Got the Mrs for nothing,cost me a lot since.... 
edit.we are still together.
edit.we are still together.
Auction bargains - things you didn’t expect to get as cheap as you did.
- Thread starter Highland Mule
- Start date
Whp remembers those village hall auctions that used to happen on a weeknight? An artic would turn up and a sample of what was to be auctioned was out on display. The art was knowing how many items of that particular lot they were going to let go that night. It was a bit like an instant ebay in its day, some tat but probably a start to flooding the country with Chinese tools and equipment.
I did buy a 160amp stick welder close on 30 years ago along with a 100' extension reel from one they did on a Saturday at Stratford Cattle Market. They still get used to this day. The cable reel has suffered with half the plastic broken on the reel but the cable is something like a 30amp rating and is as good now as when I bought it for about a pound. The welder still works well, I have had to shorten the leads a few times as they've melted with 4mm rods in
I did buy a 160amp stick welder close on 30 years ago along with a 100' extension reel from one they did on a Saturday at Stratford Cattle Market. They still get used to this day. The cable reel has suffered with half the plastic broken on the reel but the cable is something like a 30amp rating and is as good now as when I bought it for about a pound. The welder still works well, I have had to shorten the leads a few times as they've melted with 4mm rods in
Bought an old hay trailer for £5 at a sale, only wanted the wheels. Used it for about 4 years until it finally collapsed and then took it to the local scrappy with a couple of other trailers. Got £240 for all three so got £80 back on it. Never did use the wheels.
- Location
- Wormingford, Essex
Not an auction bargain but earlier this year a friend sent me a link to someone selling a 'dairy tank' on Facebook for £250. The picture was of it buried in a dark shed under a load of rubbish, but I could see that it was actually a cheese vat, better still it was only a couple of miles up the road so I arranged to go for a look the next day and took cash to pay. When I got there, it was full of cheese moulds, cheese press parts and other useful items, worth the asking price alone. The guy selling said I could take it all but £250 was the price otherwise he would take it for scrap. I made a cheaky bid of 200, saying it would cost him 50 to take to the scrappy, which he accepted. I paid quickly and loaded up! He also had a yoghurt potting machine there that was incomplete, but I knew the company that made it and they had said if I didn't want it, they would buy it. Asking price was £150. I offered £50 to clear it up as that was all I had in my pocket, and got it too. The manufacturer came and bought it off me, they gave me 200 plus a cut of whatever it makes when they do it up and sell it. There was also one of their pot heat sealers in the cheese vat too (I've kept that and we are about to start using it), they said they are worth £1500, the cheese vat itself I've been told is worth £4000.
As it happens, it turns out it originally belonged to one of our long standing milk customer's late brother, she was so pleased when we realised the connection and I'd told her how we'd got it, she burst into tears in our yard.
As it happens, it turns out it originally belonged to one of our long standing milk customer's late brother, she was so pleased when we realised the connection and I'd told her how we'd got it, she burst into tears in our yard.
Willie adie
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
I used to have a saying when I did the farm sales
" everything finds a victim"
We once bought a fraser silage cart for £1000 for my father in law,
When it came to pay we noticed the invoice was for £100,
I said f**k all and first thing Monday morning I went in to credit controller and paid everything we bought by card and asked him to sign off everything paid in full.
It was the Friday when I was called into office and told that there was a mistake made with invoice
Now this was obviously impossible to believe as this same office never made mistakes I was led to believe,
Anyway when told that the cart should have been 1000 not 100 I said well thats your problem as your credit controller, who took great delight in phoning buyers and chasing up payments within days of purchase, has written paid in full and signed my invoice.
To which the office got the clerk and auctioneers sale rolls and found the auctoneers said 100 the clerks said 1000 and in case of dispute they always go by clerks, though I bet that is subject to change when it suits them
I'm the end I did pay, though had I not been employed by them I wouldnt have and told them to ram it.
So I was close to a £100 bargain
" everything finds a victim"
We once bought a fraser silage cart for £1000 for my father in law,
When it came to pay we noticed the invoice was for £100,
I said f**k all and first thing Monday morning I went in to credit controller and paid everything we bought by card and asked him to sign off everything paid in full.
It was the Friday when I was called into office and told that there was a mistake made with invoice
Now this was obviously impossible to believe as this same office never made mistakes I was led to believe,
Anyway when told that the cart should have been 1000 not 100 I said well thats your problem as your credit controller, who took great delight in phoning buyers and chasing up payments within days of purchase, has written paid in full and signed my invoice.
To which the office got the clerk and auctioneers sale rolls and found the auctoneers said 100 the clerks said 1000 and in case of dispute they always go by clerks, though I bet that is subject to change when it suits them
I'm the end I did pay, though had I not been employed by them I wouldnt have and told them to ram it.
