Police Auctions

forgotmyname

My local auction is expensive. Unless its something you want yourself then its hard to see how the buyers could make a profit with them.

2 of those plastic garden benches/storage boxes sold for more than the sale price at B&Q at that time. The bid price was only slightly less than the B&Q price but then the fees added. The fees are so close to 50% on top thats the figure i use when pricing stuff up.

So someone paid more and will have to cross their fingers when they unpack it and pray all the parts are there and not broken.

robatwork

patman99 wrote: »

Btw, Bumblebee is run by one man.

¡Ay, ay, ay, no me gusta!

20kiki

Why are Scottish people always discriminated against - why isn't their Scottish Police Forces taking part in this? - are they intimating there are NO THEFTS north of the border - or just can't be bothered to get involved?


QUOTE=SailorSam;discussion/4280105]I've just come across this website, it's an auction for the Police. Stolen and lost property, there are some real bargains on their... bikes for £1
Unfortunately for me they all seem to be down south and if you're the lucky bidder you need to pick it up.
But if you live in the right area you could bag yourself a bargain.

http://www.bumblebeeauctions.co.uk/XcAuctionPro.asp

MoneySavingExpert insert:

You might like to see our Police Auctions guide[/QUOTE]

Huskydays

20kiki wrote: »

Why are Scottish people always discriminated against - why isn't their Scottish Police Forces taking part in this? - are they intimating there are NO THEFTS north of the border - or just can't be bothered to get involved?

Police Scotland hold a centralised monthly auction selling property from across all the Scottish forces (apart from bikes which are donated to charity). It seems to me a much more efficient system than every individual force making their own arrangements and would explain why they don't use ebay/bumblebee/similar.

forgotmyname

the Bikes start at £1. If its a named one then the price soon jumps.

Then you think its a £600 bike and got to be worth at least half that and worth travelling 60+ miles to collect.
So you bid and it goes for £350 a bit more than you wanted to pay, but its a £600 bike right?

Then you travel the best part of 3 hours (round trip) and find the bikes not in the best of conditions and needs parts and work.

Not everything is the bargain you think it is.

skintpaul

The local force disposes of a lot of recovered goods, that cannot be traced back to rightful owner.

afaik, only paypay accepted- possibly cash on collection.. be sure to get postcoded with yOUR details, and keep a receipt!

ballisticbrian

Why are Scottish people always discriminated against - why isn't their Scottish Police Forces taking part in this? - are they intimating there are NO THEFTS north of the border - or just can't be bothered to get involved?

I doubt if many Scottish wallets get lost or stolen. I mean, when would there be an opportunity???

seatbeltnoob

it's not just the police that are not accurately describing the items to the best of their knowledge. It's the stupid stupid bidders who are aggressively bidding up the auction. Case in point there is an auction now for a macbook. The ad even states RRP £1249. Described as contents not checked (in box). Model: A1534

Do a search for A1534 on ebay, and you can see the item selling 2nd hand for £800 buy it now (open to offers) With greater specs than the BBA listed one.

The BBA item is currently on £702. They have no idea if it is working, has a charger. The ad says contents not checked - it could easily have a brick inside. But these fools are bidding like no tomorrow.

I went on a bidding war not so long ago. It was for a warehouse load of Really useful boxes. They are very expensive to store as they don't stack up - so take up a lot of space. There was several hundred of them, I forgot exactly how much. I did the math and saw that I could flip them for a total of £6000. And if I could get it for £2000 total I could turn a profit.

Now bear in mind I will need to rent a couple of 20ft shipping containers to store them (not cheap in London). Hire the largest van I can get for a few days and do 3-4 trips to collect them all. Then play people to flyer around London business. It needed to be got for as cheap as possible.

I calculated that the total revenue is £6000. I needed to buy them all for no more than £2000 to make it worthwhile for me.

There would be total cost between £1200-£1800 in storage cost depending on how fast I can sell them. (The longer it takes, the longer I have to pay self storage for)

Well the auction went for something stupid. I got so fed up that I just bid it up to £3000+ and let it go. I was annoyed that the business opportunity was lost to me (after I spent a lot of time planning this, ringing up storage companies, van hire companies) etc.

Just to !!!! the other buyer off I just bid up the auction to my break even limit and let the winner suffer the consequences.

dlusman

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

Just to !!!! the other buyer off I just bid up the auction to my break even limit and let the winner suffer the consequences.

You have NO idea what the other bidders circumstances are. They may already have the warehouse space & van you describe - So getting something worth £6000 for around £3000 may have been a bargain for them

seatbeltnoob

There was a gold vintage patek phillipe on there a while ago. It sold for £3000+. I was tempted to get into it in order to flip it. But I have to say it was too much of a risk for me. The auction states authenticity cannot be guaranteed. Maybe it's real and someone managed to flip it and grow their investment 10x. But I didn't have £3000 to take a gamble with. I would be devestated if it turned out to be a fake and ended up losing all that money.