Since there's a bit of auction discussion going on in a couple of other threads, I have a question.
What is the advantage, to a buyer, to use a 3rd party auction service (such as Proxibid, Liveauctioneers, etc)
These parties charge a fee to the auction house (3% - 4%?) who in turn pass the fee on to you. And this fee is on top of your buyer's premium.
So let's say Bubba's Auction Company has an item you want to bid on. Why not just bid directly with Bubba? What is YOUR advantage to using the 3rd party
Only advantage I see is if you are dealing with an auction place with a reputation where absentee bids quite often win at exactly their maximum amount, seldom less. If the house knows your max, they could (unethically and illegally) magically run you up to that number. I have heard numerous stories, along with my own very limited personal experience, that this is common at one of the very biggest outfits. Maybe they are totally up and up, but auctions seem to attract shady operators, although some have very good reputations.
Personally, I bid with the house's bidding service everywhere else but the really big place. I think there is a slight chance of being the winner in case of a tie bid if you are on their platform instead of one of the 3rd party places.
Proxibid is good for keeping informed on your "wanted" list from ALL auctions, even if you bid by some other method.
Some of the 3rd party places are uppity about certain type of guns and related items and refuse to sully their greedy reputation by showing, or allowing bids on socially frowned upon items. And, if they can do it for any gun item today, they can do it for all tomorrow, so I don't like to support that aspect of their business model.
YMMV. But, auctions seem to be where the action is, and far less interesting stuff makes it to ANY of the gun shows any more.
You use the 3rd party aggregator to identify the interesting items, and then go bid on the auction house's platform.
I get a dozen emails every day with the new items that match my saved searches on liveauctioneers. 99% of the items are dreck. The 1% that strike my fancy...I'd never have seen most of them without hitting three dozen auction sites regularly.
