These auction rigging fees are ridiculous...

[Six O Two]

A bit of venting post. I get the odd email from bidspotter about upcoming auctions and seeing as one came up in Calgary I thought I'd have a look. But man, these fees are bonkers. Every item has rigging fees on it, starting at $25. I'm not sure what kind of advanced rigging they're needing for these two calipers, for example...

There's a heavy duty drill press with rigging fees of $150. I wouldn't buy it if that was the hammer price, never mind adding that and the 19% hammer fees on top of whatever it gets bid up to...

The auction in question:

Corporate Assets Inc. | AIP Industries Inc. (Surplus Assets of) lots

Bid Live at Corporate Assets Inc.'s AIP Industries Inc. (Surplus Assets of) auction

www.bidspotter.com

 

[cuslog]

Yes, I was there to view this morning and I agree. $25.00 rigging fee for (each) small items you could carry out by hand. Just gotta reduce your bid by that amount.

 

[Martin w]

I went thru that last week at a Bidspotter auction in Hamilton. $25 US rigging fee on every item and 19% buyers premium. They were putting five or six lots together because they couldn’t get bids. Stuff was still a good buy in my opinion.
Martin

 

[Martin w]

Watch the larger items. They won’t be 25 dollar rigging fees. Some are hundreds even thousands.

 

[YotaBota]

Sounds more like "rigged" fees.

 

[Mcgyver]

that is obscene. Competition is supposed to limit price, wonder how much real price competition there is in that space, or whether .......

 

[Six O Two]

that is obscene. Competition is supposed to limit price, wonder how much real price competition there is in that space, or whether .......

Definitely seems like bidspotter is getting into monopoly territory in terms of these types of auctions...

 

[cuslog]

Next it'll be a "convenience fee", then an "access fee", "fuel surcharge", "waste and recycling fee", what else could they come up with ?

 

[DavidR8]

"Thank you for letting us gouge you" fee

 

[jorogi]

"Thank you for letting us gouge you" fee

Not to mention the "Now shut up, turn around and bend over fee".

 

[Tomc938]

That is the difference between a professional rigger and some guy that has tools in his shop.

Someone could get seriously hurt if you dropped those callipers. Precautions need to be taken.

Putting something in a paper/plastic bag is something best left to the professionals.

And this is why I stopped going to auctions.