Auction bargains - things you didn’t expect to get as cheap as you did.

[br jones]

Also once upon a time the old man bought 4000 pairs of wellies at 25p a pair.took 3 years but sold the lot

 

[Bald Rick]

X 2 one year old Ken Wotton 14t trailers - £4000 each I think, sold 20 years later for £4500 each

Pfft. Money moves to money

 

[cquick]

Once bought about a grand's worth of lab glassware for £20 at an auction from Honda's R&D department.
Also the Taunton hydrographic office, A1 size map drawers for £10 each, makes excellent Workshop tool storage, also a 20ft bunded chemical store for 1600. And I got a look around the old super secret offices (albeit chaperoned by a few military guards)!

 

[glasshouse]

6 foot topper for £250 15 years ago. Only needed one new blade since then.
At farm sales best deals are boxes but you need to look into the bottom of them to see the good bits which will go for £2. Got lots of tools that way.
When SFP was first delayed by the computer issues stuff was cheap but we had no spare cash that spring. Saw a 10 ton 3 year old silage trailer go for £3500. Paint was barely scratched.

Glad u brought the sfp fiasco up
Guess when i sold out

 

[Vincent]

Got a New Holland BR 740 baler at an auction for not much more than what I sold my 640 for. It went straight to work no problems.

 

[glasshouse]

Had many a bargain over the years, but ebay dealers and google have made it a lot harder.

 

[flowerpot]

Farm sale £5.00 maiden bid for a wooden desk, which is in my office right now. It looks like Government issue and was in a barn but it wasn't damp.

OH buys most of his machinery from farm sales. I remember a big baler that he spent most of the winter rebuilding but even after all that it was a big saving on what the dealer wanted when it was in his yard - if you don't count the hours, but I suppose it was a winter project.

 

[melted welly]

Bought old single axle lorry conversion tipper with an easy sheet for £150. Use it on a job where it sits at a site and we get paid £50/load take chaff away. Does maybe 10 - 12 loads a year.

 

[glasshouse]

I once bought an item at a sale for £5
The following week a chap put an advert in the paper looking For said item.
I charged him £250.
A few weeks later, i bumped into him at the same regular sale, , he said “i hope you dont buy anything here”
Oh no i said, its only scrap.

 

[glasshouse]

Farm sale £5.00 maiden bid for a wooden desk, which is in my office right now. It looks like Government issue and was in a barn but it wasn't damp.

OH buys most of his machinery from farm sales. I remember a big baler that he spent most of the winter rebuilding but even after all that it was a big saving on what the dealer wanted when it was in his yard - if you don't count the hours, but I suppose it was a winter project.

Both big balers i have owned came from auction

 

[Hfd Cattle]

A pile of walling/ building stone probably about 5/6 tonnes at an online auction for £1
At the same sale bought a huge pile of old timber in a shed for a tenner . Found a lovely piece of oak in there which my FIL is currently making a house name plate for our lads new house . ( picture on the today at work thread )

 

[bobk]

Following on from @glasshouse ’s post:


What’s the best bargain you’ve achieved at an auction? I’ll start with two that I’ve had on here before:

View attachment 917641
£20 - I only bid to help the auctioneer out as it was clear there was no reserve and no interest.

One of these - https://www.watkinshire.co.uk/heating-boilers/mbr-3-55
View attachment 917645
£5 - and would pay many more pounds to replace if needed - gives me a hot tap in my lambing shed every year since. Highly recommended.

You bought a wheelie bin ...

 

[Hfd Cattle]

Just remembering my brother buying a VW caddy for spares 20 or so yrs ago . Paid £85 . Couple of months later found an envelope stuffed behind the seat with £800 in it . The M1 caddy became a collectors item and sold the same pickup for spares for £450 .

 

[JCMaloney]

Melton sundries auction.
1 x Garden Shredder.
1 x Flymo Mower.
1 x Petrol Rotavator (non-starter)
1 x rotary washing line.


£2 the lot plus 20p commission.

Sold the shredder for £40, the rotavator for £100 (after some furtling) still got the Flymo & the rotary line.

 

[Netherfield]

Dad bought approx 1000 tins of goodness knows what for £1 from this place about 1964.

They were in the cellar and undamaged by the fire, but the water had removed most of the labels, Soups, Fruit, Baked Beans and such. Sold them off as mystery objects cheap, wouldn't be able to get away with it nowadays what with elf and safety and sell by dates, once they'd figured out the codes on the tins by opening one folks would rummage through the pile looking for the same codes.

Only did it really to move the auction on to what he was really after.

 

[Will 1594]

You will remember , the sale near horncastle ,with all the scrap and old rusting machines ,
Wife bid on the powerharrows and got 4 for 320 , took 3 straight into scrap and got £120 more than paid for them ,brought one back we where going to cut up ,for bits , washed it off yesterday ,and had a wiggle at all rotors ,seemed all tight,put it on tractor and ran it up , works perfect ,
And today bought another packer for it for £20 in a sale ,
Another bargain : got two 3 m accord piggy back drills off face book , for £500 , so another cheap game plot drill

 

[glasshouse]

Just remembering my brother buying a VW caddy for spares 20 or so yrs ago . Paid £85 . Couple of months later found an envelope stuffed behind the seat with £800 in it . The M1 caddy became a collectors item and sold the same pickup for spares for £450 .

That must have been my old one!!!

 

[glasshouse]

Dad bought approx 1000 tins of goodness knows what for £1 from this place about 1964.
View attachment 917714

They were in the cellar and undamaged by the fire, but the water had removed most of the labels, Soups, Fruit, Baked Beans and such. Sold them off as mystery objects cheap, wouldn't be able to get away with it nowadays what with elf and safety and sell by dates, once they'd figured out the codes on the tins by opening one folks would rummage through the pile looking for the same codes.

Only did it really to move the auction on to what he was really after.

Whats for dinner tonight?
No idea, see whats in the tins when we open them

 

[Highland Mule]

You bought a wheelie bin ...

Have a look at the link. That’s what everyone else thought too.

 

[glasshouse]

Following on from @glasshouse ’s post:


What’s the best bargain you’ve achieved at an auction? I’ll start with two that I’ve had on here before:

View attachment 917641
£20 - I only bid to help the auctioneer out as it was clear there was no reserve and no interest.

One of these - https://www.watkinshire.co.uk/heating-boilers/mbr-3-55
View attachment 917645
£5 - and would pay many more pounds to replace if needed - gives me a hot tap in my lambing shed every year since. Highly recommended.

Whats that worth?