black day in eastern ky

[Polly]

i attended a auction today of afellow sawyer ,it seams he was 62 years old and had drove to florida one day and had a fatal heart attack the next day ,his brother had authorized an auctioneer to sell his belongings ,now the worst part he had a650 jd with wench in excellent shape ,a 1999 ford 7 passenger van clean as a pen in emaculate shape , a band saw on trailer with extensions to saw 40 ft logs , yes i said 40 ft a woodmizer blade sharpener with tooth setter , none of the items mentioned sold none of the bidding reached a forth of the fair value , i personally did not know him or his family but i do feel sorry for them , if anyone interested ,i do have the familys phone no ,         note if this post is not proper please deleat , if not e mail me and i will give the phone no :( :( :(

[DanG]

IMHO, your post is entirely appropriate, Polly.  I have been to many estate auctions, and have frequently been appalled at the prices that some of the stuff brings.  I love a bargain as much as anybody, but those situations sometimes call for a little restraint.  It seems sometimes that the bidders view the seller as the enemy, and they try to help each other get something for nothing.  I tend to think about the seller, and the value of the things they own.  Many times, in an estate sale the sudden owners of the goods don't really know what they have, and they are frequently in need of money.  I don't mind paying a fair price for something I want or need, and I feel compassion for the sellers in a lot of cases.

A couple of weeks ago, I lost a Brother-in-law.  He had a garage full of stuff, some of which has considerable value.  His Widow, my Wife's sister, has no clue as to the value of most of it.  Among the residue is a "brand new" 30 year old Shopsmith that has probably 30 minutes of usage on it.  There is a Craftsman radial arm saw of the same vintage that doesn't look like it has ever been plugged in.  I don't even know yet what might be lurking under the stacks of plunder that man had accumulated.  If some buzzard were to discover this stuff when someone wasn't looking, he could probably have made a killing on it, but I made her promise to hang on until I can get back and do an appraisal on it.  I'll do my best to determine a fair price on each item, and I'll buy it myself before I see it go to a circling vulture.  This lady needs every nickel she can get, and she deserves a fair price for her belongings.

[CLL]

DanG, I commend you on taking care of your sister-in-law. I know we all look for bargains, but I just can't bring myself to basically steal from someone because of a calamity in their life.

[Bibbyman]

It may be a sign of the times but I'd say the auctioneer did a poor job of advertizing to the right group of people.

Mary's oldest brother passed away about 10 years ago now.  He was a bachelor with, among other things, a big gun collection. Mary was executor of his estate.  We had an auction of his property at a local convention center.  We advertized pretty wide and I got on the phone with some people that I knew collected the types of old guns he had.  One gun was a double barreled elephant rifle built in England in the 1890s.  We had quite a large crowd.  Some things went too low but most things brought everything it was worth and more.  The English elephant rifle was bid up by two guys in the crowd talking on cell phones to someone somewhere else.

When something was going way too low,  I would jump in and bid or stop the bidding and make a comment that would help things along.  I got stuck one time. :

[WH_Conley]

Polly, I was there. That is the Timberking that I have listed in the for "For Sale" section of the forum. It will cut 52". The house and lot didn't sell either.

Jimmy was a very good friend of mine, he went through more the last couple of years than a person should have.

Bibby is right about the auctioneer and advertising. Only local ads and no mention at all of the mill.

[gunman63]

I'll agree  that advertising makes all the difference,and yes when its a estate sale of some one u know u always want more money for the person,  but at a auction, it sells at market price, it mite be less that u think its worth,  or more than u think,but thats the market on that day for that item. If u plan on  auction, selll it, otherwise its only a rummage sale

[Bibbyman]

Mike had a couple of Civil War relics – specifically, a cannon ball and a sword.  The auctioneers knew of at least one collector and had made contact with him.  The collector wasn't there but had place a bid on the items with the auctioneer.  The auctioneer announced the fact before the bidding started.  The items went to the collector who bid far more than the people there.

Doing a auction right is a lot of work!

[Warbird]

It sounds like the auctioneer at least had adequate reserve on the items in question and didn't let them go for pennies on the dollar.  That would have been even more of a travesty.  Bibby, DanG, good job taking care of those folks.

[maple flats]

Any auctioneer worth his or her cut will always advertise to the right crowd for the bulk of the items listed. An out of character item can get lost but no major items should be lost in the advertising to appropriate audiances!

[ely]

that is a saying around here amongst us junk hounds...." a man will spend a lifetime acquiring treasure and they will sell it all in an afternoon".   the other day one of us on here made the statement that their young son looked at something and said "we can use that"... it made me think of my two boys 7 and 9 they will fight over who gets to carry a wheel weight to me when they find it in the parking lot.

[Onthesauk]

Old fishing saying, "I only hope that when I die, my wife doesn't sell my fishing gear for what she thinks I paid for it."