Gunbroker Penny Auctions

[Poper]

What do you think of Gunbroker penny auctions?

Personally, I like them, whether for bidding purposes or selling. I think they are the only way to get the true value of your item. After all, something is only worth what someone will pay for it on any given day.

Here's a surprise!
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=556942783

 

[Liberty1776]

For several years now I have only bought through penny auctions, either on GB or on Gunauction.

 

[WestKentucky]

I like the penny auctions, but I can't warm up to the ruger singles. I have never bought through the internet, but the few times I have tried I have gone to the penny auctions first. I have also bought some rare and obscure ammo like that (.256 winmag, 7-30 waters, quikshok22lr etc). I really like the idea, and in practice it works well.

 

[slumlord44]

I like it as a buyer. Don't sell much but plan to have a local dealer sell off my collection after I'm gone that way here on GB.

 

[Twiki357]

Then I go on Gunbroker, I immediately switch to the penny auctions. If I see something I’m interested in, I’ll place a bid for what I’m willing to pay. If I win, great, if not, Oh well.

I don’t know how many times I’ve an item sell for a particular amount (Say $450) that started at $0.01 and an almost identical gun with a start bid of (Say $350), well below what the other gun sold for, but with no bids on it.

 

[Grumulkin]

I once won a Blaser shotgun barrel on gunbroker.com in a penny auction that no one else bid on. The barrel was worth about $3,000. The seller said he had made a mistake and wouldn't make good on the deal.

 

[Bobson]

Only penny auction I ever tried was the one that Bud's always has ads for. For that one, you buy "pennies" (more like tokens but w/e) for something like a buck apiece, then you bid those tokens. Except you lose the bid token/penny whether you win the item or not; you're paying to participate, as opposed to a normal auction, if you don't win it, you lose nothing. So if an item sells for $3.95 (or 395 tokens), it's actually $395 that people paid the site.

In theory, if an item only had three guys bidding on it, two guys could go back and forth spending hundreds of dollars, and the third guy enters when the item has shot thru the roof, and win the item after paying $5-10. I guess that's how they get ya; try to convince you that you can be that guy. I'm sure it happens, but I'm sure it won't ever happen to me lol.

Is that how all the penny auctions work? Personally, I can't stand it lol. For me, it was like buying scratch tickets. Bah.

 

[evan price]

That's not how it works on gunbroker.
True auction, no reserve, price starts at one penny, highest bidder wins. No tokens or Beezid crap, bidding is free.
The only thing I dislike is gunbroker's fifteen minute rule. You can't snipe auctions like ebay, there is always a fifteen minute time after the last bid before the auction ends, even if the bid was in the final seconds of the time, it extends another fifteen minutes to the time of the auction.

 

[GBExpat]

... The only thing I dislike is gunbroker's fifteen minute rule. You can't snipe auctions like ebay, ...

<chuckle> Which is the thing about Gunbroker that I like the most; no sniping.

Penny Auctions? I would never post an item on a Penny Auction but some folks seem to view their Penny Auctions with Pride. <shrug> Diff'rent strokes.

I have always and will always post my items (on a Sunday evening) at the $$$ I consider to be the minimum satisfactory amount, set no Reserve and let it run for 7 days. That procedure, in addition to a detailed, accurate description and multiple clear, close, well-focused & -lit digipics has served me well.

 

[WardenWolf]

I won't do penny auctions. Rather, I research carefully what a firearm is currently going for and set the starting bid to the minimum I'm willing to take. That way I don't wind up getting screwed if my auction just doesn't attract enough attention. If you're selling, though, never, ever, ever set a hidden reserve price. It's dishonest for several reasons and most bidders will just walk away.

 

[desidog]

If you're selling, though, never, ever, ever set a hidden reserve price. It's dishonest for several reasons and most bidders will just walk away.

+1

It really is a waste of my time to start the auction at $350 but have a reserve of 700 or something similar. If i bid 400 they're wasting my time and leading me on... and i won't be bidding again on the auction, or any other auction by that seller.

 

[Traffer]

How do you set the Gunbroker auction page to only show penny auctions? Or can you even do that? Has anyone here ever used "Armslist" I bought a gun there and got a great deal.

 

[deadin]

Great for buyers. Maybe not so great for sellers unless.......
I believe that it has been shown many times that if you have many guns to sell that penny auctions are the way to go. (i.e. a Dealer) You will lose on some but really win on others and overall come out ahead.
However, (and this is a big "however") if you are just an average guy with one or two guns to sell, you stand a chance to lose your shirt. If you can afford to let a $500 gun go for much less because there just isn't anybody really interested at the time, go for it.
Yes, some dealer will probably pick it up for wholesale (or less) but that may not be what you were hoping for.
Remember, there's strength in numbers. If you don't have the numbers to sell, be careful.

 

[stchman]

I once won a Blaser shotgun barrel on gunbroker.com in a penny auction that no one else bid on. The barrel was worth about $3,000. The seller said he had made a mistake and wouldn't make good on the deal.

Yeah, he "made a mistake". Whatever, good excuse for "I didn't make the money I thought I was going to".

Did the seller make it up to you or just ignore you after that? Did you report the seller to Gunbroker?

 

[WardenWolf]

I once won a Blaser shotgun barrel on gunbroker.com in a penny auction that no one else bid on. The barrel was worth about $3,000. The seller said he had made a mistake and wouldn't make good on the deal.

I hope you reported him. He could get banned for that, but probably not because he brings in too much money if he's selling Blasers.

