eBay and How to Buy Your Stock at Offline Auctions - By Avril Harper

I have probably seen it all as far as auctions go and, though I've been buying at auction for more than thirty years, I still make mistakes, still find things to surprise me. This article is designed to help you avoid most of the problems typically encountered by newcomers and old hands alike.

* Visit as many auctions as you can to learn how individual auction companies operate. There are good, bad and downright ugly auction houses. All auction houses are bound by national and Statutory regulations, and all have their own independent rules detailing what they expect of bidders and buyers and what you can expect of them. Legally, national rules must be displayed somewhere prominent, in the auction catalogue, for example, or on a wall or notice board in the saleroom. Most companies combine national and company rules in one location. Read and make sure you understand what they mean and ask any questions before bidding.

* Remember auction companies vary and what is common practice in one is entirely unsatisfactory in another. Visit a few salerooms purely to view the proceedings and see how other visitors bid, how and where they collect their goods, whether you can pay by cheque, and so on. Some companies allow goods to be taken during the sale, others don’t. Some require payment on the day, others will wait ten days or more.

* Following on from the last point, be careful about goods left in the saleroom while payment clears. Typically, the auction company is not liable for the safety of your goods after the sale. If they get damaged, lost or stolen, that’s your problem, not theirs. Try to pay on the day where possible and certainly in smaller auction houses and others best described as ‘iffy’. Iffy, to my mind, describes many non-custom built salerooms, such as auctions held in abattoirs and farm sales offices, any where porters are shabbily dressed, lack knowledge of individual lots, or just seem disinterested. Generally speaking, the best salerooms are those attached to large estate agencies and valuation specialists or with custom built auction rooms.

* Arrive in plenty of time to get a really good look at anything you are interested in buying. Inspect everything very carefully. Make sure items with multiple and moving parts are intact and working properly.

* Be on your guard against popular cons, such as pieces from one lot being exchanged for bits from another, after you have viewed and just before the auction begins. Be especially careful of large lots of collectibles, such as postcards and cigarette cards in albums or boxes, stamps, pieces of vintage jewellery, sets of toy soldiers. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve viewed postcards one day, bid and paid for them the next, and later discovered the real gems of the collection were missing. The cards have been moved to another box or album, originally containing low value cards which have been bought for next to nothing by the ruthless perpetrator. Check content before leaving and inform auction staff about irregularities. It’s too late when you get home.

* The ‘panic button’ is a popular con, whereby, as you are bidding, probably against just one other person, someone will tap you on the shoulder and say something like: “Don’t touch those ornaments, they’re fakes’. In the time it takes you to realise what’s going on, some other person will have had the lot marked down to him. He and his friends have got what they wanted, in more ways than one!

* Watch out for bids being ‘taken off the wall’, involving non-existent bidders. This rarely happens in reputable auction houses, incidentally. Taking bids off the wall means what it says, and sometimes there is no-one bidding against you but the price keeps going up, and up. A dishonest auctioneer is reading your face to see just how far he can push you to bid. Confuse him, don’t rush to bid, try to look as if you are losing interest at every bidding stage.

* Remember that the price your lot is knocked down at can be inflated quite considerably by buyer’s commission and statutory taxes. Check before bidding and add likely extras to your maximum bidding budget.

* Remember you will have to get the things you buy to your home or business premises. Some auctions provide free transportation, many don’t. If you have to hire a vehicle, take this into account when deciding how much to bid for certain lots.

* Beware ex-demonstration goods; they could be damaged. Look for fingerprints and stains indicating heavy use. Avoid stock other people have been unable to sell, they’re not likely to sell for you either. Look especially for sticky patches where price labels have been removed. View goods from all angles and beat unscrupulous auctioneers’ attempts to hide damaged goods by standing lots close to the wall, arranging items tightly together, placing doilies over heavy stains, painting over patched-up holes in cars and household goods.

* Avoid items you can’t try before bidding or risk buying computers that don’t work, televisions and radios minus essential components, books with pages missing.

Avril Harper is a triple eBay PowerSeller and editor of eBay Confidential and webmaster of http://www.publishingcircles.com. She has produced a free guide - 103 POWERSELLER TIPS - which you can download with other freely distributable reports and ebooks at http://www.toppco.com