Milwaukee Super Auction Nov 14 2009 "Whos Rollin?"

[Zud]

I dont mind reserve pricing. I have a problem with the shill bidding. That is why I stopped going to Super Auctions. I forgot the one guy's name, but I wonder if he went to Milwaukee or Franklin Park last weekend. He always bids to increase prices, but have never seen him actually by anything.

 

[More Cowbell]

Is anyone here one of the guys in the leather trenchcoats? My 14 year old son asked me at the auction if they thought they were in the Matrix or the Mafia. LOL. No offense if it's someone here but I thought that comment was funny. Seeing the video and the prices makes me wish I had jumped at a few of the games. If I didn't already have a World Series: The Season, I would have been all over one of those, I love that game.

 

[Vectorman]

Yeah, I guess reserve pricing would serve the same purpose. My guess as to why they do it the way they do is:

1) easier - they don't have to create / maintain / reference a list of every sellers' reserves on everything
2) although it's more palatable to you, I bet overall more people would get ticked off if every game ended with "well guys, we didn't meet the seller's reserve on this one so we'll just have to skip it and move on." That would probably turn everyone off and no one would come back. Whereas this way only very observant, astute buyers like yourself detect the people bidding up their stuff.

Again, I'm not defending it, just trying to explain it. I am 99% a buyer at auctions and only sell very rarely. And have only bid on my own stuff a handful of times over 20 years of attending auctions.

 

[RussMyers]

I have no problem with reserves that are openly declared at the start of bidding, as in "This item has a reserve price set by the seller and if the bidding does not meet that reserve the item will not be sold", even if the amount of the reserve is not openly stated.

Shill bidding however is outright fraud, and is or should be illegal in every state, with enormous fines associated. If you want to auction your stuff off, you are stuck with the final bid as the price.

Don't like that? Don't auction your stuff.

Maybe the price will take off like a rocket, and maybe it'll sell for peanuts.

That's called risk.

Shill bidders and "buybackers" are scumbags.

RM

 

[Vectorman]

Shill bidders and "buybackers" are scumbags.

RM

Come on...don't hold back! Tell us how you really feel. ;-)

I can see your point. I guess the problem is that by SuperAuctions calling their events "Auctions," they are deceiving unsuspecting bidders into assuming that this is a real auction, which carries certain widely accepted rules and guidelines. One of those being that shill bidding is strictly forbidden.

SuperAuctions (or any of the other game auction companies - they all do this) doesn't really hide the fact that they allow shill bidding and buybacks. They state it openly in their rules. But then they call the thing an "Auction" which is not really true. It's a sale with convoluted / ethically challenged rules.

I guess you guys are right. If they're going to call it an auction, they should be REQUIRED to abide by the rules of an auction.

I've discovered, by the way, that they supposedly do have auctions where they don't allow buybacks, shill bidding, or reserves. They call these "Absolute Auctions". So if you see on their flier an "Absolute Auction", that means it should be a legitimate auction.

But based on the corruption and greed I've seen exhibited by the guys at SuperAuctions, I wouldn't trust their "Absolute Auctions" any more than a regular one, frankly.

I don't know if it's fair to call the sellers who shill or buyback their stuff scumbags. They are simply abiding by the rules that were clearly laid out to them when they were courted by the SuperAuctions people - who I'm sure assured them that "it's perfectly fine to bid on your own stuff...that's the way we do it...it's common in this industry...etc" Many of them probably are in fact scumbags, but I don't know that it's because they shill their stuff.

Just my humble opinion....
John

 

[RussMyers]

I am willing to extend the Pointing Finger of Douchebaggery to both the shill bidders and the auction house if they explicitly or silently allow, encourage, or condone the behavior.

In that case, it's not an "Auction" at all.

They should make the shill bidders and the buyback-sellers wear Day-Glo Pink vests and hats to clearly distinguish them from the humans.

That would satisfy me.

RM

Note - My father (94) has been an antiques dealer since WWII, primarily art glass, depression glass, Currier & Ives prints, and French furniture. Also RCA Victor Victrolas. I have attended literally hundreds of auctions with him since before I could talk. If they caught you shill bidding your stuff at any of those houses, they'd pull your liver out through your ear using an iron hook.

 

[More Cowbell]

Do the buyback people have to pay all of the fees and taxes? It seems like those would add up pretty quickly and negate many of their actual sales.

 

[animesuperj]

Do the buyback people have to pay all of the fees and taxes? It seems like those would add up pretty quickly and negate many of their actual sales.

I was also wondering on this.

Honestly, I think the idea of a reserve is a better option that being able to buy back your stuff. I understand that they need to get something back from their investment, but it's really annoying when your looking to get something, bid against a person and then realize it's the person who owns the machine in the first place. I bid on something at the last auction where the buybacker came up to us (was with friends) and said he'd sell it on the side for the same amount he just won it for. That was really annoying. If I wasn't willing to pay for it at that price 10 minutes ago, why would I pay for it now? Just set a reserve with what your looking to get, say the item has a reserve, if it's not met...move on.

 

[Vectorman]

This actually makes perfect sense when you see how the auction company breaks down their fees. They currently charge about a 15.9% fee when a game sells - legitimately. But if you buy it back, they just charge a $15.9 fee.

Therefore, if something sells for $500, the seller is only going to get about $420. So if he buys it back and then sells it to you for $500, he nets $484 instead.

(These fees are approximate. SuperAuctions charges different fees to different sellers based on who their "buddies" are and so on....they're good-ole-boys, remember).

They state this "buy-back" fee openly on their literature, which is a tip-off to wary buyers that shill bidding is inevitable.

John

 

[lyo1984]

Heres Part #2

Just some jukeboxes and prices of videogames.
http://www.youtube.com/user/lyo1984#p/a/u/0/OvJ54AUa0YM