trying to cheat me?

I didn't want to rush around this morning to try to get to Stamm Equipments going out of business auction,the weather wasn't good anyway,so I logged on for the online auction. I'd gone on yesterday and put my maximum bid on 2 items,$500 on the first one,$750 on the second.
I had the audio on today so I could hear the auctioneer live. My first item came up and it started out at 500,went up,the screen told me I was out,click "bid now" to bid again. Well,I wasn't going any higher,sight unseen,it brought $1100. No big deal.
I lost the audio before the second item came up,so I couldn't hear what was going on live,tried everything I could to get it back,but the item started out at 200. The computer did what it was supposed to,raised my bid up automatically,I had it at 750. Then it said somebody onsite had bid 800,it was making noises at me wanting me to bid again. I didn't,wasn't going to go any higher. It said it sold for 800 to an onsite buyer,then it was like the computer locked up,it wouldn't advance to the next item. Almost a minute went by and it started flashing and making noises and said I bought it for 750. Since I didn't have any audio,I don't know if it was just a trick to try to get me to raise my own bid or what? I HOPE they're honest and just didn't have the live,onsite bid that they thought they had. I hate to think they were trying to skin me.

You know how it is when you have a bad experience with something - you kind of form an opinion, and it's hard to shake that opinion. Your experience reinforces my opinion of auctions and auctioneers. I know there's got to be an honest auctioneer out there somewhere, but I haven't ever stumbled across him. No offense intended to anyone in particular - just my feelings from personal experience.

Paul

Well My guess would be that the auctioneer probably had a weak bid that backed out. Giving you the win.
It is tough to blame the auction when it could have been the link to the auction.
You are certainly reasonable to think they were jacking the price higher, to test your willingness to go there. I would think it would be a bit difficult to bluff the on site people, unless they were lying about a second (non existent) bidder. Did you feel OK about winning the item after all?! Jim

Yea,I got it for what I thought it was worth. I need to get ahold of the auction company before I pick it up Monday though. They charged me sales tax and it should be exempt since it was a piece of farm machinery. Also,they had a 6% buyers premium for internet bidding and they said on the invoice that there's a $45 cash discount,so I need to find out how to pay them cash before I pick it up so it doesn't end up on my card with that $45 extra added.

PJH,
You're not the only one who feels that way.

With sellers bidding their stuff back because they didn't get what they want and will put it in the next auction, 40 Yep, 50 Yep, 60 Yep, 80 Yep, Sold to the gentleman in front row. I couldn't see who was bidding other than the guy in the front.

When we downsized from the city we decided to auction all the extra stuff, figured we'd get about $1800 we got $220 I never bid any of it up including a really nice antique dry cell battery radio it made it all they way to $6.00.
Now at the same sale everyone elses stuff went considerable higher.

A few of the reasons why I quit going to auctions 15 years ago.

Actions sometimes feels like buying a car, you're the only one bidding

When I moved to this area 35 years ago, there were two auctioneers who handled most of the sales around. One of them is still in business although he has taken on a partner now, but he is the most honest auctioneer that I have ever seen. We have been on a first name basis for years. After attending several sales conducted by the other one, I became a little suspicious as his accomplice would move to the back of the crowd and when bidding became a little slow, he would holler, Yeaup! Yeaup! and the bid would go up. One day I also moved to the back of the crowd and when he shouted Yeaup! I saw no one bidding. It was just a trick to get others to raise their own bids! Unless there was something listed that I really wanted, I stopped attending his auctions. He died several years ago, he is probably auctioning air conditioners now.

I am always leary. Last auction I was at, they kept saying "we have an on-line bid of $xxx". Really no one knows if that is true since none of the live bidders can see the screen they are looking at.

Rick

Went to an auction about 50 yrs ago, (been married 57 yrs 10/2/54). They had a player piano that the wife wanted, it was setting on the stage,(it was in a barn), the auctioneer said they going to sell the player piano, (they had two to sell) anyhow they rolled a refrigerator onto the stage. The auctioneer asked for a starting bid, started at $50.00, told the wife it was way more than I pay for an old piano!! Auctioneer asked bidder which piano he wanted, he said I don't want a piano, I was bidding on the refrigerator.Auctioneer said I'M SELLING A PIANO,PAY ATTENTION!!! Started again, "what am I bid on this piano", I said $7.50 he said "SOLD",ever body broke out laughing.

Yeah Tom - I know several auctioneers personally, all of them pretty good people until they get a microphone in their hand.

I've watched guys bump bids on an old widow woman that I worked for when I was in the eighth grade. They's sit on the fence like a bunch of buzzards and giggle every time she'd up her bid. The auctioneer could see it all. An honorable person would have put a stop to it.

I had a friend who bought a nice John Deere tractor at auction. The auctioneer had hollered SOLD to bidder #XXXX (friend's number). A few minutes later auctioneer declared that he was going to re-open the bid on the tractor because a couple of Amish guys expressed interest in it but were not paying attention when the tractor sold. No amount of protest would stop it. Friend refused to bid further, and it was re-sold to one of the amish men. Last auction I ever attended with that auctioneer. I think an auctioneer should have his license pulled for that type of behavior.

I have another friend who is a trader. He goes to all of the consignment auctions in a pretty big radius, and if I'm interested in something he's selling, I ask him what he has to have for it. He'll tell me and he will make sure it gets to the price that he stated, then he backs off. That doesn't bother me because he is up front about it, and if he takes it back home with him, he still pays the commission. I like to just tell him what I'll give for an item and not attend the auction. If I'm the high bidder, he brings it to the house for me.

We once had a preacher who was also an auctioneer. I told him that he was some kind of an oxymoron - kinda like the term "jumbo shrimp". Needless to say, I didn't endear myself to him, which was good in the end. He got to fooling around with one of the ladies in the church and now he's just an auctioneer.

Nuff said.

Paul

You did it the right way. Put in what you are willinf to pay and just sit back. I will use the online bids and still attend the sale alot of times. I get the stuff bought online but don't have guys badgering me I paid too much. Local auction here only charges 3 percent for internet. Its worth every penny to me.

With my Proxibid account it always asks you if you want to increase your bid no matter where the price is at. If they actually got the $800 bid it states YOUR OUT on the screen. Until it says that I never increase my bid.