Secrets of My Favorite Government Auction

by Dean Novosat

I love bargains. And there’s no better place to find bargains than an auction. And there are no better auctions than government surplus auctions. My favorite government surplus auction takes place the 3rd week of September every year in the County Park. I won’t tell you which county park as this is my best-kept secret! Even though the auction is advertised in the local papers (as required my law), I usually find the same 20-30 people mulling around, looking at all the lots. And many of them I know are not high-bidders! This annual auction is the county-wide surplus auction. You will find everything and anything here as the county has various and departments. They have the typical office equipment and furniture, cars, trucks, law equipment, etc. But some more unusual things that have been auctioned off have been things like a street sign maker (for making stop signs and the like), a row of metal lockers (from the old county pool), playground equipment, 5000 plastic cafeteria trays (that sold for $8!), a stainless steel chef’s cart, a chrome torpedo trash can, and a fully operational dump truck that went for several hundred dollars. Since I have been attending for many years, I know what to expect and I know how much to pay. For example, they typically have a dozen retro office chairs that sell very well on ebay. The opening bid on the chairs is usually $5.00 each. However, by not bidding, I can usually wait (and luckily no one else knows what a gold mine these chairs are…they just look like dirty old chairs!), and the auctioneer will lower the opening bid to $3.00, then $2.00, then $1.00, then fifty cents! Still, I am patient and wait as he throws in two or three more chairs for fifty cents! My last trip to the auction, I netted seven chairs for $4.00! I turned around and sold them for $25.00 each! This is just one of the examples of the deals that I have found at the County Auction. The secret to my success is three-fold: 1.I know what is “hot” in the market by browsing ebay, watching HGTV, and flipping through home magazines. 2.I know what the going retail prices are and keep these in mind when I am bidding. I usually arrive at the auction early with a notebook and check out all the lots that will be auctioned. I jot down the lots numbers and the highest price I am willing to pay for that lot. 3.When the bidding starts, I wait for someone else to start the bidding. I place myself so I can “read” how badly they want the item. I will wait to place my bid. I never get caught-up in the bidding. And I always bow out at my high price that I wrote in my notebook. This way I can avoid buyer’s remorse! Using these tactics, I have successfully won many items at the local auction and have made a huge profit reselling these items. If you use these techniques, you will also be successful at your local auction. I just hope you never find my gem of an auction, and never bid against me! * * * * * * * * More of my writings can be found on my blog at http://www.novosat.us/wp. About the Author Dean Novosat regularly attends local government auctions and participates online. Much of what he wins, he resells. He has several informative websites including http://www.buy-sell-gov-surplus.com and http://www.government-deals.com .

Grab More Time For Your eBay Auction

by Jason James

When selling on eBay, time is the one factor that is never on your side. Obviously the longer your item can stop on eBay, the higher visibility it receives & the more bids it is likely to get. eBay presently offers five different lengths of listings, either a 1,3,5,7 or 10 day listing. While a 10 day listing will give you the most exposure your item will not appear within the top of the relevant category immediately. Those items which are ending soon are the first to be shown within eBays listings. Generally new items appear at the bottom of the category listings and work there way towards the first page. On a 10 day listing it will take the best part of a week before your listing is shown on the first page of search results. Therefore anyone browsing the eBay categories will not see your item in the eBay search results. As with search engines, many users will only look in the top two pages of results. That is why the 1 day auction format offers a few advantages. Your item will be viewable immediately to any users browsing though the eBay categories. However, 1 day may not give many bidders the opportunity to find your item before the item ends. So, why not get the best of both sides. There is a way to both, give your item maximum visibility on eBay while also keeping it in the top search results for the category it is listed in. It's a very simple tactic that anyone can use. As long as your item has no bids & doesn't end within 12 hours, eBay allows you to revise your listing. This revision can be anything, from title to pictures used including Auction length. When you first submit your listing to eBay select a three day format. This will put it within the top two pages of results in this category. Allow your listing some time, to see if it's discovered and if not after two days just revise it to a 5 day auction. Because your auction will have already been running for two days, when you revise the listing it will show three days remaining, and still be within the top listings for the category. If it's still not discovered and has no bids, just repeat the procedure for seven and then for ten days. If your able to revise your listing four times, you'll easily gain more coverage than any other listing in the same category. And more coverage should mean more bids! About the author: Jason James website 'The Auction Resource Network' reveals his inside secrets and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 a month on eBay. Claim your FREE 'Top 10 eBay Selling Secrets' eBook: www.auctionresourcen etwork.com

[CaRP] Can't open cache file.

[CaRP] Unable to create/open RSS cache file.

[CaRP] Failed to open file: /home/auctionp/public_html/autocache/eb6024d8fe0a049b7ae8a1427cdbce91

[CaRP] Can't open remote newsfeed.