Auction pointers

[str1der]

I was thinking about driving to the USAamusments auction on 1/17 in Indianapolis. I've never been to one so I was wondering if anyone could tell me what to expect, how they work, any pointers. Also does anyone know if this should be a pretty good auction or not? Thanks.

[Sephroth57]

yeah im going to a auction soon for my first time on 1/29 in cherry hill, NJ. any tips from regulars?

[saint]

Good information in a previous thread on the subject... Have fun!

[Sephroth57]

oh man, im so excited i cant wait to go to the auction, its like 3 weeks away though!!!! i want to start my mame conversion!!!  

edit: oh yeah and good link =P

[PacManFan]

There's an Auction going on this Saturday in York Pa. if anyone is interested.

-PMF

[microwrx]

Best tip for arcade auctions is not to tell anyone here that it's on.  That way you get it all to yourself.

[APFelon]

Best tip for arcade auctions is not to tell anyone here that it's on.  That way you get it all to yourself.

 

[gprime]

There are never any auctions around here in Kingston, and when there are, I never know about them.

<offtopic>
Last year my parents were at this farm auction getting some stuff and some guy happened to be getting rid of 3 arcade machines. Most the people there were hicks and weren't interested so my dad picked them up for $200 for all 3 of them. A NEO-GEO with King of the Monsters, an Atomic Punk (*love* that game), and some Porno game (Splash, but in a Gal Panic II cabinet). They all worked until this year when the porno game died. First the monitor started getting discoloured and soon the board died. But hey, in desperation to repair I found the BYOAC site
</offtopic>

Erm, yeah, back on topic. Anyone live around Kingston, Ontario and know of any good arcade auctions? Never been to one myself, and I need to fill up some empty space in my basement  

[str1der]

I was thinking about driving to the USAamusments auction on 1/17 in Indianapolis. I've never been to one so I was wondering if anyone could tell me what to expect, how they work, any pointers. Also does anyone know if this should be a pretty good auction or not? Thanks.

Does anyone have any experience with this particular auction site?

[CitznFish]

I went to my first one a few months ago. Best advice is to take a friend! I took my buddy and had him watch the auctioneers for fake bids. Guess what? They started that crap 20 minutes into the auction. :mad: They fooled a few people, but most of the people must have been old pros because they caught on and just stopped bidding.

Also avoid machines in the first row, or first half of the first row they starrt auctioning off. A lot of new people get excited and bid really high on the first few machines. Same for Pachislo and other items.

[knuttz]

Sorry to sound lame but what do you mean by "fake" bids?

[paigeoliver]

Sorry to sound lame but what do you mean by "fake" bids?

The easiest to spot is when the  auctioneer will raise the bidding through several bids instantly at the beginning of an item (before anyone even bids at all), instantly transforming a $100 minimum bid into a $200 or $250 one. This one they do ALL the time. It often backfires and they have to drop back down to $100, and sometimes even lower. I really only consider this one mildy dishonest.

A second (much more dishonest) type of fake bid is where you will put in your bid (lets say $100), and then the auctioneer will acknowledge a $125 bid from someone out of your site range (usually behind you), and then start asking you for $150. The fake part comes in because no one put in the $125 bid at all. If you don't take it, they will either pass the item, or feign some sort of confusion and reauction the item.

Some auctioneers also try very hard to get you to make sequential bids, ie bidding against no one but yourself. Here is how that works. The auctioneer will acknowledge your $125 bid and start looking for $150, after a second he will start focusing on you for $150, even though you already have the high bid. A lot of people fall for this one, A LOT. I have seen people make 3 and 4 sequential bids in a row.

The final type of fake bid doesn't happen as much, but here is how it works. This auctioneer will be calling for one price, (say $250), and he will be calling 250,250,250,250, he will see your hand start to shoot up and as your hand shoots up he will change that last number to a 275 and then acknowledge your $275 bid before you have a chance to argue or back out. Thus skipping out on the $250 bid altogether. That one happened to me on my Out Run and I had to borrow money from someone at the auction just to pay my bill (I had my finances figured exactly, and $250 WAS my max bid).

If you are going to superauctions, then watch out for the older auctioneer. He really likes to do all four of the above tricks, especially the flurry of fake starting bids and anything else he can pull.

