Who has been to a Car auction? They have Boats too.

[The Bayliner BarBeeQ]

About 3 weeks ago I was curiuos in going to a car auction in my area. I didn't get a buyer number becuase I was just looking. Mostly to make sure sure the place wasn't trying to pad be bids. If I did get a number, I would of had 3 boats, by now. They had boats for 100 bucks that didn't sell. Anyway I was looking at this Marlin speed boat, 16 footer I believe with a large Merc, motor mounted on back, and that price included the trailor too. But I am not sure how to go about testing the motor, so I have been toying with the idea of getting it. You can buy a boat with a old motor and trailor for 100 bucks. I couldn't believe it. So who is going to fix the motor if I go back? You guys of course. I am opened to any idea's. If anything I could probably make money just on motor parts.
There was 9 boats there and nice big 22ft i think Bayliner that only went for 800 bucks and a 18ft. water craft patrol boat went for under 3,000 grand, it was super clean too and ran great.
You just never know what to expect at an auction.

 

[BF]

Re: Who has been to a Car auction? They have Boats too.

I think it's good that you have a healthy dose of skepticism... I went with my BIL to a car auction once, he wanted a 4x4 pickup that was on the block. The auction area was set up in an indoors thing where a vehicle was driven through, the auctioneer was elevated, and the buyers were all standing in a crowd. Well once you start bidding on an item, it's fast and furious, and the auctioneer and the "caller" (their helper) is busy talking to you etc etc... Well... as my BIL is bidding and counter bidding, I'm standing beside him and looking around at all the "callers" that are helping the auctioneer... I see one of them standing on his own calling out bids now and then. I grab BIL by the elbow and tell him in his ear to stop bidding (as auctioneer / another caller etc is yelling, chattering to him for the next bid). I tell him again... "just say you're done"... He does so, and the auctioneer then backtracks to find the next highest bidder. Well low and behold there is none. The caller on the side, just gives the auctioneer a sheepish look... oops. They backtracked a few bids (~$500 IIRC) and then gave him the option to buy it at that price or not. BIL asked me what I thought, and my "on the spot" advice to him was that I still doubted that they had a real bidder to get to that price, but nonetheless if he wanted the truck and thought it price was good (which it was) that is was more or less like buying with a reserve bid....

He decided to buy the truck, and ended up having pretty good luck with it (except for being a gas hog).

Bottom line is that it made me even more suspicious of auctions than I was before. I think they are often set up so that the bidders can't get a good look around to see if there is actually another bidder on an item... Just cause someone's stickin' their hand up, doesn't mean they're a bidder. They could be a "caller"/helper whose real job is to drive the prices up to what they judge will still be outbid by someone else. They often seem to setup behind and around the main crowd (so you can't see whose bidding against you). If you're on one side of the crowd, it will probably be a caller on the complete opposite side that drives the price up. Maybe they're not all this way, but this was at one of the big auto auction places here... they definitely have a "home court" advantage.

If you are planning on buying there, I'd suggest know the value of things, and you watch a few auctions first to see how above board they seem. When you're gonna buy, bring along a buddy to serve as an extra set of eyes. This person should understand completely what the game being played is, 'cause you're not gonna have any time to explain it to them on the fly.

As for checking things out before you buy... that's why they're going cheap... you're taking a chance that it has problems... if you can live with that, then there are probably bargains. It's hard to go wrong for $100... but I'd feel ripped if I spent thousands on a rig that turned out to have major issues. I'd rather buy at a private sale where I could talk to the owner, do a water test, and hear some of the maintenance history... but that's just me. If it's a $10K boat that you're getting for $3K, maybe that's worth the risk (?).

Anyway, that's my $.02. Good luck.

 

[one more cast]

Re: Who has been to a Car auction? They have Boats too.

yup, I've also watched the auctioneers make you bid against yourself. Keep your eyes open to see if someone else is really bidding.

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: Who has been to a Car auction? They have Boats too.

I have been to dozens of auctions. Standard/local auto auctions and Classic Car auctions.
Here is some basic info:
1) A great deal of the vehicles at auction are/were considered unsaleable from dealerships and often from and through private sellers.
2) You generally get what you pay for
3) BF is right about the 'missing bidder' that is not uncommon for auctioneers to call out bids to pump up your bid.
4) In lieu of false bids often there will be people set into the auction crowd called 'shills' whose job is to make false bids....putting a face to a bid, but never following through. (hired by the auction company usually)
most of the above applies to the local level auctions. The Classic Car Auctions/Events are usually substantially more legitimate. One bit of bad publicity like this could kill them.
With all that said, I still go to them out of curiousity and to see what the market is....you never know. However, know what you want and how much you would be willing to pay (or fix) and definitely know when to put your hand down and say no.

 

[Major Woods]

Re: Who has been to a Car auction? They have Boats too.

I purchased 2 trucks (Bronco & Toyota) at auctions. Pretty straight forward, they even had a test track for driving the vechical around prior to bidding.

Had the seller listed right on the truck with all the other related info, I paged him and made an offer prior to going in. He thought it was too low and it went thur, got it for 750.00 lower than my offer.

Also so a lot of junk there.

 

[Mike722]

Re: Who has been to a Car auction? They have Boats too.

Not all autions are "rigged". You do need to do your homework and set a price in your mind and don't go over it. I have watch many people get caught up in the moment or think "no way am I going to lose this item" and end up paying more than new.

Most auctions, other than foreclosure properties, have a pre auction inpection time, the night before or even a week or two before the auction.

I have purchased $1.00 to $100,000 items at auction and 90% I am happy with the purchase. The other 10% I did not do my homework first.

Each auction company is a little differant so it is a good idea to go and watch awhile before bidding.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Who has been to a Car auction? They have Boats too.

Yep, being the sales manager of a car dealership, I have been to MANY auto auctions - and they sell everything there. If it gets traded into a dealership, it gets sold through an auction. That said, I usually only went to the "dealer only" auctions because they were more honest - from the cars being sold to the auctioneers. You had to be because it was the same dealers every week, you mess with someone and you get blackballed - including the auctioneers and auction house.

The "public" auctions was the hotbed for things not quite ethical. These were the individuals that were selling one time and one time only. They didn't have a reputation to maintain. It would get ugly at times. But there is always an arbitrator to take your purchase to within a set time (set by the auction, usually an hour after purchase, or something like that) who will allow you to renegotiate or cop-out of your purchase if it wasn't as advertised (ie you found saw dust in the transmission fluid, or 90 wt oil in the crankcase).

As Mike722 said, do your homework and be careful not to get caught up in moment and you can get some great deals.