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Government
Auctions Bidding Strategies from GovernmentAuctions.org®
The
deals you find at any live government
auction of seized or surplus property would undoubtedly astonish
most of the public. You could save a great deal of money on a wide
variety of assets. But where do you start? How you increase your chances
of getting items you want for a really discounted price? What strategies can you use to increase
your chances of coming away with a great deal?
Here
are some important bidding strategies to keep in mind:
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Set a limit and
stick to it
This rule
is vital information if you want to win items at a substantial discount.
First, scout out the item(s) that you intend to bid on with the aid of GovernmentAuctions.org®
listings. Then do proper price
research to figure out what an item’s value is (with the aid of used
merchandise price guides at GovernmentAuctions.org®), and use it to set a
maximum bid you’ll be willing to make for that item. Hint: set your
maximum bid at at least 20% less than the value of the item, and don’t
bid even remotely more than your max. This rule is single-handedly
the most important directive you should follow come auction day. Keep
your maximum bid always in mind, so you don’t catch auction
fever and overbid. You can use GovernmentAuctions.org®
to see some recent government auction sale prices.
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Don’t let the
auctioneer do the bidding for you
When
soliciting bids for a particular item, the auctioneer will frequently
suggest bids like, “Do I hear $500?” or “Can I get $750?”
If you think that is the lowest you can bid…it’s not. The
auctioneer will try to control the flow of the auction
this way, but don’t ever feel compelled to give into the auctioneer’s
suggested. If you are not comfortable bidding as much as is
asked for, bid whatever you feel is appropriate. So, lets say the
current bid on a flat screen TV is $400, and the auctioneer yells,
“Can I get 800?” You can easily raise you bidder number, and yell
“$450.” In other words, don’t let the auctioneer do the bidding
for you.
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Try to bid on items
in the beginning and end of the auction
Statistically,
items that come up in the beginning and end of auctions tend to have
lower bids for various reasons. “Why?” you ask. Well, many
bidders come late and many others leave early. Moreover, many bidders
have exhausted their funds by the end, and so there is less competition.
This doesn’t mean you should avoid the items that come up in the
middle of an auction if those are the items you wish to acquire. A
corollary here is that you yourself should get to the auction on time
(and stay till the end) to take advantage of these opportunities. GovernmentAuctions.org®
lists the starting times of the auctions, so you can use it to plan your
early arrival.
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How to bid against
professionals
A lot of
times you will see professionals – such as used car dealers, jewelers,
and others – bidding. You might be inclined to think that bidding
against them would damper your odds at snagging a good deal. In fact,
the opposite is true. Non-professionals are generally the folks that
drive up prices, especially ones that have no clue as to the value of
the item they are bidding on. Professionals, on the other hand, have
usually done their legwork, and you can sometimes use their expertise to
your advantage.
A
professional or dealer obviously knows the value of the item that he is
bidding on. Often the dealer will drop out of the bidding at a certain
point because the price has gone too high in his estimation. What you
need to realize is that the dealer typically sets his maximum bid by
discounting from it the profit he wishes to make on the resale. This
means that once a professional feels like he won’t make the desired
profit, he’ll drop out of the bidding. This may give you a chance to
offer just a small amount more, and — if you are the top bidder at that
time — you may walk away with a bargain. It is imperative, though,
that, when employing this strategy, you still never go above your own
maximum bid.
Now
that you have some bidding strategies under your belt, if you haven-t
already-
Activate your FREE TRIAL ACCOUNT at GovernmentAuctions.org®!
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