Unusual Auction in Hobart

[KevM]

I went to an auction of a large joinery shop (in liquidation) yesterday in Hobart and ran into Andrew (bloggs1968) who also went along.

The difference with this auction was that many items sold to the one bidder, probably in excess of three-quarters of the over 400 items.

Seems as though it was buy at any cost. eg. Festool well worn CT33 vacuum $650, then a buyers premium of 11% on top. All the fixed machines were bought by him also, including a large CNC router, thicknesser, spindle moulders, Drum Sander, Large Jointer, Sliding Table Saws, all ducting and rather large cyclone and vehicles.

This buyer was obviously not a tradie and had the look of being a banker (dressed in a suit). Rumour had it that he was from Sydney. Conjecture had it that he was buying everything as he already had a lease on the building and was ready to reopen the business immediately.

I can accept that he would want all the large machines & ducting to save on installation and could therefore pay a premium, but why buy all the "rather tired" power tools when new tools of known quality could be purchased for not much more.

[Bernt]

Hi, I went as well. I think in the end he got a good deal, people had given up towards the end and he got some cheap machines.
In the end I didn't even bid to my max. because you knew he was gonna keep going. In the end only the seller (in this case probably the bank) would benefit from others driving the price up. I hope he is going to do the right thing to try and keep the business going.
At least he won't need to waste anyones time replacing lost items if he reopens.

[artme]

Auctions can be strange events.

I have seen second hand corrugated iron sell for more than new price! I've also seen other items go for better than new price. Why?? people don't do thier research or they simply get carried away.

[Master Splinter]

Easy. He has money, but not time. Dropping a few grand extra to get all the stuff means he doesn't have to spend a few days chasing replacements and waiting for it to be delivered. He was probably on a plane back to Sydney that afternoon, and he knows he has enough stuff there to make the business workable from day one.