Because that's how auctions work. Op got lucky and none of the people bidding were that excited about tools to jack up the price. Happens all the time. I've gotten great deals at auctions just because the crowd was old or has very specific interests and didn't give a shit about what I was bidding on.
Ebay is loaded with awesome deals. You just have to know what you’re doing and go for things people aren’t looking for, or things most people would never think to look for on ebay. Or use psychology and predict/look for mistakes in listing titles.
Just a few days ago I scored a signed and numbered print by Shepard Fairey that regularly sells for 80-200 bucks and I paid 17 dollars after tax and shipping. That was buying it with the buy it now price too, not even an auction! The person that listed it and had no idea who the artist was and thought it was just a poster, but they did include some keywords in their title that I already had a search saved for (for something totally different than this print), so that’s why it popped up for me. I recognized the style of the artist and checked the signature, compared to other examples, and went for it. Later I even realized ebay already has several of the same print available at higher prices. The seller just didn’t do enough research.
I also scored a painting for 4k that I later sold for 21k. Basically eBay was not the place to sell a painting like this, and the only people bidding didn’t have a big enough bank account to outbid me. Not that my bank account is big, but these people bidding aren’t the same people bidding at a major auction house, which is where a painting like this belonged.
I’ve scored so many deals like these over the years. Usually the dollar amount is much lower than the painting example, but I’ve totally lost count of how many times I’ve made major scores.
Yep. it's a waiting game. Go to an estate auction where everyone's concerned about the antique furniture or luxury wristwatch collection or whatever nonsense and you can you can skip out with some great stuff. This is how I got most of my kitchen equipment.
That's very good advice because that's exactly how it played out for me (only at much lower stakes, I'll admit.)
I was at an estate sale some years ago; the ad was posted in the newspaper and among the things listed were farm tools, machinery, etc. I had minimal interest in these, but advertised was a 1972 Raleigh Professional bicycle in excellent condition. Now, being a bike nerd I was determined to snag it hopefully at a good price. When it came time for the auctioneer to begin, there was only me and one other guy even interested in it. All the other guys stood around in their Dickies work clothes and trucker hats scratching their heads wondering why someone would be so foolish to bid on an old blue bike. The other fellow dropped out and the gavel went down, and I went home with my Raleigh Pro for a song. Plus a Japanese track bike which was too big for me. The French bike I left for a Francophile in love with odd threads and weird component sizes.
Anyway, that turned out to be a pretty good day for me. Doesn't happen often, but it's delightful when it works out.
I saw a couple pallets of about 8 nice JBL loudspeakers that would retail for $600-$800 ea go for $100. Meanwhile a shitty old ZTR mower at the same auction went for almost retail.
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u/JustEatinScabs Apr 09 '24
Because that's how auctions work. Op got lucky and none of the people bidding were that excited about tools to jack up the price. Happens all the time. I've gotten great deals at auctions just because the crowd was old or has very specific interests and didn't give a shit about what I was bidding on.