him that he should scrap all the piles of scrap prior to the sale to clean up to make some room to organize stuff. The land owner was stubborn about it and insisted that the scrap would bring more money at the sale. The better auctioneer walked away and the other ended up doing the sale. I know people that went just to watch the spectical. Stuff went cheap too, if it didn't bring enough he wouldn't sell it.
 
Must be the reason for no advertising was that he does too poor of a job and can't afford to.
 
The problem is most people that hire an auctioneer for estate sales have never or rarely been to any auctions and don't know anything about auctioneers,they're just like every other profession some good some bad some extra terrible.I go to auctions all the time and I'd only want about
10% of the auctioneers I've ever seen hold an auction for me.Sounds like they probably hired the guy because he was the cheapest they could find and got what they paid (didn't pay) for.
 
I respect you opinion,however I do not agree on
anctions taking a long time to get more money.
I have left several auctions as the auctioneer
took so long on an item. To me folks should bid
if they are interested. Why wait and be begged
to bid. I think some times the bidders want the
attention. Best sale I recall people were stand
around waiting to bid,. The auctioneer sold a
couple of items dirt cheap quickely ( not high
dollar items) as two guys complained they were
intending to bid but were just waiting.
Auctioneer anounced if you want to buy BID .
Others agreed we dont have all day to stand
while some visit and decide. The auction picked
up and moved along at a fair pace.
 
To be honest I don't know the auctioneers name as he had no signs and his mane was not on his truck. I looked at my bid number and no name on it. All I know was he was from the grand Rapids area. The sale was 10 miles north of M 55 between Lake City and Houghton Lake a couple of miles from Moorsetown. One other thing that was on it was anti freeze in gal steel cans that you needed a church key to open. It was prestone and was in a yellow can with an old car on the front. There were 3 or 4 gals of it
 
Again a comment on the auctioneer's quality, any one I've ever dealt with that was worth anything had their name on everything trying to build name recognition. I used to have to select auctioneers for county sales and made it a point to occasionally go to sales held by other auctioneers to get a feel about them and if I wanted them working for me. It was a love hate thing, the ones that sold stuff cheap I liked their sales but didn't want them doing mine. I also checked out what the sale site looked like after the sale. Did they sell everything? Did it all get hauled out? Did they make special deals for their pet buyers? And if they did was value still delivered to owners?
 
I just recently started going to auctions, got hooked after the first one when I got a heated hog waterer and OMC grinder/mixer for $200 all in working condition. Been to a few sales where the auctioneer would do one item at a time and try to extract the last quarter out of it that by the end there was just a handful of people left. You have to keep things moving to keep people interested and not waiting all day to bid one one item. If the auctioneer doesn't know what they are selling doesn't help either.
 

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