Big Save, 2 turret lathes

I need to have my head examined I was at an auction yesterday and there were 3 W&S m1200 turret lathes and I managed to save 2 of them from the scrape guy, I am going to use one of them and thank god my friend mike took a liking to the other or I would have been in deep. I was bidding on all the tooling and buying it all up for about 10 dollars per shelf no one else was interested and then all of the sudden this guy starts bidding and runs me up to 200 dollars on lot and I let him have it then he does it 3 more times and I let him have the stuff each time after the auction I ask him if he has a turret lathe and he stares blankly at me and asks why I would ask him that and then he says, what is a turret lathe. This guy bought all this stuff and didnt even know what it was because he thought it was a good deal he is planning on putting it on ebay. He then tried to sell me some of the parts to my lathes for more than double what he paid for them, good thing I didnt need the stuff. I swear these guys could piss off the pope.

So - your mad that he was willing to pay more than you were?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Yea I actually need the stuff, he doesnt even know what the stuff is he just figured he could flip it on ebay for more, Collet pads and bar feeder stuff bring nothing they dont sell and four way tool posts for turret lathes arent exactly popular either. The scrap guys werent even bidding on the stuff. I used to work for a dealer who would bid everything up even if he didnt want it just to keep prices high, it drove people insane and then they would do it right back on stuff he needed. I figure if people would only bid on stuff they really needed we would all be better off, The stuff that this guy bought is going to sit in his garage when he relizes there is no market for it and then get junked. In the big scheme of things it doesnt matter and he was willing to pay more than me but I am still a little burned over it.

Called scalping. Preying on the desperate. Its wrong.

number 2 said:

Called scalping. Preying on the desperate. Its wrong.

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NO . It is called buisness. No one here was desperate no lives were at stake if you couldn't afford the price offered.
Buying something that you think can be resold for a profit is just good buisness. Un the other hand good buisness would imply that you had some knowlege of what you are buying and the possible potential return on investment .

number 2 said:

Called scalping. Preying on the desperate. Its wrong.

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Nah, it's called dumbass... bidding on ancient dirty stuff you don't have a clue what it is. Now if it was clean newish expensive looking stuff that's another matter indeed....seriously...I've bid on many newish expensive looking items where I wasn't sure what it was and come out very nicely profit wise. But I never bid very much....if someone actually needed the item they would outbid me easily and still get the doo dad dirt cheap.

Examples of what I'm talking about are things like electronic balancer sensors, ultrasonic metal defect detectors, portable spectrometers...stuff like that. The largest profit I ever made from a percentage of cost vs sale was a 12 inch diameter optical flat I paid $10 for and sold for $2,500 !! The funny part was it would have been worth even more than that if not for a chipped off area along one edge on one side. So I'm thinking...hmmm...I need to go into the used optical flat business. But hundreds of auctions later, damned if I've run across a single other optical flat except for a few tiny ones.

I got a call last night from the guy asking if I was interested in some of the stuff. I told him I would be willing to pay a fair price for it but I wasnt going to finance his trip to tahiti. All he had that I wanted was a few tool holders for the turret and a four way tool post I didnt want all the collet pads and feed stuff. He went and checked ebay and found that there is lots of stuff with no bids and no offers and that the true value of the stuff is near zero. He goes to all kinds of auctions and just buys stuff and resells it he said he usually has no trouble but he has never bought machine tool stuff and didnt realize there was no market for it. If I dont get anything from him it wont be a big deal as the stuff is available all over, The sure fire way to tell if somthing has any value is if the dealers arent bidding and the scrappers arent bidding it is a pretty sure bet the stuff is junk.

kpotter said:

I got a call last night from the guy asking if I was interested in some of the stuff. I told him I would be willing to pay a fair price for it but I wasnt going to finance his trip to tahiti.

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That is satisfying at least. I've told this story before but in case you missed it... about 9 years ago I bought a 1995 Lagun horizontal/vertical mill at auction...which was complete except I couldn't find any horizontal arbor supports for it. I knew the company bought the mill new, so they had to be there somewhere...so I talked to the guy who bought the storage room. He hadn't a clue what I was talking about so I drew him a picture of what they would look like. Well, damned if he didn't find them on the shelf....in a box, brand spankin new... 4 of them. So, I just figured he'd hand them over....but he wouldn't... he conjured up some insane price....like $500 !! The irony of course being that it was only because of me that he even knew what they were in the first place. So I got mad and then he got mad and I said to hell with them and left.

