So I discovered this live auction site and man there is some good stuff out there. The starting prices are always so low that I always find myself bidding before the auction goes live. I've never actually won anything that way though. I've seen livestock auction before but this is kinda new and exciting to me.

of course being the cheap bastard I am I'll never buy anything, just looking is kinda cool.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

WTF is up with "Asian design" pieces and stuff. People love that *****.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I found that auction sites, like their real life models, tend to result in somewhat inflated bidding. One of the few times I made out was when there were multiple lots of the same item. The bidding on the first lot went sky high, but when the third and fourth lots came up for bid, with essentially the same item, the sale price was at least half of what the first lot went for.

The mentality of most is, if its an "auction" it must be a deal, and not everyone uses/goes to auctions so they are more informed buyers getting the best prices.

When in reality, as I'm sure Tyler can back me up on this, even at dealer only auctions people get over-excited and in a bidding war, and proving a point or getting emotional they grossly overpay. I had some guy give me the "eyes on you" hand gesture when he was bidding against me on an Audi this past weekend. I stopped bidding at the max number I'd had in the back of my head, and dropped out. He won after a few more bids, then it was explained to him that it was a non runner because the timing chain had snapped. Woops.

I go to a lot of small car auctions open to the public, I find like MTI, the first few lots go nuts when people are blowing their wad of whatever funds they just came into. And the second half of the auction is where the deals are. But I go to plenty of auctions and wind up buying nothing when people are paying double retail for stuff.

Television shows like storage wars, counting cars, chasing classic cars, auction something or other on history channel have romanticized "auctions" and I am noticing grossly misinformed people showing up at estate sales, car auctions, etc and just paying the moon for something assuming that you simply cannot go wrong if its an auction.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

Hell I actually won something today. Estimated price 2-300? They're dreaming! I got it for 25. It's gonna be kitchen art.

Michelle W. McShane, American (20th century), Stil - by Link Auction Galleries

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Read the details.
Re-read Webster especially for 'scam'

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1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

What do you mean?

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Holy smoke, you got a Michelle McShane original for $25 . . . what a smokin' deal. Next time Antiques Roadshow is in town, you should definitely go have that masterpiece appraised.

I believe the comment about "scam" has some relation to the estimated value of the item was, as if Christies or Sotheby's . . . or anyone with any concept of current art values had come up with the number.

Oh, hah. It was $25. I don't even care it's like a picture of an eggplant. I figured I might try it out on my dining room wall.

Are you kidding? My cheapass self will never ever own big name art.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Gonna bump this because I just came across a local auction of interest to me. As mentioned above a lot of the lots are duplicates or comparable to one another so theres a chance if a few good deals slipping through the cracks.

Does anyone have any experience with bidspotter.com?

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

I was on invaluable.com. All it does is host the auctions. I got an invoice from the auction house and since this particular one didn't ship they forwarded a copy of the paid invoice to the UPS store and the UPS store did the shipping. It was a bit more difficult than just pressing a "pay now" button but I eventually got it here in once piece and very professionally packaged by the UPS store. Yeah I know, despite that UPS video we've all seen.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman