I had my first expereince at a "real life" auction the other day and it was quite revealing. Upon first observation, I couldn't help but notice the particpants did not appear to be highly intelligent (although at first I was wondering if this was an ellaborate scheme to confuse the other bidders, in a kind of 'reverse psychology' behavioural finance emotive). Sadly, this did not seem to be the case when it became evident that one of the particpants did not realize the condition of sale policy was not quite as liberal as Walmart. I began to actually wonder how some of these people would find their way home...unless they all travelled together in one of the short busses.
It is difficult to compete in a quest to find a deal at an auction, when clearly the participants' access to capital, surpasses the value of the merchandise for sale as well as the collective brainpower of the particpants. Some people will buy anything at almost any price, in order to be the "winning" bidder. I could not believe that one individual walked away as the proud owner of a used "Tickle Me Elmo" doll.
The best deals of the night appeared to be the bulk purchase of a number of slightly flawed or used women's garments for less than 10 bucks total. Another shrewd bargain hunter walked away the proud owner of more 2007 desktop calendars than a stationary store, for a total of 5 dollars. The irony was that a senior member of the bionic buddha production squad felt he was getting a deal when he had bought 3 calendars for 3 dollars. At the end of the night, we had fun, which alone is worth more than the cost of the calendars. It was not the first time we have been outsmarted by a group of dullards...next time perhaps we should take the example from the photo above, just to level the playing field.