These supports were not only worthless to anyone other than me because the particular Lagun is so rare, but even if someone happened to have the same model Lagun they still would be questionable as the support holes are bored for that particular Lagun.

Anyhoo, I showed up a few days later to load my machines and he just happened to show up (I suspect he got the auction check out guy to call him when I showed up) and I bought them all for 100 bucks or so...still slightly annoying...but way better than 500 ! I guess in the intervening days he had found out I was right about nobody but me having any use for them.

Auction

Its an auction, Hence the name, people can bid and buy and pay for what ever they want.

Milacron said:

...I bought them all for 100 bucks or so...... I guess in the intervening days he had found out I was right about nobody but me having any use for them.

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So I am dying to know: Did the market disagree with you? That is, how much did folks bid up the spare 3 supports?

I agree with Redlee, but the problem is folks who are not experts that bid on stuff. And when you exhibit the slightest amount of interest, they figure that they are in possession of the Crown Jewels of England. And no amount of reasonable discussion will dissuade them from believing that they a rare and valuable version of a Starrett one inch micrometer and that it is worth $500 or more.

I wish I had a nickel for every yahoo that states "I have no idea of what this is" regarding, for example, a sprung mic on ebay, yet prices the thing at $995.

Jim

bosleyjr said:

So I am dying to know: Did the market disagree with you? That is, how much did folks bid up the spare 3 supports?

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As the spare 4 supports were hidden away in a room mostly full of cleaning supplies and solvents, and it was that room that was bid on and not the supports specfically, I don't understand the question. If the supports had been bid on seperately they would probably have brought maybe 10 bucks for all 4.

If the supports had intrinsic value by themselves then the buyer of that room certainly has every right to try and charge whatever he wishes since he does indeed own them. In fact he owns them no matter what. But in a situation where the only reason the buyer even knows what he has is because of me and to then try and wildly profit from the very knowledge I bestowed upon him just seems a bit beyond the pale.

But I guess it mostly boils down to that very lack of knowledge....I knew they were worthless except to me, but he probably worried he'd find out later they were the key component of a nuclear generator and worth $30,000

That's the really annoying thing about auctions, other bidders. It happens just about every time. I bid a dirt cheap price on good item and wham, next thing I know, someone else has placed a bid. So I put another bid and then it happens again.

People have no respect. They should just stop bidding when they see that I am slightly interested in that really good lot.

But sometimes I get lucky and pay a lot less than I know it's worth. Best score was a $120 box of radio equipment I sold for $1600. I could have got it for $10 if the other guy hadn't bid. Dammed annoying.

Examples of what I'm talking about are things like electronic balancer sensors, ultrasonic metal defect detectors, portable spectrometers...stuff like that. The largest profit I ever made from a percentage of cost vs sale was a 12 inch diameter optical flat I paid $10 for and sold for $2,500 !!

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The best deal I ever had was at GE nuclear auction in San Jose a few years back. The auctioneer was giving away gauging sets for calibrating pressure gauges after no-one bid on them. I didn't even want one, but he threw two of them in with a lot I bought. I put both on ebay and one sold for $1000.

-Dave

dazz said:

That's the really annoying thing about auctions, other bidders. It happens just about every time. I bid a dirt cheap price on good item and wham, next thing I know, someone else has placed a bid. So I put another bid and then it happens again.

People have no respect. They should just stop bidding when they see that I am slightly interested in that really good lot.

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LOL - exactly.

I dont blame the other people. I blame the auctioneer. Once I raise my hand they should point to me and slam the gavel. SOLD! Think of how much quicker the auction would be.

Mebfab said:

I dont blame the other people. I blame the auctioneer. Once I raise my hand they should point to me and slam the gavel. SOLD! Think of how much quicker the auction would be.

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Like it! - is that good old yanky inginuity?

I think I got that from my Armenian Grandfather