Gun Auctions-Sheeeesh!

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WOW ! What a discussion.
The only gun I bought on-line was at GunBroker about 4 years ago. The seller was in Colorado and had a 20 y.o. Marlin 1894 in .38/.357. We traded a couple of emails as I asked if they would accept a paper check snail-mailed to them (IF I won the auction) and that was OK with them. After 2 years of trying various auctions, I finally got the lever gun to go with my GP-100.
 
I've worked the floor at a couple of auctions and been a regular buyer at others.
It's nice to research the items that you are looking at, but it is very profitable to have a broad base of knowledge so that you can identify useful or valuable items out of context. Rare and valuable parts, unusual ammunition and reloading tools, interesting accessories... the list goes on and on.
If you don't know what it is then you certainly don't know what to bid.
Some of my best buys were dollar pallets where no one else saw any value - but I knew what I was looking at.
 
Having a limit is the way to go. I once saw a bag of front sights for gp100, Redhawk,etc and saw in that bag the hard to find brass bead front sight. I didn't care for the other sights but have seen the brass bead sights auction as high as 50 each. I got the bag for much less.
 
What is the URL of this bogus auction? I want to look it over and judge for myself! It sounds fishy.
 
Several years ago on eBay I saw something ... WON-DER-FUL!

eBay does not have a 15-Minute-Rule like Gunbroker so "Snipers" abound.

To be fair, on items that you really want to buy, sniping is probably the only defense against snipers, but, that said ... I think that many/most folks hate to have an item "sniped" from them in the final couple of seconds.

Often in the final couple of seconds a sniper will post a very high bid (the AutoBid will then quickly kick in an use just enough of that high bid to defeat the next highest bidder), depending upon the bidding-sanity of the other interested parties to keep the winning bid from being too high.

One night I was actively bidding on some computer-component item (I forget what). I do not even remember if I was high bidder seconds before the end ... what occurred was ...

... TWO snipers posted last-second outRAGEous bids (way out there) and the one with the higher bid quickly "WON" the auction ... for much more than the item was worth. Excellent! :D
 
If I see anything worthy on GB, I keep track of it occasionally until the last day. That usually lets the "tire kickers" fall by the wayside. GB's "soft close" also gives time to re-evaluate my bid(s) and tends to take the "heat" out of my bidding. I've had some good deals. Passed on others.
 
A few of the less reputable auction houses (when you are on Proxybid) will place a super-high house bid (even though it's not official) to draw out the highest bid.

Say there is a gun I am willing to pay up to $400 for...so I set a maximum bid of $400. It says I am leading all bidders at $250 before the auction starts.

The auction house, instead of letting the bids go up from $250, suddenly puts in a bid for $1000 on that gun...then retracts it immediately...leaving my $400 max bid as the high bid. Even if nobody else bids against my $250 original leading bid.

Needless to say, I inform them I will never do business with them again, and indicate what happened in the feedback for Proxybid.

That said, most of the auction houses I have dealt with are honest and above-board.

I have won a brand-new CZ85 combat for $260. And half a dozen other excellent deals through the years.
 
A few of the less reputable auction houses (when you are on Proxybid) will place a super-high house bid (even though it's not official) to draw out the highest bid.

Say there is a gun I am willing to pay up to $400 for...so I set a maximum bid of $400. It says I am leading all bidders at $250 before the auction starts.

The auction house, instead of letting the bids go up from $250, suddenly puts in a bid for $1000 on that gun...then retracts it immediately...leaving my $400 max bid as the high bid. Even if nobody else bids against my $250 original leading bid.

Needless to say, I inform them I will never do business with them again, and indicate what happened in the feedback for Proxybid.

That said, most of the auction houses I have dealt with are honest and above-board.

I have won a brand-new CZ85 combat for $260. And half a dozen other excellent deals through the years.
I believe this is what this auction does. I noticed the other night that items went from a max bid of say $15 to $100 within the last hour of bidding and then they added on 2hrs extra to auction.
 
I've purchased several (6 or 7 I think) guns in the last few years on GunBroker. Each time I've paid a price I'm satisfied with, have never been ripped off and had to buy all of them through an FFL and did a back ground check. Perhaps I'm just lucky, but I'm also careful. Now estate and local consignment auctions are another story entirely. The bidding often gets wildly out of control which is good if you are selling. I once bid up to a $1000 on a NIB Winchester 9417, hoping to get a bargain. At the time you could find them on line for about $1400. It sold for $2500. Ammo will often sell for well above internet home delivery ammo. I've had auctioneers tell me that one of their biggest problems is people who will win the bid, then not show up to pay for the item(s). I'm guessing that happens when people realize they grossly overbid an item. Yep, auctions, like everything else, have pluses and minuses. Ya gotta take care of yourself.
 
