D
D. Thomas
Guest
I was at an auction in Lakeland, FL today where some of the items were at the plant's Mexico location. The auction was done "ballroom" style where you inspected what you could beforehand, but the actual bidding was done sitting in a room with slides on a screen.
Man it was frustrating watching the machines in Mexico go for almost nothing. As Acer vertical mill, the type slightly larger than a Bridgeport, looked fantastic...just a couple of years old maybe...went for 200 bucks !! Decent looking "round dial variable" Bridgeport with the current model Acurite DRO went for 500 bucks, 5 ton bridge crane that looked like brand new, 500 bucks...and on and on...
Naturally this one guy in the audience speaking Spanish on his cell phone bought most of it.
Good auction for me (and many others) though....they screwed up and added a 1997 Miyano VMC to the auction just the day before...so it wasn't even in the catalog and they had no picture for the internet bidders. Like brand new, hardly used. Won't say what I paid but I got it $5,000 less than I was willing to pay....that really doesn't suck at all, huh ?
Heck, I even upgraded a notch from my usual Motel 6 digs after that. I somehow resisted The Hooters Inn, right next to Hooters, however.
I guess the moral of this little tale is you never really know for sure what's going to show up at an auction, and that even experienced "large plant" auctioneers are complete idiots sometimes....often to one's advantage if you're quick to react.
I feel ambivalent about the experience however, as I met many of the employees who were just super nice guys, and one or two of them admitted the whole affair was quite depressing. They're not going out of business, but quite a bit of downsizing in the air bag manufacture business.
Manufacturing is on the rebound of late according to government figures...but who exactly....medical, hot tubs, tires, toothpaste....???
Man it was frustrating watching the machines in Mexico go for almost nothing. As Acer vertical mill, the type slightly larger than a Bridgeport, looked fantastic...just a couple of years old maybe...went for 200 bucks !! Decent looking "round dial variable" Bridgeport with the current model Acurite DRO went for 500 bucks, 5 ton bridge crane that looked like brand new, 500 bucks...and on and on...
Naturally this one guy in the audience speaking Spanish on his cell phone bought most of it.
Good auction for me (and many others) though....they screwed up and added a 1997 Miyano VMC to the auction just the day before...so it wasn't even in the catalog and they had no picture for the internet bidders. Like brand new, hardly used. Won't say what I paid but I got it $5,000 less than I was willing to pay....that really doesn't suck at all, huh ?
I guess the moral of this little tale is you never really know for sure what's going to show up at an auction, and that even experienced "large plant" auctioneers are complete idiots sometimes....often to one's advantage if you're quick to react.
I feel ambivalent about the experience however, as I met many of the employees who were just super nice guys, and one or two of them admitted the whole affair was quite depressing. They're not going out of business, but quite a bit of downsizing in the air bag manufacture business.
Manufacturing is on the rebound of late according to government figures...but who exactly....medical, hot tubs, tires, toothpaste....???