doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Auctions That Aren't

I'm an old hand at eBay, which doesn't take gun listings, but new at using the various gun auction sites (you know what they are).

As sort of a self-imposed orientation drill I've been tracking some auctions for doubles that are representative of guns I might like to own. I note that the vast majority of the time they open and close with no bids. Then the seller simply relists and away we go again on another seven-day ride.

As nearly as I can figure, this is because the opening bid price is set at what would be a high-end price for the gun. That price is not necessarily always an unfair price, mind you -- just a top price. The point is that these ain't really auctions. They are merely guns-for-sale listings masquerading as auctions. There's nothing illegal, unethical, immoral or fattening about this, of course. But it is mystifying for someone who is conditioned to believe that the word "auction" means something very different.

I have sold hundreds of times on eBay (not guns, of course) by setting an opening bid of 25 cents and can count on one hand the number of times my item did not close at a good price. And I've sold lots of stuff at prices way higher than I expected to. Economics 101 tells us that an object is worth what a willing buyer will pay in an arms-length transaction, and that an auction is the best of all ways to get the true value of an object so long as you have a critical mass of potential buyers (and in many cases two constitute enough). What's better at getting a critical mass of potential buyers than an auction that the whole world has access to online? The inference I draw here is that the sellers on these sites simply don't truly trust the system to work.

I guess I'm intellectualizing a bit here so if I were to put this into the form of a question it might be, what do the knowledgeable folks here think of buying at online auction? Do you buy from the auction sites? Am I wasting my time looking for a decent buy at these sites? Does anyone have any advice for buying from sellers on these auction sites?

If you can't partake in an auction that's really an auction, then you might as well buy from an established and reputable dealer online, since the shipping and FFL hassle is the same either way. Or am I missing something here?

It is what is.
To complain directly to the sellers, consider sending them a note via the auction website.
They might change their tune on price if they know someone actually wants their guns.




Cheers
Tinker

Hello

http://www.gunsamerica.com

is the for sale site of not

Gunauction and auctionarms are auction sites and yes, games are being played. But they own the gun and want what they want.

Good luck on your adventure

Mike

wow!!! just tried to go to it, YOU must have nuked it, it is DEAD

I am essentially in retirement as far as buying guns is concerned. The last couple I bought I did buy via Auction Arms. These two were listed with starting prices that left room for an "Auction" not just a for sale listing as you say. As to other items I have noted on numerous occasions an item may be listed on E-Bay at what I would consider a high end price, very near its max worth, while at about the same time another would be listed with a low starting bid. By the end the one with the low start would receive a good number of bids & sell for a higher price then the High Starter closed at without receiving a bid.
My opinion seems to follow yours very closely, either put it up to allow bidding to occur, or don't list it on an auction site.

It just shows that there is a large number of people - these are the people siting next to you at a stoplight or a coffee shop - who are both stupid and greedy.

The is one guy "Sly?" who I swear has been tring to sell the same overpriced doubles since I started looking at gun auctions many years ago.
I agree with the above sentiments and have also sold lots of items on Ebay and elsewhere with a starting bid of 99 cents.
I'd like to see these online gun auction adopt the same policy that Barrett Jackson, the classic car sellers, did a few years ago. The took the minimun bids and reserves off all their auctions and you can start the bidding a 1.00 on a $1,000,000 car. If the car ends up at $800,000 that's what it sells for. These moves IMO have taken a lot of the game playing out of this auction that used to occur all the time.
Maybe Dave will decide to start up an auction here with no reserves and a 1.00 starting price. Sure there would be an occasional bargian but I'll bet most of the guns would bring true value.
Jim

I had one phone conversation with Sly a few years ago, and now I don't even look at his listings. On most of the "auction" sites, you are, in fact, wasting your time. The problem is that every once in a while, an actual reasonable deal comes up. Sometimes you get lucky, but you waste a lot of time looking at high priced junk listed by sellers who are stupid, greedy, uninformed, unresponsive, crusty, incompetent, and sometimes crooked. There are a few good guys, but it takes time to figure out who they are. The sellers on this site are generally the good guys, and know what they are selling, but this is not an auction site.

Take a look at these auction, he has been selling everything at a good price for years.

http://www.auctionarms.com/search/auctio...p;af=0&ag=8

Ebay charges a listing fee, GB and AA do not. If you're not in a hurry there is no downside to listing a gun at top dollar and waiting for someone to bite. If the online auctions charged a listing fee based on the minimum opening bid I think you might see a change in this practice.

Last year I was considering a Remington M700 varmit rifle that was for sale locally. To get an idea of prices I searched completed auctions on GB for that particular model and found over 1000 auctions, only 2 sold.

I agree with you Michael. I don't know this guy but he's one of the exceptions on Gun Broker. Apparentely good guns with at least reasonable opening prices.
Jim