Another thing you will notice at Superauctions is that they will often kind of breeze by an item when it is a superauctions employee (or friend of) trying to buy it. The item will be SOLD for the opening bid almost instantly.

[abrannan]

I think the most important piece of advice is "be willing to walk away."   Dont get so caught up in getting that one item that you let the auctioneers (or anyone else for that matter) pull one over on you.  Just sit back and watch the first row or so of machines go.  You'll get a feel for who's too eager to get a machine, what machines are more popular, and you can probably tell who's an operator and who's a collector by watching bids.  Let the crowd thin out a bit.  At the last Glen Burnie auction, I think they were there until 10pm or later bidding on the large number of machines that were there.  I'd bet that the second half of the room averaged about 25-50% of the first half.  

[str1der]

Is there any problem laying these machines on their sides? The reason I ask is I have a Grand Caravan That I should be able to fit a cabinet or two in.

[saint]

Yes - you don't know what is and isn't secure inside the machine. Be a shame to have the neck of your monitor broken because a loose quarter goes flying when you lay it down, or themonitor itself just wasn't secured.  Make sure you have gone over the insides carefully before you do that, or better yet just don't.  Also, you might want to remove any glass and carry it separately to protect it.

--- saint

Is there any problem laying these machines on their sides? The reason I ask is I have a Grand Caravan That I should be able to fit a cabinet or two in.

[Sephroth57]

hmm, has anyone brought a upright machine home on a pickup truck? was it hard to strap down keeping it standing up? id be afraid wind would catch it and my machine would be on the highway i was gonna lay it down but then i just read saints post. for how far im driving it would probably cost me 100$ for a Uhaul and thats money i dont really have, and the truck were using doesnt have a trailer hitch

[APFelon]

I have shipped quite a few cabs on their sides in my Ford van and haven't had a problem. Just be aware that some cabs have been rigged or poorly teched in the past... Just follow Saint's advice about making sure all of the components are secure before AND after shipping the cab and I think you'll be okay. Good luck! Take pics of what you guys buy!

APf

[SirPeale]

Speaking of auctions, K & S Amusements has announced that they're arranging an auction this coming April in Connecticut.  From his posting:

Hi all, Well seems the auction plan is finally getting off the ground. It looks like it's going to be in Somers CT. Im working on a Date with the woman now but it looks like it's going to be in April. I was going to go for sooner but it's a large building on a fairground and it's closed up for winter. There is plenty of electricity and water but no heat as the building is only used in the summer. So April sounds like the better choice for warmer weather. The building is big and can easily hold 200 + machines. Loading and unloading should be no problem at all. I am meeting with the people again this weekend and will try to put together a set date. I will let the group know as soon as I know. As it looks right now it seems like it might be good as far as machine for auction.  With the people and Op's I've already spoken to I'm over 100 pieces. I still have a lot more people to talk to and hopefully some of you fellow RGVAC'ers will be looking to shuffle around some of your pieces. I may still be in need of people to help out with auction. So if anybody is  interested please let me know. That's all for now.  thanks

[microwrx]

I think the best tip as previously mentioned is be prepared to walk away.

Look at as many of the items up for auction as you can.  You may be there for one thing and end up getting a bargain on something else because nobody else has bid.  There's always a few items that others aren't interested in you can usually get for cheap.  Even if you don't think you can use them you can usually sell them on eBay or something and make back a bit of the $$'s you spent on the stuff you really wanted.

Stick to your budget, if for no other reason than to save on the argument you'll have when you get home!!

[tiggertoo]

hmm, has anyone brought a upright machine home on a pickup truck? was it hard to strap down keeping it standing up?

Those things weigh more than 200 lbs. It isn't going anywhere. Just push it up against the cab and strap it in place.

But as far as auction advice, I've never been to one of these coin-op auctions, but have been to plenty of household/storage garage auctions and I've never had an auctioneer pull any of the crap that so many people here say goes on at the coin-op auctions. I think people don't trust auctioneers so they get suspicious of everything.
The reason why some bids shoot up right away is because of proxy bidding for people not in attendance. Also every auctioneer tends to try to start the bidding high, but when no one bids he drops the starting bid. This is in his best interest since he gets paid by sales and he's trying to save time. And I would say that 90% of the time bidding goes past what the auctioneer tried to start the bidding at.
If so many people suspect the auctioneer of wrong doing, then he should've been reported. Those people are licensed and can have it pulled.

