Auction Game Sales Harrisburg PA 3/27 Who's going??

There wouldn't be too many people going if it was $100 to enter....Yes you get it back. If you pay cash the commision fee is only 10% plus the sales tax. As far as the shill bidding, if that wasn't allowed you would never get any good games to the auction. No one is going to bring a nice classic and let it go for $100... And it's an unfair assumption to assume someone should accept that. If you are willing to spend $300 a game then don't be insulted if the owner brings the price up to $300 on you. It's still what you were willing to pay...
 
zfcamaro said:
There wouldn't be too many people going if it was $100 to enter....Yes you get it back. If you pay cash the commision fee is only 10% plus the sales tax. As far as the shill bidding, if that wasn't allowed you would never get any good games to the auction. No one is going to bring a nice classic and let it go for $100... And it's an unfair assumption to assume someone should accept that. If you are willing to spend $300 a game then don't be insulted if the owner brings the price up to $300 on you. It's still what you were willing to pay...
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Bull sheeettt. Shill bidding is fraud in my book. That is what reserves are for.
 
Of course your name says it all camaro. Ugh. I'll take my mustang over the copycat anyday.
 
I used to dislike the shill bidding also until I took a couple of games to one of the auctions that had a rather poor turnout. While I was checking games in one of the games that I brought got auctioned off for $10. Now it wasn't anything rare or valueable but it was working and in decent condition and definately worth more than $10. When I got the fee breakdown, It cost me a few dollars to get rid of the game. It would have been cheaper and easier for me to just throw the game in the trash and been done with it. It changed my perception of the shill bidding and why people do it. I know some people are shill bidding to squeeze every last penny out of the game's sale price. But I think most of the shill bidding is done in lieu of a reserve. I bid on my own games up to the point where the price is what I need out of it and drop out of the bidding and if you watch that is what happening with most of the shill bidding.

The way to bid at any auction on any item is to have a price in mind that you will go to and when that price is reached stop bidding. The days of picking up Galagas and other classics at the auctions for $5 are long gone. The industry is too bad off for the operators to be giving money away like that anymore.

Don't worry about my shill bidding, everything that I take to auction was offered other places for sale and had no takers or someone flaked out on it or isn't something that most collectors would be interested in anyways.
 
Encom said:
I used to dislike the shill bidding also until I took a couple of games to one of the auctions that had a rather poor turnout. While I was checking games in one of the games that I brought got auctioned off for $10. Now it wasn't anything rare or valueable but it was working and in decent condition and definately worth more than $10. When I got the fee breakdown, It cost me a few dollars to get rid of the game. It would have been cheaper and easier for me to just throw the game in the trash and been done with it. It changed my perception of the shill bidding and why people do it. I know some people are shill bidding to squeeze every last penny out of the game's sale price. But I think most of the shill bidding is done in lieu of a reserve. I bid on my own games up to the point where the price is what I need out of it and drop out of the bidding and if you watch that is what happening with most of the shill bidding.

The way to bid at any auction on any item is to have a price in mind that you will go to and when that price is reached stop bidding. The days of picking up Galagas and other classics at the auctions for $5 are long gone. The industry is too bad off for the operators to be giving money away like that anymore.

Don't worry about my shill bidding, everything that I take to auction was offered other places for sale and had no takers or someone flaked out on it or isn't something that most collectors would be interested in anyways.
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If you don't like the prices at auction - don't take stuff to auction, or don't sell without a reserve, or insist on a minimum bid. If the auctioneer won't do that, then DON'T FREAKING SELL IT THERE. It's not like the amusement auction is the only place that you can sell a game!

Shill bidding is FRAUD. If you don't want to sell for less than $20, then DON'T LET BIDDING START THERE.

Gods how I hate people justifying fraud because they don't get what they want. There's ways to get your price without having to resort to FRAUD.

If you can't get the price you want, then perhaps you need to re-think your price!

If you shill bid, you're no better than any other form of con artist.
 
I understand your point on view but the auctions never give you the option of reserves or starting bid. If the auctioneer screws up and calls your Galaga a Galaxian or one of the auction help drops your game and breaks it and causes the bidding to go low, there is nothing you can do about it. And there are a number of people that will break your game during the preview to drive the price down. Would you stand by and let your game go cheap under those circumstances?

As to other venues to sell your games, there aren't really that many there are all that useful. Ebay's fees on top of all the fun with flaking out buyers and paypal retractions and so on. Not to mention limited market unless you want to deal with the shipping hassles.

Craigslist, Newspapers, are OK for the popular games but try to sell something that is a few years old and not popular with collectors, you aren't going to move it unless you give it away. Trade ins with the distributers are OK but they only give you credit for the stuff which is fine if you are about to buy something but it's not the same as cash.

I don't see how bidding on your own property is fraud. The way the auctions are set up pretty much condone it. Hence the low $10 buyback fee. If they wouldn't allow it there wouldn't have anyone willing to bring games to the auction. If you as a bidder only want to pay $20 for a game, stop bidding at $20. If the person that owns it thinks it is worth more than that to them to drag it back home so be it. The operators buy and sell these games on a weekly basis, they know what they are worth.

What you are also ignoring is that entering the games into the auction is not free. It is usually $10 + 10% so ignoring other costs such as gas, meals lodging and insurance. The game has to sell for around $12 to break even or over $22 if they are bidding on thier own stuff.

I assure that I am not a con artist, just a collector that occasionly sells games at auctions that fellow collectors have little interest in. If I get a good deal on a group of games because I did a bulk buy and was willing to take the games that other collectors wouldn't buy I pass the good deal on when I sell the games that I don't want. Use the search function to see what I ask for games that I sell.
 
If I understand it correctly, a bidder card will cost you $110, and $100 is refundable, they keep $10 for registration fee. So, you pay $10 just to be a qualified bidder, plus 13% buyer fee + 6% sales tax.
 
SilverDuck said:
Really? We are fighting over Mustang/Camaro? Really?
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Not really. It was just a little jab thats context is lost in a forum. I am a mustang guy and occassionally take friendly jabs at the camaro. Although I do think shill bidding is fraud.
 
vicjw66 said:
Not really. It was just a little jab thats context is lost in a forum. I am a mustang guy and occassionally take friendly jabs at the camaro. Although I do think shill bidding is fraud.
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No sweat, friendly jabs are part of the car hobby :) I try not to do the whole ford vs chevy thing though.... After all we are supposed to be on the same team and it should be import vs. domestic. Back to the shill bidding, I'll admit I did get steamed when I found out I was bid up by an operator a few years back at an auction. However it will always be allowed and it's a tricky balance in keeping the peace. The key is to just set a limit on what you are willing to spend and stick to it.
 
zfcamaro said:
No sweat, friendly jabs are part of the car hobby :) I try not to do the whole ford vs chevy thing though.... After all we are supposed to be on the same team and it should be import vs. domestic. Back to the shill bidding, I'll admit I did get steamed when I found out I was bid up by an operator a few years back at an auction. However it will always be allowed and it's a tricky balance in keeping the peace. The key is to just set a limit on what you are willing to spend and stick to it.
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I agree - besides, everyone knows MOPAR's are the real muscle cars! ;-)
 
Shill bidding does not bother me at all. It's usually easy to tell who is bidding on their own machine, and I just ignore those machines. If I notice someone is bidding on their own machine, that tells me that they really really really like it, and I don't want to be rude and take it from them. The polite thing to do is let them take it back home with them so they can enjoy it for years to come.
 
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