Glenn B
.308 Win
...it is usually your own fault.
Sometimes you can get really good deals at firearms or firearms related auctions - live or online. Sometimes you get a break even deal and by that I mean you get an item at just about the same price you would pay retail for the exact same thing. Other times you get stung because you paid too much and sometimes the bidder gets stung so badly you would think a lesson would be learned when they bid way, way, way over retail. Yet it seems some never learn and just keep getting stung over and over again (as I have seen the same folks often overbid at the live auctions). It’s like they do their bidding as if in the middle of a frenzied hornets’ nest wherein they are stung repeatedly because they walked themselves into it. It’s not just that they don’t learn but apparently others do not learn from their mistakes either. Hessney posts all of it past auctions with ending bid prices and it is their as a lesson for anyone who wishes to do their homework before the next auction.
As some examples of what I mean by folks overbidding because the price is too close to retail, at retail, above retail or in orbit around Pluto and just not worthwhile to even travel locally to pick them up, look at these current auction items:
Item # 153: Three boxes of Winchester 9mm 115 gr., FMJ, 100 Round Value Packs. You are bidding x3 or in other words your bid is multiplied by 3x because these are being sold as bidx3 (sometimes lots with multiple items are sold as a single lot – one bid takes all – you need to pay attention and as you will soon see on another item, my bet is not everyone does). The high bid right now on item 153 is $25 per box. That is a $75 bid in total but you must add on the 13%. So, if that is the high bid, the total (not including sales tax and yes they charge sales tax at .075%) would amount to $84.75. With tax it is $91.11. I looked for the same ammo online using AmmoSeek.com. I discovered that TargetSportsUSA (coincidentally my favorite online ammo dealer) is offering this ammo at $21.49 per box of 100 rounds. That works out to $64.47, plus shipping which is an additional $12.79 for a total of $77.26. While the Supreme Court has decided that out of state vendors must collect sales tax for all 50 states, they are not doing it yet. Note, I did not add the .93 cents optional insurance because any item I buy is covered by my credit card as to loss. So what is the difference between the high bid and buying online? I’ll do the math for you. Had the current high bidder bought at this ammo at TargetSportsUSA instead of overbidding he or she potentially would have saved $12.92. That bid is, to me, ridiculous. That is unless you prefer, at cost of almost $13, to get the ammo right away at the auction and not have to wait for shipping if bought online; I’d prefer to wait and save that money for more ammo or booze but that’s me.
Item # 157: Ten boxes of TulAmmo 45ACP, 230 grains, steel cased, 50 rounds per box has a high bid of $11.00 per box or a total of $133.62 including buyer’s premium and tax. That same ammo can be had at SGAmmo for $130.90 shipped. A difference of $2.72. This is one of those break even type deals when compared to retail.
Lot # 164: Five boxes of Winchester Super-X 22WMR, 40 gr. JHP, 50 rounds per box with a current high bid of $14 per box or a total of $85.03 with buyer’s premium and tax included. This same ammo, in the same amount of boxes, is available at Ammo Supply Warehouse for a total of $61.19 shipped.
Now those might make it appear that the bidders have been bitten by the auction bug but those bids are gnat bites compared to how badly this bidder was stung. This is bidding right in the midst of the kind of frenzy that hornets get themselves into when their nest is disturbed and this bidder walked right into it and was stung badly:
Item # 151: Ten boxes of Wolf Polyformance 115 gr. FMJ 9mm ammo had a high bid of $20.00 per box or a sub-total of $226 with the buyer’s premium. The grand total, with tax, was $242.95! That is 500 rounds of Wolf poly coated steel cased 9mm rounds, some of the cheapest 9mm available, selling at way over double the price that you can get it at an online dealer. TargetSportsUSA is offering the same ammo, by the case of 1,000 rounds, for $150 shipped. You could add insurance for another $2.18 if you cared to do so for a total of $152.18. When all is figured - the high bidder has to pay what amounts to about .36 cents per round for the same ammo you can get at TargetSportsUSA for .15 cents per round. In other words you are getting double the amount of rounds from TargetSportsUSA for $90.77 less than the bidder has to pay for the ammo in the auction! Mind you, that is not the fault of the auction house – it is the buyer who walked right smack into and stayed in the hornets’ nest to get himself stung that badly. As far as this particular auction item went though, I imagine bids like that one put a smile on the auctioneer’s face.
Which would you prefer – to do your homework before bidding and then bidding within reason or being stung by that nasty auction bug and going into a berserk frenzy of bidding once the bidding starts. Me, I'd rather have double the ammo for much less the money. So, I use a little bit of bug spray before entering the auction and check on prices of the things on which I plan to bid. Then I try to bid sensibly.