So I was close to a £100 bargain
Speedstar
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders
At a sale of a company that when to wall one day bought 2 wagon loads of stuff for next to nothing but the best was when we went for it there was a powermatic heater not in the sale and asked the auctioneers about they said you can have it for £50 so bought it and it came with a fuel tank and 1000 lts of kero
All so 10 new Michelin cargo bib Tyres and rims off eBay for £250
All so 10 new Michelin cargo bib Tyres and rims off eBay for £250
- Location
- North West Wales
Had similar years ago at the old Montford Bridge sale. Wanted an Epco trolley jack that was close to end of sale and as we had gone there we might aswell stay. Last 30 or 40 lots there was only auctioneer, clark, myself, my friend and two other stragglers there. They were just trying to knock everything off to us. God knows how many things came for a few pounds but I made sure of the jack and only knew what else we got when we went in to the tent to pay!! Somehow managed a workbench with a record vice on it for £15 and about ten towing chains for about a tenner and god knows what else!!
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
It always pays to view!!
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
He should have paid straight away and driven it home there and then
icanshootwell
Member
- Location
- Ross-on-wye
I remember buying a rabe power Harrow from a sale just outside Glos, it was 3.5 metre so not everyone s cup of tea, must of only been 2 years old and I paid 450. Used it for 5 years and traded it up for a Kuhn, the dealer gave me 850 for it,, a new one was 5k at the time.
- Location
- South Molton
Went to a dispersal sale, was a 12 ft length of 3inch vacuum tanker hose with bauer male and female either end.
I paid £2 and then had to buy a new 4inch to 3 inch reducer....that wasn't a bargin!
I paid £2 and then had to buy a new 4inch to 3 inch reducer....that wasn't a bargin!
About 30 years ago my dad bought a traction engine team living wagon, the type contractor teams towed from job to job. In totally original condition but needing a fair bit of work. Paid £200 at a farm sale somewhere. He said no one else really wanted it.
It has sat at the back of a shed ever since, getting in the way, he always planned to make it into a holiday let on the farm, but we never got round to it.
I have always resented it, until Cheffins valued it at £20-25,000 last year, quite like it now! Apparently they are the rare accessory that every discerning traction engine restorer wants...
It has sat at the back of a shed ever since, getting in the way, he always planned to make it into a holiday let on the farm, but we never got round to it.
I have always resented it, until Cheffins valued it at £20-25,000 last year, quite like it now! Apparently they are the rare accessory that every discerning traction engine restorer wants...
Willie adie
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
I once picked up a gripple tool cheap I was pointing out the next item to sell and we came to various box lots, of miscellaneous and shite, there was a gripple tool in amongst this stuff and as the auctioneer was approach I pushed it perfectly under some old feed bags, so it was hidden, I couldn't have done it better, and of course those bags were knocked out for a couple of quid.
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Back in the eighties and early nineties when scrap was £10/t you got real bargains
5 f rev dowdeswellfor £100
Big heavy army trailers for £50 which hauled seed for years, as having a turntable drawbar u could tow them with duals on
They went to scrap at £500 each
I got an extendable low loader, out to 60 odd feet for free, i had a plan for it but never got round to it
It went over the scales at 12 ton@ £200
5 f rev dowdeswellfor £100
Big heavy army trailers for £50 which hauled seed for years, as having a turntable drawbar u could tow them with duals on
They went to scrap at £500 each
I got an extendable low loader, out to 60 odd feet for free, i had a plan for it but never got round to it
It went over the scales at 12 ton@ £200
a bj for £10 and no mess either
- Location
- 200 miles N,NW of New York
There was once a farm sale of an old brother and sister, the brother had died suddenly so the sister sold up, at the sale was several aluminum old milk churns, and an old boy was sitting on one not a bad place to sit right height and flat top with rounded sides, anyway he sat there all day and would not move off the churn even when they were sold, the auctioneer even passed comment about him sitting on one, he bought them and were knocked down to him, he told the son to go pay for them and bring the pickup so they can load them up, all alone he would not move off that churnonce the son came back with the pickup, he got off the churn and put it on the back seat, the rest in the back of pickup,
Turns out that the dead farmer had hens and sold eggs, and kept the money away from the sister by keeping it in the old milk churn, after getting home and counting all the money a total of £13.5k was in the churn, he had sat on the churn for so long he was bursting for a pee and nearly peed himself, but said it was worth it
Turns out that the dead farmer had hens and sold eggs, and kept the money away from the sister by keeping it in the old milk churn, after getting home and counting all the money a total of £13.5k was in the churn, he had sat on the churn for so long he was bursting for a pee and nearly peed himself, but said it was worth it
- Location
- 200 miles N,NW of New York
Was the buyers premium on top
Willie adie
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
A bout 10 yrs ago I bought a Woodburning stove from a guy who was going to enter it for a collective sale. It went from the back of his motor to mine and £100 changed hands, still going to this day