Mullocks Auction

[BeechmereLake]

In fairness auction houses do far more for you than ebay ever will - I know the hours that John Stephenson at Mullocks puts in to research items, set good estimates etc. in order to ensure that the seller has the best chance to realise the item's worth and the buyer knows what they are getting. Neil at Angling Auctions also puts in a vast amount of hours to do valuations, collect items, photograph them, list them etc. etc. : his expertise is part of what you are paying for. I think all buyers (if they have any sense at all!) factor the commission costs into the purchase price when they are bidding. One of the things lots of folk on this forum like about ebay is the chance to get a bargain through something being poorly listed or the seller simply having no idea what they are selling - but it should be remembered that this means a good deal for only one side of the equation, the other side has lost out horribly!
Just thought I'd put another perspective -
ATB
Jim

I have to say I read this a couple of times to make sure I knew what I was reading and while I agree with parts of it I also disagree with other parts of it, Firstly YES, some auctioneers do all the hard work which includes taking photographs of the lots they have to auction, collecting the items in the first place and doing valuations, and why not, this for me is the auctioneers job, after all if he didn't work at his job then surely he wouldn't have an auction.
On the next bit where you mention many of us folks from this forum use eB-y to get the chance of a bargain through someones bad mistake or poorly listed items that is not our fault, while I have had some good bargains over the years I have also bought some serious poorly listed broken reels from dealers who buy stuff from the auction houses then go straight and sell it on on eB-y a week later, anyone who works hard at collecting lets say fishing reels for instance will go on all the auction sites read the catalogues and see the reels they may wish to bid on. When these reels re-appear on eB-y a week or so later its not hard to see that a dealer/collector has bought a reel for X amount and tries to sell it for 5 times what he has paid for it, seen it too many times over the last few years and will continue to see it in the future.
So to the last part of the post, what I do take exception to is the bit where you say " lots of folk on this forum like about ebay is the chance to get a bargain through something being poorly listed or the seller simply having no idea what they are selling - but it should be remembered that this means a good deal for only one side of the equation, the other side has lost out horribly!" All I can say is if you have no idea about what your selling then why are you selling it? its simple and the answer to that is people need money, people will do what ever they need to do to get money, and, like our auctioneers who work for their money people who use eB-y should do the same, while 95% fail miserably to do decent photos of the item they are selling most will also fail to try and learn a little about what they are selling, this can even go down to dealers who do the same thing of buying at auction then using eB-y to get a worldwide audience and bigger selling market. So while I work hard at collecting what I collect and sharing most of it on this forum for the members I feel its unfair to be classed as someone on a forum who goes digging for bargains that ends up making a transaction one sided, I am far from being that person and later I will tell you why.

[Olly]

It was made in the USA as a Bass Lure so I very much doubt that Gord! It is only the English who worship carp - almost every other country (outside of Europe now) regards carp as either a pest, compost or food.

Carp equal vermin (or did so when that was made)! Bow and arrow - spear guns - crossbows - and all other sorts of "weapons" were and still are used in some places!

[BeechmereLake]

In addition to my first post I will now tell you a small story from 2008, sat in my local tackle shop sifting through the bay of evil I came across a Mitchell 300 reel brand new in its box never opened, the best bit was it still had its genuine Mitchell wrapping paper with matching serial number on the outside, it was on for $69.00 buy it now, shot home in about 35 seconds as I lived across the road and put on the computer, went in to find it and to my amazement it was still there, clicked on the Buy It Now then sent an email to the seller saying I didn't care how much the reel cost to ship just make sure it is done properly and covered for Insurance, send me an invoice and I will pay for it.
Return email came through and it read something like
Thanks for buying the reel, we will be pleased to ship it for $20 but first we wondered if you would like to buy the other reel for combined shipping?
Im thinking what other reel? so I asked the question.
Mail came back we have a Mitchell 301 which has never been opened and that one also has its brown paper on the outside of the box, we are prepared to sell it to you for the same money if that's OK with you.
Are you kidding me, 2 mint in box never opened Mitchell reels delivered for less than £98.00 from the USA.
I couldn't believe my luck and I certainly couldn't wait for them to arrive. When they did a week or so later I hadn't seen anything like it, probably then holding two reels never opened but more importantly having the genuine wrap on the outside, a total collectors dream really.
I emailed the seller back and told him the reels had arrived in perfect shape and he was happy for that, he told me he and his brother bought them in 1954 to stock the shelves in their new tackle shop, they had remained there since that day until the day came they had to close it down, the two reels were found on the very shelf and they decided to list them on eB-y to get back some money.
Knowing what I had in my hands and of a value only most could guess at I sent the two old brothers another email and told them I had deposited another $150.00 in their PayPal account, told them they had more than under estimated the price of the reels by a long way and take the money and buy themselves a good meal and have a drink for me, the old men were gobsmacked that someone would do that and that was the last I heard from them.
So you see being tarred with the same brush as some others is not what I'm all about, I even donated the photographs of the reels to Wallace Carney to use in his book, they can be seen on pages 107 &108 of his Mitchell 300 book for those who may have it.

[Olly]

Now that is honesty!

I turned down a Coxon Aerial - given to me free by a neighbour. She was clearing out the house after a divorce but had kept the 2 children. I told her to sell it for about £300 - this was 25 years ago! I never found out any more.

[Paul D]

Wow, you two are real gentlemen, what a couple of kind gestures

[Nobby]

I wonder what a dealer would have sold those items on for? Or what they might have achieved at an auction house???

[TemeLAD]

BL your action speaks volumes, heart warming

[BeechmereLake]

Thanks TemeLAD for that, there is more to life than just money, those reels were worth so much back then it didn't hurt to give them gents a bonus, I would of paid that for the reels history they gave me, not only that but its about treating another human being in the correct way

To answer your question Nobby a realistic price at that time was £1200 for the two reels mate and that's a private sell, had they been listed and photographed properly at a classy auction house with two or three bidders going at it, who knows what they may have realised, I guess Lang's would of been the place to sell them had using an auction house been necessary, I on the other hand kept them for a while before being forced to sell them when an Illness hit my other half, the reels now reside in Australia