Any one else think farm auctions stink?

[mscher]

Rant

Seems like it used to be, that you could get some great bargains at farm auctions. Now it's hard to buy items even at reasonable prices.

I felt a little guilty for wanting to bid $50 max for 6 rusty steel cattle panels. They sold for $80 and would be about $130 brand new.

A small pile of metal scrap went for $325. Scrappers were probably driving up prices for most metal objects, including tractors.

If times are so tough, you could not tell today, the way folks (a lot of) were shelling out the $$.

The worst part was that I wasted half of a great weekend day.

I'm done with my rant and farm auctions.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

Yes, the price of metal is up.
We have a large scrap yard here(Mansbach Metal) that is lined up from the time they open till they close with people waiting to get in and dump their scrap and this is not a small place either. Has yearly sales of Est.:$22,100,000

 

[roscoe]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

Have given up on them.

seen 3 ten year old broken kmart/zebco fishing rods go for $34 !!

and a rusty old milkhouse heater for $28,
The 30 year old craftsman lawn mower went for $310

but I did get a box of junk for a buck. Picked out the full can of WASP killer, the full can of brake cleaner, and threw the rest in the dumpster.

 

[oops!]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

all auctions used to be a dime on the dollar.......(the bid price was uasually 10 % of new)

ive noticed since the e-bay thing came along....auctions have been getting more popular....ive seen prices go far above new retail for sub standard items....the auctioneers were even laughing after it was over...

the crazyest i ever saw was a very collectable dinner plate.......smashed to peices......in a paper bag....(paper sack to all americans)....peices way to small to ever fix....sell for $35......we were all whispering to the owner of the auction, (who was trying his hardest to keep a straight face) to let us consign the green garbage bag out of the trash bin so he could sell it for us!

....it is the uneducated (un auction educated) people that seem to be driving up the prices.....thinking they will get a bargain because its "at an auction)

its funny....they average people that attend auctions looking for deals keep saying...."the dealers kept driving up the prices".....what a laugh.....known dealers have to drop out at 50% of what the retail market will bear to make a profit on any said item....(that means we drop out at half of what its worth!).......it is in fact, the average buyers that are driving up the prices on the dealers

 

[triumphrick]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

Also the car auctions.
Back in the day (seems my Dad used to say that) auctions were neat places to find something unusual that you could buy and fix up to make a buck or two.
We had a local one in Zephyrhills that has been going on for many years and I always could find some of my old Triumph parts. Today, they think all that stuff is gold plated. Hell, they make reproductions of so much of that any more, and at better prices.
Anyway, I try to avoid anything that says Auction anymore.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

Many auctions are attended by the auction uneducated.
I occasionally buy a car from them, make it roadworthy and re-sell it to make a few extra "boating bucks"
Problem is that many folk that attend are going by the price they have seen it for at a dealership and if you get quite a few of them there bidding against each other the rest of us just stand back and laugh. Great for the auctioneers commission though.
Best one I got was a really dirty 1995 Grand Am for $400
Spent $120 on fixing the power steering a safety certificate and an emission test, $30 on cleaning supplies, $40 on a set of shiny wheel covers and sold it 10 days after buying it for $2500. First person to look at it bought it. Mind you the car looked a million bucks with the elbow grease that went into the cleaning of it.
Still attend the auction about once a month to see what is there but a deal like that is so hard to find again recently.

 

[achris]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

I've seen people stand at the front, and put their arm up until the hammer falls! Guess who they were bidding against? Yep, themselves... Actually illegal in this state but the auctioneers get away with it, so they keep doing it...

I remember getting my first 4WD from an auction, paid just over half new value... Thanks to idiots like the ones mentioned above, those days are gone Gee, I miss 'em.

Chris..............

 

[RPJS]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

I think this just about sums it up.

I have a small business making bespoke industrial steam ovens, I tend to get a lot of off cut Stainless Steel material (40mm box and 1.5mm sheet) up untill 2 yrs ago this scrap was weighed in.
A friend of mine attended an auction where people were bidding above list price for Stainless Steel tables, I got one of my welders to make a couple of tables out of the off cut pile and sent them into the auction, I was amazed at the price I got for them, having deducted sales commission I still made more than list, the upshot is that I now have a welder working 1 week a month making tables, I'm even buying material in for the job.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

Do farm auctions stink ... dah, I haven't been around too many farms that didn't! All that manure and all ...

But on to prices. I used to feel that the dealers drove up the price (that was when there were only a few of us non-dealer buyers showing up and they made you pay wholesale value for things if you wanted them ... they made it hard to steal things. Now with the auction craze in full swing, it is the non-dealer buyers are making it hard for the dealers since they are bidding up to retail and above!

I usually head to auctions with a list of what I might be interested in and the wholesale price list of them ... if it goes above wholesale, I am out of there. It has been a couple years since I last bought anything at an auction!

 

[speedwrench]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

Reasons I don't waste my time going to auctions any more:

1. Anything decent is gone to family, friends, or private sale way before
viewing starts.
All that's left is the junk.

2. Buyers exporting to Mexico, south and central America. I live on the most
direct route to the only crossing into Mexico that the stuff going to
central and south America can enter Mexico. You would be amazed at the
number of used/wrecked cars, trucks, equipment, appliances, bicycles and
other assorted (to us) junk that passes by here every day. I keep thinking
the midwest/north east has got to run out of junk cars sometime, but they
just keep coming.

3. Scrap prices.

4. Buyers that get caught up in the bidding and don't quit when they should.


Dave

 

[mthieme]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

It's a good thing you don't live on the east coast. Farms around here are drying up quicker than turn them into suburbia.

You can find deals at auctions - just not what you set to get though.
I have two friends I go to auctions with occasionally - they are die hards.
Both their yards look like scrap heaps.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

The deals are still there, you just need to know what to look for. Only a fool would bid more than resale value on any item. I find the gun auctions to be the best for return on your investment.

 

[treedancer]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

I was at a farm auction a few years ago with a neighbor and his wife; we got separated from his wife and he started bidding on an end table that looked pretty to be old but in pretty good shape, someone on the other side of the auction kept out bidding him, and run the price up pretty much; yep his wife.

 

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

I went to a farm auction a few weeks ago. A 1933 Ford 5 window coupe , rusty shell, no interior, not running, engine stuck, brought 27000 dollars. I'm from MN and somebody from Colorado bought it.

People applauded after the bidding was done.

 

[DJ]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

People get "caught up" in auctions, no matter what type. It becomes competitive.

It is the job of the auctioneer to release that competitiveness in people.

 

[speedwrench]

Re: Any one else think farm auctions stink?

Oh yea, I forgot#5: "10% buyers premium"

Dave