But yeah, again, regarding reserve prices, just never do them. Nobody likes knowing that they might have the high bid but not actually get it. Plus it's dishonest because (1) you're hiding the actual minimum selling price and (2) it subverts the normal bidding war process because, the moment someone's maximum bid exceeds the reserve, it automatically inflates the current bid to that price. If I see a reserve on an auction, I'll walk away, and I think most others do, too.

 

[Poper]

Originally Posted by evan price View Post
... The only thing I dislike is gunbroker's fifteen minute rule. You can't snipe auctions like ebay, ...

<chuckle> Which is the thing about Gunbroker that I like the most; no sniping.

IMHO, the 15 minute rule gives us a much more real-life auction. If you go to an estate auction, the bidding continues until no one bids. There is no time limit for bidding on an item.

Just for the record, I despise ebay and their affiliation with paypal. Disgusting.

 

[Warp]

The only thing I dislike is gunbroker's fifteen minute rule. You can't snipe auctions like ebay, there is always a fifteen minute time after the last bid before the auction ends, even if the bid was in the final seconds of the time, it extends another fifteen minutes to the time of the auction.

That's the best part

 

[Panzerschwein]

If that were a Ruger No. 3 in .30-06, honey I'd be a biddin'!

 

[dogtown tom]

GunBroker doesn't have "pennny auctions".

Poper What do you think of Gunbroker penny auctions?

Gunbroker does not do "penny auctions". They DO have auctions that start at$0.01..........but you can bid as much as you want.

Penny auctions are for those that are foolish enough to buy a package of bids, each bid is a penny. You bid and you lose that money forever, the site conducting the penny auction makes $$$$$ off all the losers.

Not so with Gunbroker auctions, you bid and don't win, you lose nothing.

 

[Dr. Sandman]

Gunbroker should hold seller and buyers both responsible for their "mistakes". This happens far too infrequently imho. I have been ripped off on Gunbroker and I will only buy something on there if 1) I really, really want it and 2) It is not available locally.

 

[Poper]

Gunbroker does not do "penny auctions". They DO have auctions that start at$0.01..........but you can bid as much as you want.

Penny auctions are for those that are foolish enough to buy a package of bids, each bid is a penny. You bid and you lose that money forever, the site conducting the penny auction makes $$$$$ off all the losers.

Not so with Gunbroker auctions, you bid and don't win, you lose nothing.

In the strict sense of the term, you are correct. However, in the Gunbroker vernacular, a "Penny Auction" is one that starts with a minimum bid of $0.01.

Personally, I like them for both buying and selling. On GB, I never set a reserve, rarely set a starting price above $0.01 and only use a "Buy-it-Now" price if I am in a hurry to sell. Am I the GB auction expert? Not hardly. I only know how I like to sell and the auctions I want to bid on.

I have been known to use the "Buy-It-Now" price to buy an item I thought was fairly priced and was something I was specifically looking for. Any auction with a reserve price I do not even glance at, even if it is something I am looking for. If there is a reserve price, it is almost always more than the item is worth on the open market. I have been known to save myself more than a $100 by buying from my LGS instead of paying as much as a reserve auction.

I guess my point is that I am in a bind and will be selling several of my rifles and three revolvers, two of which I've already found homes for. I will place all of the remaining guns I will be selling on GB with a $0.01 starting bid and no reserve. A gun's value is only what someone is willing to pay for it.
JMHO, of course.

 

[dogtown tom]

Poper

Quote:
Originally Posted by dogtown tom View Post
Gunbroker does not do "penny auctions". They DO have auctions that start at$0.01..........but you can bid as much as you want.

Penny auctions are for those that are foolish enough to buy a package of bids, each bid is a penny. You bid and you lose that money forever, the site conducting the penny auction makes $$$$$ off all the losers.

Not so with Gunbroker auctions, you bid and don't win, you lose nothing.

In the strict sense of the term, you are correct. However, in the Gunbroker vernacular, a "Penny Auction" is one that starts with a minimum bid of $0.01.

Whose "vernacular"? I don't see the term "Penny Auction" used anywhere in GunBrokers information and the term "Penny Auction" only shows up on 140 listings........that's 140 listings out of hundreds of thousands.

 

[Poper]

Whose vernacular, you ask?
Why, those of us that use Gunbroker, of course! Obviously you understood the term well enough to be critical of it.

There are few people that use GB that would not not know what you were talking about if you mentioned a "penny auction on Gunbroker".

 

[Poper]

Whose "vernacular"? I don't see the term "Penny Auction" used anywhere in GunBrokers information and the term "Penny Auction" only shows up on 140 listings........that's 140 listings out of hundreds of thousands.

In reality, you are just being obtuse.

Here: http://www.gunbroker.com/All/BI.aspx?Keywords=penny+auction&MinStartingBid=0.01&Tab=1

How many times can you see "penny auction" on this page? Every auction listed on the page says "penny auction" in the title. And there are 3 pages of "penny auctions".

 

[kozak6]

What, so it's just an auction that starts at a penny? That's it? There's no magic in that. There is such a thing as a slow week, and there is a very real risk in such a slow week resulting in a very unhappy seller, and possibly a very unhappy buyer. A quick google seems to confirm it.

A penny auction is the wrong thing call it. On the rest of the internet, a penny auction is the same thing as a bidding fee auction where you pay about a dollar to increase the bid on an item by a penny. Think quibids or dealdash or all those other ripoffs. For a minute or two there, I was terrified that gunbroker had started doing this.