Anyway:
1) Get there early and inspect anything you want to bid on. If you win the bid, it's yours, no matter what you find later.
2) Bring a pencil and paper. This is so you can keep track of items you want to bid on and write down your max bid.
3) This has been stated, but you shouldn't bid on anything at the beginning unless it's one of a kind and you really want it. The crowd always thins out and prices drop.
4) Make sure you can take home what you buy. This may seem obvious, but most people don't realize that most auctions require you to remove the merchandise right after the end of the auction. However, I think coin-op auctions give you 3 hours. (Just make sure)
5) And, never, ever let your bidding get out of control. That's why you need to write down your max bid as a reminder to yourself. You'll only kick yourself in the butt later (or the wife will) if you paid too much.
6) Have fun!!! Even though you're not buying it, you can touch it!

[Pipercub]

Check out the auction section at www.basementarcade.com and look over the closing prices for games over the last few years for your local auction (if he has it listed). Go over those lists and see what games usually show up, how many of each usually show up and what range they go for. Make up a spreadsheet of the games you are after with the game name and it's price range, leave open about 8 blank lines next to each game. When you arrive at the auction start making notes of the lot number (on a sticker on the machine) and the location of the item on the floor. When the auction begins you can keep track of when the games you want are coming up.

I find that doing this research ahead of time makes a world of difference. If you plan to spend $1000 and are interested in Defender, Galaga and Bad Dudes, you can know ahead of time that you can probably come home with both Galaga and Bad Dudes but have a small chance of getting a Defender at all by itself for that ammount. (Local averages vary) This lets me plan on how much to save up over the year and what games to target and most importantly which ones to not worry about.

You also need to remain flexible. last year I had high hopes of getting a Galaga, but when I got to the auction there weren't that many and they were all wrecks that I wouldn't own. However, there were far more Space Invaders than ever before and many were in great shape. I ran a black marksalot through the Galaga line and concentrated on Space Invaders. Unfortunatly the nicest one was on the first row but it was worth it to me because it was absolutly the cleanest one I have ever seen at auction. I got it for $800 so I did pretty good actually. But in general, the first row is where the people who come there to buy something, anything, blow allot of money right away. That and the coctail cabs too, people with minivans and visa platinums pay WAY over the normal value to these because they can fit them into the minivan.

So in summation, do your homework, make up an organized bid sheet and be sure to take a printout of the last two years closing prices with you so you can have an idea of what to expect from a game should you see something you hadn't planned on.

[microwrx]

3) This has been stated, but you shouldn't bid on anything at the beginning unless it's one of a kind and you really want it. The crowd always thins out and prices drop.

I've had the opposite experience whereby as the auction went on there was less available so those who didn't get anything early started bidding more for machines that wern't as good.  The earlier machines went for 50-75% of the price similar machines went for later on.  Maybe everybody there was looking for a bargain and the earlier prices still looked too high.  I got this machine with a working wrestling game for A$200.  It was the 3rd lot at the auction and no other 4 player machines sold for less.

[paigeoliver]

Last auction I went to had a bit of pricing anomolies when it came to the cocktails. They STARTED with the cocktails, and they were all going too low. Beautiful fully working Atari Football $200, Pacs/Galagas/Ms. Pacs were $400ish, a BEAUTIFUL dead "head to head" Space Invaders II (Midway style cocktail) went for $100. There were a couple others too, all too cheap in my opinion. Then most of the rest of the stuff in the auction went high.

Although the arcade game selection was pretty low, and there were very few nice dedicated games. There were tons of conversions, beat up games, and "worthless" dedicated games (no-name driving games, dedicated Jamma titles, etc), but whenever one of the GOOD games came up, BAM it went way too high. I dropped out of the bidding on so many items that I wanted. Dropped out of the bidding on a rather beat (but easily cleaned up) Time Pilot '84 in a Pac-cab at $75 (it sold for $100, and then I saw them part it out on the dock, and dang, I would have kept it), dropped out on a Cheyenne at $175 (wouldn't go any higher, it had a rom error and liked to reset), and missed several others.

