Auctions

A warning is in order here. I feel the need to begin this blog post by saying that auctioning may be hazardous to your health. Expect a rapid hearbeat, sweaty palms, and general neuroses. Understand that you may find yourself spending money on things you will never have a use for but can't pass up because A) It's red B) You've never seen one C) Everyone else seems to be bidding on it, it must be valuable.

After only having done about ten auctions I am certainly no expert,  but I have learned enough to at  least give a beginner's tutorial.  Today I am going to concentrate on local online auctions which I believe are a terrific way to get acclimated to the auction world with little risk and minimal funds.

Ok, so, Step 1: Find a local online auction. If you pick one that's too far away you will spend a lot of time and money in travel costs which pretty much defeats the purpose of getting items on the cheap. You can pay the auction service to ship your items but it's ridiculous expensive.  They make it that way because they want to be in the auction biz, not the shipping biz. They want to be on to their next sale. I have been working with Hines Auctions with main offices in Ellsworth, WI. Their offices are about an hour away from me, but so is everything else, and Hines' employees are so nice and easy to deal with. They call me by my name when I come to pick up my loot and, let's face it, we love the sound of our name! Seriously though, even the owner and chief auctioneer talks to me and asks me about my main interests so he can keep an eye open for me -unreal, huh?

Step 2: Register. You will need to have payment methods on file for obvious reasons, but when you pick up the items you have "won", they actually prefer you pay with cash or check (yes, check - that vintage method of payment your grandma uses) and they give me a discount for using cash or checks, so of course that is how I pay.
Registering is simply entering your name, mailing address, email address, credit card info, and phone number. You will also come up with a password to use when logging into the site. This allows you to bid on your gotta-have-ems.

Step 3: Find out what auctions are going on. Hines has a sports memorabilia auction going on right now and I am in a bidding war over this Cal Ripkin jersey with a certificate of authenticity (important if you are buying as an investment). Cal Ripkin is Mark's all time favorite baseball player. He actually has a framed jersey already, but this one looks really cool.

Step 4: Start Bidding. Once you find an auction with the stuff you're interested in, start going through the catalog of items. When you see an item you are interested in, try to make yourself decide on the MAXIMUM amount you would ever spend on it. This will prevent you (in theory anyway) from getting whipped into a frenzy when somebody outbids you on that item and you find yourself with a $200 jar of marbles. If you don't have countless hours to spend perusing the auction everyday, Hines lets you enter your maximum bid for that item. For example, I would like to get the Cal Ripkin jersey for $100, but I don't want to pay more than $200 for it. I could enter $200 for my maximum bid. If nobody bids over, let's say, $147, my end price will be $147.

Step 5: Stay posted and keep track of time remaining in the bidding period. I signed up to be emailed and texted whenever I am outbid on an item, but some might find it ridiculous because toward the end of the bidding time my phone nearly blows up. I'm weird, I dig this stuff, so I don't mind. A DIFFERENT STRATEGY, but one I don't use, is not to bid on anything until the remaining moments. I think part of the fun is the bidding process though, so waiting to bid until the end seems too logical. In my world, logical equates with boring. For me, auctions are filled with passion. It is my form of deer hunting. I wait in my blind for the perfect item to pass by and when it does - I take a shot at it. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't.  In my hunting nothing gets hurt, that is if you don't count the slivers and bruises I have from hauling furniture.

Once the bidding closes you get to see your winnings and scroll through while you dream of the perfect place to put your vintage Lite Brite. I think you should spell out Merry Christmas with it and out it in the entryway.

http://homedesign.marthastewart.com/2010/12/my-favorite-things-about-christmas.html

I hope you will try out an online auction or two and tell me about it! In an upcoming blog I will devote space to the discussion of what happens when picking up auction items.

Until next time, stay classy.

XO Christine