I ended up deleting my account cause this one was just crazy! They had a S&W J frame 38spl. listed as a 22WMR. The box, description and all said 38SPL +p but they listed it as 22WMR. Had a few M&P 40cal listed as 17rd mags. Seems to me they just copy and pasted everything. I sent several emails when the 9mm changed to a 40cal. I'm guessing someone screwed up and told them they didn't list the items correctly and I played hell trying to get them to take the bid away. All the replies I got from them sounded like a 17yo wrote them. "Hey, what the problem". "don't see nothing on your bids". I know I'm not the best when it comes to grammer. punctuation, etc. but I was shaking my head with some of the replies I got. I was watching a Hornady rapid safe that was about to go for super cheap and the next day when I checked on it, they stated the safe was broken and would not work. This was only after they got $50 in bids on it. They had a Lee Classic Turret listed as a Lee Auto Drum. I started bidding on that and actually won the item and saw the new disclaimer of buyer pays 11% fee and when I inquired about shipping I was told "UPS will email you how much you owe them". I said no, I want to know how much shipping is before I give credit card info or you can keep it. I saw on the Facebook page for the auction they were telling people the same thing. Shipping on firearms was $35 to an FFL plus the 11% fee. By the time I buy a shield for $250, 11% fee and $35 shipping and FFL transfer I could buy it locally.
 
Worst I saw was a 1911 that was returned from use in service, but had been refinished. I don't remember the price it went for, but it was about triple what my research told me it should go for. Would have been worth more if not refinished.
 
I appreciate every tidbit of information I can get about nasty tactics used by auction houses. Thank you for publicizing the name of the auction.
 
There are several reasons Gun/Pawn Shops have an "excess inventory" auction every now and then. 1st, people show up who normally would not visit their shop for every day shopping. Maybe these guys will decide to shop regularly. But I think the main reason is that people get caught up in the action and tell themselves "whats 5 more dollars?" and the seller winds up getting more than he would have sold across the counter. Another thing I've witnessed, is buyers when they go to an auction normally take plenty of money hoping to find a deal and a lot almost feel like its a wasted day if they don't buy something, so they wind up spending more than normal. The Male Ego is the auctioneer's best friend. A couple of years ago, I went to a huge estate auction and there was a nice gun collection with over 200 guns. The deceased owner was a hunter and target shooter as well as a collector. There was something for everybody. The true collectables sold for what I would call fair prices. Some a little over market value and some a little less but most of the buyers of the collectables were knowledgeable buyers and the results were at least to me very predictable. The "everyday shooters and hunting guns" were a completely different story. The vast majority of those guns brought top dollar and many of them sold for well over market value. Ego and stupidity was king and the family was the winner. There were a few shill bidders in the crowd or at least to me looked like it. One guy bid on almost every gun and bought nothing. He bid on everything from pocket guns to deer rifles. I love to go watch and plan on going to one locally in 2 weeks. I'll pack a pocket full of money and try to keep my ego in my pocket!!!
 
Never purchased a gun on an auction site. I've seen very few sold for a reasonable price. Yes, I've seen a few but your chances of getting one with one reasonable bid are slim to none. There are several sites that just list a set price. I use those.
 
I was at an auction of a deceased rural FFL yesterday. He had thousands of parts, 1911 slides/barrels, six to a case; many Mauser receivers, barrels, & stocks; gun kits that had saw cut frames, and even disassembled Pythons, some with whole frames, some without frames. 300 handgun cases which collectors were snapping them up for $15 and up. There were also organizer boxes full of all kinds of grips and at least 50 barrels of non-Mauser guns. One guy bought a stainless Python frame for $350 and a bag of stainless Python parts complete except for a frame and grips for $450. He is a collector and will end up with a Python for less than $1,000. What was interesting was you had to fill out paperwork for complete guns (NO NICS checks though) but if you bought a frame they just handed it to you so no recorded S/Ns. The auctioneers were definitely not gun guys, if it wasn't complete, it was just parts. I bought a box lot that included a DPMS 7.63x39 lower kit and eight additional lower parts kits. I plan to sell the kits and end up with a free lower. You can get some good deals but it's harder to do it now.
 
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