Had I magically known the pricing in advance I would have came home with that Atari Football instead.

[RacerX]

I think a lot of this depends on which auction you go to.  I went to the SuperAuctions sale in Mesquite, Texas last March, and they started with the slot machines.  That took a couple of hours.  Then they went to the first couple of rows of upright arcade cabs, which were the ones in the best condition.  I think then they went to the pinball machines.  They then had to make their way through old jukeboxes, cocktails, sit-down cabs, and several rows of cabs in varying condition (from junk to just banged up, but working).  I left at about 1:00pm, and they hadn't even sold half the stuff yet.  I want to go back up there for one of the sales this year and spend the whole day.  It was a lot of fun.

As far as cheating goes, it goes without saying for most here, but watch out for Do-Rag, as he bids on his own machines.

[bluGill]

I've never seen any of the cheating meantioned, but it can happen.  Remember if you see it, you have the right to withdraw, but you need to do it right away.  So if you are holding your hand up for 150, and it suddenly hits 175 just before you, SHOUT right then and there withdraw.   If there really was a different bid, it will go to that person and you lost, sorry, otherwise they will have to restart.  Just make sure you do it instantly, because if you wait it is yours.  

Always know what you are bidding on, and if it is a small valuable item secure it before continuing on.   That means if you get a gold bar for $20 (worth $3000) you make sure nobody will steal it even if it means missing out of platinum for $10 (with $5000).    I have seen theft at auctions, it isn't common, but for small things prevent it.  (deals happen, normally not that good, but it isn't a deal if you pay $20 and get nothing)

Know what everything you bid on is worth.  I've seen people bid $40 when they could get the exact same thing at WalMart for $30.   You see this on ebay all the time too.   Don't bid unless you know it is worth it.   Most of what you will see at an arcade auction isn't easially avaiable, but don't buy a used joystick for more than a new one, unless you know that particular model is worth more.  (there may be used joysticks worth more than any new one)  

If you have never been to an auction find someone who has to go with you. Preferably someone who knows arcade auctions.   Even if it means you have to skip bidding on a cabinet you both want, at least for things only you want you will have someone there to stop you if you make a mistake.

NEVER bid against your wife.   I've seen this many times, and it is always embaressing.   Often there are two "rings" which means you may have to seperate to get something you want from both rings, so don't count on staying near each other, know who the other bidders are.

Be prepared to stay.  Often as the auction is winding down (especcially if it is big long one) people will come early, and leave well before it is over.  Some deals are to be had by sticking out the whole thing.  Not always as if there are a lot of buyers somethings they will realize that this is the last item so if they want something they have to buy it nomatter what the price.  So be willing to walk away empty handed.   I've gone to many auctions and not bought anything.   I still enjoyed the show.

Right before the sale starts the rules will be stated.  Listen closely.  Sometimes a rule will be critical and prevent you from bidding on something, or cause you to bid less.  If they add a 10% premium then you need to bid less to account for that.   However the rules are not always set in stone.  If they say everything must be removed 1 hour after the sale and you can't get everything in that time, find the property owner and see if you can work something out, before you buy.   (sometimes you can, sometimes you can't)

Good luck.   Which sometimes means you get to enjoy a free show and sometimes means you spend a lot of money on many bargins.

[EggZilla]

hmm, has anyone brought a upright machine home on a pickup truck? was it hard to strap down keeping it standing up? id be afraid wind would catch it and my machine would be on the highway i was gonna lay it down but then i just read saints post. for how far im driving it would probably cost me 100$ for a Uhaul and thats money i dont really have, and the truck were using doesnt have a trailer hitch

I agree with Paigeoliver. These fellas are definitely heavy enough not to get buffeted down. I've carried my Mortal Kombat machine and a buddy's Operation Thunderbolt home in an 89 Ranger, standing straight up, pushed up against the cab, and they never budged. I did take corners a bit slowly, because they can be a bit top-heavy with the monitor inside, and I did turn them both into bungee cord mummies, just in case, but I have to say there was never any problem.

Just be sure you can make it under the garage door before you pull in. Those things stick up pretty high.