Caution with on-line auctions

Flipper4274

I’ve been doing on-line auctions for a while now. I use I-Bidder quite a lot but I’ve noticed bids climbing over the last few months. My general rule of thumb is you should add all the costs to your bid (and they can be high after commission, VAT on commission, VAT on hammer and shipping) and if the total comes to 1/3 of the retail value of the goods you are bidding on then you’re generally in the clear. Lately I’ve noticed the bids are climbing to 50 or 60% of the retail value and at this rate the bids stop being viable. I can only assume that more people with less experience are turning to online auctions as an alternative source of income. Unfortunately they are going to find the going very tough when they try and resell the goods they’ve purchased. Has anyone else noticed this trend?

martindow

I've certainly noticed this is brick and mortar auction houses, when buyers are clearly thinking of the hammer price as you say.  It must come as a shock when their £30 bargains end up costing 50.

soolin

I have been surprised that we haven't had more threads on MSE from new online buyers along the lines of 'I bid £30 for an item online through a 3rd party auction site so why are they charging me £50?' So many new buyers often overlook buyer premium and any third party fees as they are most used to places like ebay.

On other forums though I have seen a couple of people moaning about postage costs as some auction houses charge an absolute arm and a leg for postage and the actual cost is rarely made clear (at least on the sites I use like Easylive the saleroom) and they often charge for boxing, packaging, postage, staff costs etc, so a small lightweight  £10 item might easily cost an additional £18 in postage costs . There's one auction house I watch that charges a fixed fee of £16.95 per lot and does not combine. 

Having said that though one of my usual auction houses has been selling very cheaply as their main buying trade is overseas and the export costs have increased and also non UK buyers can no longer collect in person , so after buyers realised that they stopped buying. Between the 2 lockdowns I did quite nicely out of them as I collected in person and was winning things that I would normally have not been able to afford. 

RFW

martindow said:

I've certainly noticed this is brick and mortar auction houses, when buyers are clearly thinking of the hammer price as you say.  It must come as a shock when their £30 bargains end up costing 50.

It's nothing new. I've been going to auctions since I was a kid. Every few years there's an influx of people with spare cash trying to start a business. It used to be a chunk of redundancy pay and they'd blow it quite quickly not having a clue what they're doing.
When I was an auctioneer I'd often get a customer in one sale who'd pay over the odds for everything and then you'd never see them again. I haven't run a b&m auction in over 20 years now. If anything there will be more of them now, everywhere you look there's someone telling you how easy it is making money online buying and selling. It can be, but for most people, especially if you don't know what you're doing, it really isn't.

forgotmyname

Always been the same I think, one of those plastic garden benches/storage boxes sold for £38 + 20% fee + VAT. Silly buyer

the item was on sale ar B&Q for £39.99 that week.

Wife spotted some bags she wanted, i quickly counted about 10 or 12 in the box and bid accordingly, nice surprise to find

a second layer underneath. Not purchased to make a profit but they sold really quickly for a nice price.

RFW

forgotmyname said:

Always been the same I think, one of those plastic garden benches/storage boxes sold for £38 + 20% fee + VAT. Silly buyer

the item was on sale ar B&Q for £39.99 that week.

Wife spotted some bags she wanted, i quickly counted about 10 or 12 in the box and bid accordingly, nice surprise to find

a second layer underneath. Not purchased to make a profit but they sold really quickly for a nice price.

One of the things you can't teach is being able to spot things like that. I love live auctions but they're dwindling away. I suspect Covid will have helped accelerate them all going mainly online. You can occasionally spot something on pictures that others may miss but it's not remotely the same.
There's a thrill to spotting something in a lot and hoping no one else has seen it when you bid. As an auctioneer someone once told me that they made over £1000 on a box they'd paid me a fiver for. He thought I was going to be annoyed and I wasn't that bothered. Sometimes stock goes through so many hands that the value disappears for the sellers.

bris

People get carried away very easy at auctions.

I went to  an auction in Ayr regularly which every now and again has a police lost and found auction.

On this day the attendance goes through the roof. People just don't know when to stop bidding and with fees the prices can be double what you would expect to pay. They simply don't think and the bargain gets the better of them. 

soolin

I've even seen new buyers stand and argue with office staff about the buyers premium insisting that they ******* bid £50 so why were they being charged £65. I've seen many buyers go and pay and then act surprised that the stuff isn't magically delivered for free or else packed safely in their cars, I've lost count of the times people have bought crate loads of glass and then ask where all the bubble wrap and packaging supplies were!
I suspect the online antique road trip type programmes have a lot to answer for.

Personally though I am addicted to auctions, some of mine have resisted going online and I cannot wait for the day when I stand in a draughty barn or hall bidding and wondering whether I could squeeze just another couple of lots into my car.