I went to the county government surplus computer auction last night. It was the first time I have been to an auction and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed it. There was the guy who just kept giving “the nod” every time he bid. There was the classic head shake to tell the auctioneer no more. The auctioneer himself was a classic old guy with suspenders, white beard and rapid fire speaking. It took a few items to go before I felt comfortable with what was going on before I started bidding. It was amusing because I could see some people getting caught up in the excitement of the auction and bidding on prices that they shouldn't. Like when a computer identical to the one I paid $15 went for $45 dollars just a few minutes later. Weren't they paying attention?

Some people got some good deals, but I don't really know if they got “smoking deals”. Some of the newer computers (P4, 80GB HD, 512MB RAM) went for $120-$165. There were some P4, 40GB HD, 512MB RAM with the smaller form factor that I really had my eye on but they all went for about $40 each. I ended up with two P4 computers with 256MB RAM and monitors, two 8mm backup tape drives and a UPS battery backup for $35. Not too bad I think. I probably could have gotten them for even less if I had been thinking right. When I bid on the UPS I opened the bidding at $1, a guy immediately went to $5 so I raised my card to bid again and the auctioneer upped the bid to $10 when he saw me. He did the right thing and asked me if I was okay going to $10 and after thinking for about a second I said sure. I should have said no and gone to $6 instead but I still got a deal I think so I'm not upset. The same thing probably could have happened with the $15 computer I got. In retrospect, I probably should have since some of the older PIII's went for just $1. With two or three of those I could have cobbled together a pretty decent computer. One guy there bid on everything and I think he must have walked away with 20-30 computers and other miscellaneous items.

At the beginning the auctioneer told us that everything had to be sold so for example, if the item in lot number 1 didn't sell it would be combined with the item in lot number 2 and so on until there was a winning bid. Some people got some decent deals that way. That is actually how I ended up with the tape drives.

The next time they have the auction I am definitely going. It would have been worth it just to see the people. Some of the things I learned were, get in on the bidding early. You never know just when something will go for a song. At the same time, exercise a little patience. If you know what you want wait for that item so you don't end up going over your budget before you get to the items that you actually wanted. Always have a budget and know what that budget is. This wasn't a problem for me, per se, but I could definitely tell when people weren't thinking about what they had to spend and they probably ended up with some computers that were overpriced and will be hard to resell.

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