Engineer tool auctions.........

Still feeling groggy from the virus that naffed my Christmas I nevertheless turned up coughing and spluttering at a local tool auction this past weekend where one of our passed brethrens kit was being sold on in a probate related sale.

The crew of potential bidders were like a snapshot of the queue at the doors of the Sandown show a few weeks back - mostly grey, grizzled and gaunt (a bit like me)!

I placed a few bids but an elderly gnarled cove who had positioned himself behind me outbid me ( and everyone else) on many occasions. I know this bloke buys to sell on and I got the feeling he was willing to pay over the odds just to deter the likes of me from attempting to outbid him at this and future auctions.

In the end I did not bid successfully for anything but still had the satisfaction that I was one of the "nurks" who had prevented him from "nicking" his targets. I have to say though that at THIS auction the elderly gnarled cove was looking particularly pallid and under nourished...........I'll bide my time then?

Rik

Sounds like you have been watching too many episodes of "Storage Wars" whilst laid up over christmas - if you cant win the item then at least make someone pay as much as possible for it

Was he wearing an anorak and carrying a scrunched up old carrier bag

Reminds me of an idiot we used to push up bids against back in the eighties when Sheffields industry was being sent to hell. We attended dozens of auctions and a group of us ended up going simply to up the bids against the guywho became known as"the loony". He would invariably pay to within a couple of pounds of the price of a brand new angle grinder, drill, etc for stuff that been well and truly hammered in the factories. It cant be the same bloke, can it? Old grey and gnarled certainly sounds plausible thirty years on.

Rick

I have stopped going to auctions.

By the time you have reckoned travelling, not being able to run machines under power, buyers fees of up to 22%, plus VAT on the lot and no guarantee you are going to get what you are looking at, see the examples above, it's a waste of time.

Last time I wanted a piece of equipment, which was a 12" rotary table, I advertised for it, let them come to me , in principle, not physically.

I got decent replies and had the choice of 4 items which I could then choose based on cost, condition and where they were, and nobody snapping at my heels. Chose one in Coventry, 45 minutes away for the princely sum of £25, no fees and no VAT.