Online auction mishaps?

[Garvin]

There's the old warning about not scratching your nose during a live auction in case you attract the auctioneer's eye, plus the ever-present danger of blood rushing to your head during a bidding war, ending up with you spending far more than your maximum, but has anyone come a cropper on an online auction?

I ask because some years ago I had a disastrous experience when bidding on an eGun.de auction while I was abroad on holiday, using my mobile phone. I placed the bid in a mad rush before going out and must have put in an extra digit by accident.

When I got back a couple of hours after the auction ended, to my horror I found I had spent over 700 euros on a pistol (£500 odd at the time). I really wanted it, but thought my maximum bid had been about 400 euros, and obviously I hoped to get it for less. Someone else obviously wanted it badly too...

I couldn't even look at the pistol for about two years, so painful was the memory it brought back!

But now, several years on, the memory has faded and I'm glad to have it in my collectioin. Just shows that what seems like a grossly over-the-odds amount at the time, gradually begins to looks more reasonable. In a decade or so, it might even look like a bargain.

[45flint]

My latest experience was with a online auction where it was down to me and another collector and I had battled him before. I put in my top bid and was still losing! Said to myself whats another $20? Put it in and won. Lol. To think I may have lost a pistol over $20.

[Jimny4x4]

Whatever happened to the member here who tried to have an airgun sent from that JS Auction site , airweapon classification or sum'it meant he was being charged $$$$ by carrier and he started a thread ... a real warning ...but did he get it in the end ? I never saw the update or did I miss it ?

[Binners]

I took a day off to go to an auction in Devon many years back. The item I wanted was part of a Manor house sale. A 2 barrel Webley Service in the best original condition I have ever seen. ( the collapsed box was binned by the porter

I ended up paying over £500 Now I'm chuffed I did

The moral of the storey, if you really want something really nice and not pay commission,


Come to Kempton in June

[mrgeoff]

I failed to notice the +vat on a Holt's sealed bid auction once, most rifles don't have vat, so it was 20% more expensive than expected. Got it for minimum bid, no wonder no one else bidded.

[Troubledshooter]

I took a day off to go to an auction in Devon many years back. The item I wanted was part of a Manor house sale. A 2 barrel Webley Service in the best original condition I have ever seen. ( the collapsed box was binned by the porter

I ended up paying over £500 Now I'm chuffed I did

The moral of the storey, if you really want something really nice and not pay commission,


Come to Kempton in June

I would have tried to rescue the box and binned the porter.

Auction house porters should never be allowed near pens or pencils either, as I won a pristine boxed item and discovered the porter had written the price on the label. Fortunately it was in pencil so I was able to carefully erase the figures.

[mel h]

I've been a regular auction room buyer for nearly fifty years. I can remember when most of them didn't charge buyers for the privilege of bidding. I've never been caught out scratching my nose, but have on more than one occasion bought the wrong lot.
I've lost count of the times that I've walked away shaking my head at what I've just paid for something that I wanted, but, as was pointed out earlier these things often catch up given time.
I still see some surprises, I saw a local auction last week where there were four unremarkable looking Aboriginal wood artefacts with a low three figure estimate, I watched them go from that to £33,000 +over 25% in a couple of minutes, to an internet buyer from Downunder.
Mel.

[ogilkes]

Put an internet bid on a Webley I wanted but went along anyway. Up wne the price, so I thought I ought to up my ante. Had bid anther £40 before realising I was bidding against myself.... Doh!

The other one was bunyg a very nice BSA r510, only to realise it was FAC. Simply had to sell it on again as I don't have an FAC.

[Geezer]

I nearly bid £2,000 on something online when I meant £20.00. Luckily I caught myself at the "confirm bid" stage.

I guess if I hadn't, at least I wouldn't have been outbid.

[Lakey]

I took a day off to go to an auction in Devon many years back. The item I wanted was part of a Manor house sale. A 2 barrel Webley Service in the best original condition I have ever seen. ( the collapsed box was binned by the porter

I ended up paying over £500 Now I'm chuffed I did

The moral of the storey, if you really want something really nice and not pay commission,


Come to Kempton in June

I remember attending an auction near Oxford, that had quite a few airguns in it. Got there and had a look over the lots (as one does ) and spotted a nice re-finished 1920's Webley Mk1 Air pistol, together with its original box. The lot number came up, and I started bidding, only to be forced up (a bit higher than I wanted to go, by a gentlemen a few rows in front. I won the item in the end, with said adversary shaking his head as the hammer fell. That evening once I got home, I posted on here about my good fortune. And got a PM shortly afterwards, confirming that the other bloke that was bidding on that day was one Peter Binfield Esq. (We hadn't met up before that point ) Ha Ha Sorry Pete

[Binners]

I remember attending an auction near Oxford, that had quite a few airguns in it. Got there and had a look over the lots (as one does ) and spotted a nice re-finished 1920's Webley Mk1 Air pistol, together with its original box. The lot number came up, and I started bidding, only to be forced up (a bit higher than I wanted to go, by a gentlemen a few rows in front. I won the item in the end, with said adversary shaking his head as the hammer fell. That evening once I got home, I posted on here about my good fortune. And got a PM shortly afterwards, confirming that the other bloke that was bidding on that day was one Peter Binfield Esq. (We hadn't met up before that point ) Ha Ha Sorry Pete

Mmmmmm, now had you said ''rifle'' I would hold my hands up, guilty as charged, but never a pistol (never bid on pistols at auction apart from at salisbury and Stratford once ) Now I do remember being along side a gentleman whilst bidding on 2 BSA underlevers that I won in the oxford area In fact I still have the overpriced catalogue and receipt somewhere

[Lakey]

Mmmmmm, now had you said ''rifle'' I would hold my hands up, guilty as charged, but never a pistol (never bid on pistols at auction apart from at salisbury and Stratford once ) Now I do remember being along side a gentleman whilst bidding on 2 BSA underlevers that I won in the oxford area In fact I still have the overpriced catalogue and receipt somewhere

You could well be right....... I think I also came away with a brace of CS models as well as the Webley pistol,that day, so we could well have clashed over a rifle or two, so it looks like I stand corrected sir Either way it was funny when the penny finally dropped. All the Best

[vbull]

First time I used an online auction ( Holts) I was convinced I had not set things up right so like a fool, as the auction was running live, for some inexplicable reason, I decided to hit the bid button not thinking for a second it would go through but of course it did. I had placed the winning bid on an old cartridge £200 plus commission and VAT. I had that cartridge for years, even put it up for sale here on the BBS for £50, no interest so eventually put it back in a Holts auction and got £400 for it after deductions....

[Binners]

You could well be right....... I think I also came away with a brace of CS models as well as the Webley pistol,that day, so we could well have clashed over a rifle or two, so it looks like I stand corrected sir Either way it was funny when the penny finally dropped. All the Best

I remember it well, all the rifles were just laid out on a cold concrete floor Seems we had one anothers pants down that day Sounds a bit like them Protek boys

[oneseven]

I own a St Etienne carbine which i won in a Holts sealed bid auction. I'd put in a very low speculative bid and was amazed to have won, especially with the increasing interest in obsolete calibre antiques. Then I realised that 8mm Lebel was not yet on the home office list. A hasty deactivation ensued.