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1999 Clausing Student 2500 GCSurplus Victoria

historicalarms said:
you ain't seen nutti'n yet until you attend or put on a bunch of live farm auctions, guaranteed every box on the wagons will be stocked & salted to suit one buyer or another. If your one of the organizers it can be the most complicated shell game you ever imagined to keep items sorted as they should be.
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Spent 9+years living in Moose Arse (twelve feet away from the Jaw!), Saskatchewan. Farm Auctions were an Entertainment!

I have also been "that guy" that makes the Auctioneer wince, by hollering out a One Dollar bid, when he is taking all bloody day to drag his starting price down on a Lot. Even got a couple of those Lots! :)
A lot of side dealing went on, after a Lot was sold. Some guy would come up and ask whether you were actually interested in this or that, and a deal was often made, because as said, the Lots were often salted to one buyer or another.

Never done what one guy I knew did though, which was to try to move the bidding along on something I was not willing to haul home, at least, before to the dump. That guy put a dollar bid in on some Emu's, and got them. Figured they cost him over a grand a year to keep them, but said they were a good reminder, to keep yer mouth shut sometimes!
 
trevj said:
They won't even let you on Base right now
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There was a gcsurplus auction that had a lathe and mill up for auction a few weeks ago in Calgary. It had the same covid policy blurb that this auction has, but after emailing the person responsible for the auction he was fine with people coming to take a look at the machines. Maybe you've asked already and the answer is no, but for future gcsurplus auctions that might not necessarily be the case.
 
At a gun auction, as a help to the auctioneer I bid a starting bid of $20 and I won, dammit. A like new 16gauge Marlin bolt action shotgun, useless to me. It went into the next auction and I even made a little money on it. It's good to be on good terms with the auctioneer, I've have seen him close quickly after I bid. Nothing major , just an bench grinder as a thank you.
 
Downwindtracker2 said:
At a gun auction, as a help to the auctioneer I bid a starting bid of $20 and I won, dammit. A like new 16gauge Marlin bolt action shotgun, useless to me. It went into the next auction and I even made a little money on it. It's good to be on good terms with the auctioneer, I've have seen him close quickly after I bid. Nothing major , just an bench grinder as a thank you.
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Yeah, I have seen a few auctioneers that would test to see if the folks were awake in the audience, by taking the first guy's number when he hollered out "Who will give me ONE Dollar?" Usually on some low dollar goods. But it does get folks attention.
Xyphota said:
There was a gcsurplus auction that had a lathe and mill up for auction a few weeks ago in Calgary. It had the same covid policy blurb that this auction has, but after emailing the person responsible for the auction he was fine with people coming to take a look at the machines. Maybe you've asked already and the answer is no, but for future gcsurplus auctions that might not necessarily be the case.
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That is good to know.
 
When I bought my Emco V13, 1 of 4 being sold on govdeals in Ohio, there was a bidding frenzy on 3 but not on the 4th. It was listed as missing parts, pics showed it all apart. A fellow in Alabama won it, who I knew, and i won my v13. I paid 6x as much for mine as he did for his. I made him all his missing parts, then a few months later after he pestered them, they found all of his missing parts and shipped them to him. His is the sister machine to mine and is in the same new condition. When I picked mine up in Ohio, the 3 jaw chuck, and other items were not there. I showed the printed listing to the admin guy and was allowed to go to the robotics lab and search around, on my own, and find all my missing items.

When I bought my mill from govdeals, some parts were missing. It was partially dismantled in the listing, so I wasn't surprised. I called them back and had to go down and pick out the parts I needed. They had boxes of parts and were happy to unload some on me.

I bought my SM 1660 on govdeals from my local college 6 years ago. I recently emailed SM looking for a steady rest ($4k for a raw casting, usd). They asked for a serial number, then informed me that my lathe shipped with a steady rest in the early 90's. Waiting to find out if the guys at the college found it, but ive been assured that it would not have hit the scrap bin.

So even if you bid and win, go back and check with the seller. Most of the time the actual seller knows nothing, not even what they are actually selling. Ask to talk to the department head from where the machines came, or look it up on your own. Sometimes there's a big disconnect in communication between the admin person selling, and the guy who actually knows the machine.
 
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Dabbler said:
It's why I only buy at online auctions and they are far from great.
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Yeah, I won few lots... to find out I did not. They also auctioned some mills and lathes in such a way they went for less than scrap b/c people did not know that they are now live... nice British and US machines... God I missed some deals!
 
What? $4,605!

OMG. I agree - missing parts were found. I almost thought of this and figured this would be a nice CNC donor machine if it went for say under $1000.
 
Another thing, when in Ohio for my V13 they told me no inspection and no help loading due to Covid restrictions. So i brought all the gear to load it on my trailer myself. An old guy showed up, got all pissy with the admin guys, and jumped on the forklift and plunked it on my trailer. I was happy cuz i was dead tired from the 24hr drive (WTF was I thinking??), but mad because he nullified all my prep work in about 30 seconds. So even though they might say they won't , maybe they will.
 
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