Hi Dien:

I quite often attend auctions looking for deals...a couple of weeks ago I bought a year old Gateway computer for $290 and sold it 2 days later for $650 using a local internet classifed ad...also a childs desk (new) for $105 and sold it for $250 the same way.

Most auctioneers ask for a fairly high opening bid, and then end up having to back track asking for an opening bid which is usually ridiculously low...then they run it up in low increments and it usually gets up to the opening bid they were asking originally plus some.

I like to get to the auctions about an hour before they start. I check out the items and single out the ones I am interested in and what II am willing to pay for them...then I sit back and watch. Watching to see who is interested in the items I am after, and how many. It takes a bit of watching and learning but after a few auctions one can tell who is going to be bidding against you.

When the auctioneer gets to my item I always make the first bid if no one starts at the auctioneers requested bid.

Using the computer above as an example (I knew I had 2 serious bidders and that the max I was going to bid was $300), this is the way the bidding went:

Auctioneer asks for opening bid of $500...no bid...I opened it at $100 (I could have gone $50 but it just would have prolonged the process, plus it was a psychological ploy on the other 2 bidders). Next bid was $110...then the 3rd bidder came in at $120. I added $50 and made my next bid at $170. Again the other bidders came back with $180 and $185...one bidder had halfed his former increment and I was confident he was going to be out on the next bid. Again I bid up by $50 to $235. Next bid was to $240 and third bidder dropped out....now there were just the two of us. Again I added the $50 increment and bid $290 (my max was set at $300)....and that was it....the other bidder quit.

You see many things happened here...I was a serious bidder and made it known by the increments I was bidding (kind of a mind game with the other bidders). The final bidder had switched his bid from a $10 dlollar increment to a $5 increment which told me he was just about done unless I played his game of low increments where it could easily run up quickly. Then I took it almost to my max...would I have bid more - no I wouldn't, and I knew I wouldn't have to. In order for this other buyer to purchase he would have had to take it to $295 or $300 (which was still low for the computer), and since he didn't know my max, he would have to assume following my pattern that my next bid would be $345 or $350 and then his subsequent one $355 - $360 ( still a viable amount)- and repeating this one more time would have meant he would have to pay at least $410 - $415 for the computer.....by him halfing his increment earlier I knew he wasn't willing to take it even to the $355 mark...what he he didn't know is that had he bid one more time he would have owned it.

I use this same activity on all auctions whether it is for something as small as a desk (using $25 dollar increments, or to larger items like cars or yard equipment where the increments can be $100 or higher.

Very seldom do I lose the item I want (unless I run into a serious bidder who wants it more than me and is willing to pay beyond the max I set for myself)...and never do I go beyond the max I set out.

As I had posted about the auction, I thought I would add this for anyone interested.

Cornell