Auction

I have always liked auctions so I was particularly interested when I heard that a local auction house was selling off the contents of a model engineers / clock makers workshop. I successfully bid for a quantity of metal which will last me (and then some) till I shuffle off this mortal coil.

Three of these 14" x 11" baskets contain steel, silver steel, gauge plate, aluminium, duralumin, stainless and other as yet unidentified metals. The fourth is full of engineering plastics - PTFE rod, Delrin, Nylatron etc. etc.

The wood box contains approx. 60 kilos of brass and copper "lumps". To give you an idea of scale, the long rod on top of the box is solid brass 1.625" dia. x 14" long. In addition, brass, copper and stainless sheet / plate weighing around 20 kilos was included in the lot.

The second lot I bought was a slightly rusted 12" x 12" cast iron surface plate massively ribbed and just about liftable into my boot. It has cleaned up nicely and will replace my piece of toughened glass sheet.

Maybe a widow has been left behind? - If so I hope my measly contribution of £128 will help her out (minus auctioneers commission of 12.5% which she will have to pay).

All of this kit for auction had been collected / purchased by a chap just like me or you who is no longer with us so I intend to treat his gear with respect and if I do make the odd "scrapper" then I'll take comfort that while he is turning in his grave it might make the poor old boy feel he's back in his workshop!

Rik

Oh dear Rik

That looks suspiciously like my own collection of metal " waiting to be converted" ! As you say I'd better get on with it.

Cheers

Norman

I've had a similar experience when buying through online auction sites, although not exactly the same.

I often find myself buying old machinery from retired gentlemen who want to move an item because it's not being used any more. I always leave with a huge amount of extra knowledge that I wouldn't have got from buying an item new. I often stay in contact with many of the people that I dealt with and show them how their old equipment is being used to create new stuff in my very small workshop. I find it is important to really respect the fact that a person may have had a lathe for 40-50 years before passing it on to the next generation.

Be careful with some of these on line auction sites as they have hidden reserved.

Recently a CVA lathe has been sold twice in two separate auctions for £58 and £80 OK it's a part machine but neither of the buyers got it because the site has an understanding with a local scrap yard that IF NEEDED he'll pay going scrap rate.

When I say IF NEEDED it's because it's their choice whether they list it in another auction.

A friend bought a DRO from the same auction and immediately got an automated email to say they would ask the seller if the price was OK and if so he's get an invoice within two weeks.

All this is plus 17.5% commission and 20% VAT

So why waste time and effort to buy something you may not get if they don't like the price ?

Cake and eat it comes to mind

I agree John, I only deal with real people who are not selling items for business purposes. Emailing or chatting with them, seeing items in advance are all good routes to avoid the experiences you state. Personally, with 10 years of dealing on these sites, I have only had one problem and it was a lost in post occurrence, but I am very careful and consider each item fully before committing to buy.