Tips on Buying at Auctions

Video Transcript

"So you're getting ready to go to an auction and you need a few tips on how to buy. I'm Blake Kennedy with Kennedy Brothers Auctions and I'm here to help. Going to an auction can be a lot of fun, especially when there's a lot of items, whether it's an estate item, a car auction, but you got to realize why you're there, am I there to buy things to - are you there to buy things to sell, are you there to buy things for you to sell? The tips are different for each one of you. If you're there buy an item, you got to make sure your price point on how much you want to pay for it, because you're looking to turn around and try to sell it. If it's just an everyday item, then you're not going to pay that much money for it. But if something is special that nobody's seen before, you know, bid until you get it because you can't make any money on the item unless you own it, so if it's a special item bid until you get it. Another reason you should bid until you get it is if you're buying it for yourself. If you're buying it for yourself and you're putting it into your own home, you're competing against antique dealers, eighty percent of the audience is dealers, they're trying to buy the things for cheap so they can take it their shop and sell it for a little more. The twenty percent that aren't dealers are nervous about being there, so take advantage of and have confidence to be able to bid on those particular items. You want to make sure you get the catalog and you do your preview. Preview is usually a few hours before an auction, this way you get to go and walk through the whole entire auction house and look at every item that you're interested in, make sure there's no chips, no cracks, no breaks or any repairs to the furniture that you might be interested in. Bring a flashlight to the auction, look underneath it. Bring a tape measure to make sure that you - it's the right size for you. But you know make sure you're aware that you might be paying ten percent buyers premium on a particular piece. If you bid a hundred dollars on something, know that when you go check out it's going to be a hundred and ten dollars, and one other tip I like to say is, don't get so excited and show the auctioneer that you really, really want that item and keep that bidder's card up until you get the darn thing, because boy the auctioneer can speak fast. When they're going twenty-five, thirty-five, forty-five, forty-five, fifty-five, they're up past the mark that you want to pay, so put it up when you want to bid and put it back down when you don't want to bid. Never leave it up until you get it. It's just an auctioneer's dream to get the price up there, but it's a lot of fun going to the auction, have a good time with it, I'm Blake Kennedy."