Sometimes you can get really good deals at firearms or firearms related auctions - live or online. Sometimes you get a break even deal and by that I mean you get an item at just about the same price you would pay retail for the exact same thing. Other times you get stung because you paid too much and sometimes the bidder gets stung so badly you would think a lesson would be learned when they bid way, way, way over retail. Yet it seems some never learn and just keep getting stung over and over again (as I have seen the same folks often overbid at the live auctions). It’s like they do their bidding as if in the middle of a frenzied hornets’ nest wherein they are stung repeatedly because they walked themselves into it. It’s not just that they don’t learn but apparently others do not learn from their mistakes either. Hessney posts all of it past auctions with ending bid prices and it is their as a lesson for anyone who wishes to do their homework before the next auction.
As some examples of what I mean by folks overbidding because the price is too close to retail, at retail, above retail or in orbit around Pluto and just not worthwhile to even travel locally to pick them up, look at these current auction items:
Item # 153: Three boxes of Winchester 9mm 115 gr., FMJ, 100 Round Value Packs. You are bidding x3 or in other words your bid is multiplied by 3x because these are being sold as bidx3 (sometimes lots with multiple items are sold as a single lot – one bid takes all – you need to pay attention and as you will soon see on another item, my bet is not everyone does). The high bid right now on item 153 is $25 per box. That is a $75 bid in total but you must add on the 13%. So, if that is the high bid, the total (not including sales tax and yes they charge sales tax at .075%) would amount to $84.75. With tax it is $91.11. I looked for the same ammo online using AmmoSeek.com. I discovered that TargetSportsUSA (coincidentally my favorite online ammo dealer) is offering this ammo at $21.49 per box of 100 rounds. That works out to $64.47, plus shipping which is an additional $12.79 for a total of $77.26. While the Supreme Court has decided that out of state vendors must collect sales tax for all 50 states, they are not doing it yet. Note, I did not add the .93 cents optional insurance because any item I buy is covered by my credit card as to loss. So what is the difference between the high bid and buying online? I’ll do the math for you. Had the current high bidder bought at this ammo at TargetSportsUSA instead of overbidding he or she potentially would have saved $12.92. That bid is, to me, ridiculous. That is unless you prefer, at cost of almost $13, to get the ammo right away at the auction and not have to wait for shipping if bought online; I’d prefer to wait and save that money for more ammo or booze but that’s me.
Item # 157: Ten boxes of TulAmmo 45ACP, 230 grains, steel cased, 50 rounds per box has a high bid of $11.00 per box or a total of $133.62 including buyer’s premium and tax. That same ammo can be had at SGAmmo for $130.90 shipped. A difference of $2.72. This is one of those break even type deals when compared to retail.
Lot # 164: Five boxes of Winchester Super-X 22WMR, 40 gr. JHP, 50 rounds per box with a current high bid of $14 per box or a total of $85.03 with buyer’s premium and tax included. This same ammo, in the same amount of boxes, is available at Ammo Supply Warehouse for a total of $61.19 shipped.
Now those might make it appear that the bidders have been bitten by the auction bug but those bids are gnat bites compared to how badly this bidder was stung. This is bidding right in the midst of the kind of frenzy that hornets get themselves into when their nest is disturbed and this bidder walked right into it and was stung badly:
Item # 151: Ten boxes of Wolf Polyformance 115 gr. FMJ 9mm ammo had a high bid of $20.00 per box or a sub-total of $226 with the buyer’s premium. The grand total, with tax, was $242.95! That is 500 rounds of Wolf poly coated steel cased 9mm rounds, some of the cheapest 9mm available, selling at way over double the price that you can get it at an online dealer. TargetSportsUSA is offering the same ammo, by the case of 1,000 rounds, for $150 shipped. You could add insurance for another $2.18 if you cared to do so for a total of $152.18. When all is figured - the high bidder has to pay what amounts to about .36 cents per round for the same ammo you can get at TargetSportsUSA for .15 cents per round. In other words you are getting double the amount of rounds from TargetSportsUSA for $90.77 less than the bidder has to pay for the ammo in the auction! Mind you, that is not the fault of the auction house – it is the buyer who walked right smack into and stayed in the hornets’ nest to get himself stung that badly. As far as this particular auction item went though, I imagine bids like that one put a smile on the auctioneer’s face.
Which would you prefer – to do your homework before bidding and then bidding within reason or being stung by that nasty auction bug and going into a berserk frenzy of bidding once the bidding starts. Me, I'd rather have double the ammo for much less the money. So, I use a little bit of bug spray before entering the auction and check on prices of the things on which I plan to bid. Then I try to bid sensibly.
