Rock Island December auction

[Dwight Gruber]

Many interesting and useful lessons here about authenticity and creative writing. How many can -you- find?

http://www.rockislandauction.com/search/aid/60

--Dwight

[Maestro]

looks like some spill over from last auction in october

[Edward Tinker]

ALL the Simson's are reruns (except maybe one) - and the two that sold in the last auction went for a lot less than I expected....

[mystical_tutor]

Man where else can you find a deal like that "extensive battle damage...."?

[Maestro]

prices realized will be available for review on Wednesday, December 11th. Auction closed about a half hour ago.

[Arizona Slim]

I placed four bids and lost on three for sure, one that I would realy liked to have had, still haven't checked on that last one though, lot 3391, a pretty nice Bulgarian.

Lon

[spartacus38]

Arizona Slim,
Bulgarian sold for 8k plus 15%.
Bob

[Arizona Slim]

Thanks Bob, sounds like I wasn't even in the running on that one.

Lon

[lew1]

I placed bids on 5 pistols. All 5 sold for far more that what I bid. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[alvin]

Originally Posted by spartacus38

Bulgarian sold for 8k plus 15%.

Very surprised to hear Bulgarian being so hot.

I saw a Bulgarian sold just a few days ago.

$1062.50, BP included. Regardless of the meaningless BP percentage number, if buyer look at the absolute total cost of ownership, just one thousand big bucks. Well, shipping has not been counted yet.... assume shipping cost another $40... total cost was $1100.

Why the market pumps one, but dumps another, at 800% difference?

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by alvin

I saw a Bulgarian sold just a few days ago.

Why no stock lug???

[alvin]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

Why no stock lug???

I don't know either. Heard it's the way German built it. Also, please note it does not have lanyard ring at the "normal" place, heard that's also the way German built it.

Luger collectors must know the detail of this variation. I am learning.

====

[Edit] Just looked it up in my 1992 Blue Book.

"1908 BULGARIAN -- 9mm, 4 in. barrel, DWM on chamber, 10,000 mfg., extremely rare in mint condition" (sounds like if it's not in mint condition, then, it's not very rare? I must say this variation seldom appears on gunbroker.com though, in any condition. 10,000 production volume was not big)

98% - $2000
95% - $1500
90% - $900
80% - $825
70% - $750
60% - $675

[sheepherder]

Wow!!! Pistol I bid on [Estimated Price: $2,500 - $3,750] went for $6325...

I bid $2700 tops...

[alvin]

I tried three. Not really need any of them, but just sitting there watching for the whole day was a little bit boring, so... Initially, I worried if I won all of them, I could be in trouble. Finally, found I won nothing. One came very close though, just missing $100.

[Geo99]

I'm getting tired of online auctions, but it is hard to resist coming back when you see one that got away for a ridiculously low bid because no one was interested (probably what happened in the case of that Bulgarian).

Alvin - whenever I bid on multiple lots, I always tell the auction house I only want ONE, or TWO - whatever I can afford. They are all happy to accommodate - never had a problem that way.

[alvin]

Thanks for the bidding tips!!

Probably just like modern cavalry does not ride on horse back anymore, modern buyer in internet era depends on "online sale" to find rare pieces. I read somewhere, a collector told others "never buy C&R online, only buy from local gun store face to face transaction"... if he's not too old style to capture current trend, then that's intentional misleading (assume he's a gun store owner, understandable though). Why that's wrong? because modern "widow" sells C&R online. Local gun stores are good on ammo, Glock, AK, AR etc. C&R? Even common variations are rare find in local stores.

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by alvin

One came very close though, just missing $100.

That's a fallacy. The winning bid could have been thousands over that...The $100 just indicates the price where your bidding ended...

In the early days of Internet auctions, it was common for some bidders to bid an astronomical price for an item (that he really wanted and could afford) in the knowledge that no one in their right mind would pay that much for it...

Example: Plain Jane Luger, worn, some mismatched parts, etc, only worth ~$800. You want a plain Luger, nothing collectible. Start of auction is $500 (realistic price), you bid $800 tops, rich kid bids $10,000...

You can't see his bid, you only see that it is $100 more than your bid [in our example]...So you stop when it goes over what you think is ridiculous and you won't bid anymore (and wouldn't pay that much for a 'shooter')...So you think "I only missed it by $100"...When if you had kept bidding, it would have kept increasing...

Rich kid doesn't care...Money is toilet paper to him...

There is also the 'house bid'...I ran into this at bank repo auction many years ago...To get people to show up and bid (and hopefully catch bidding fever), the auction house will start [and advertise beforehand] an auction with low bid, way beneath what item is worth...If it looks like the bids on the item will lose the house money, the house will enter a bid...And keep bumping it up until they think they can make good their investment...

I don't know if these practices persist today, or if there are other ways to pump up the prices, but it wouldn't surprise me...I'm sure shill bidding is still alive...