Before I buy anything at auction, I always know how much the item is worth. The worse thing is to bid blindly, because most times you’ll pay too much.
I saw that happen at a special auction of home improvement products over the weekend. The auction house was selling tons of hardwood floors (oak to cherry), kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, kitchen and bath faucets, mini ductless air conditioning systems, water heaters, whirlpool tubs, dishwashers, dryers, acrylic shower stalls and more.
I had never been to an auction devoted solely to home improvement products. I brought along Vernoca Michael, owner of the Legendary Blue Horizon fight venue who is now executive consultant for the Paul Robeson House & Museum in Philadelphia, where I am a volunteer. The house, the place where singer/actor/activist Paul Robeson lived for the last 10 years of his life, is owned by the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. The alliance bought the house and the adjoining twin house in the 1990s. The Robeson house was renovated, but the other house, which serves as administrative office space, needs work.
As the alliance awaits an angel to fund renovation of the second house, I figured that we might find some much-needed flooring for its kitchen at a cheap price. The kitchen is used by many groups that hold meetings and events at the Robeson house. I was also looking for some tile or other flooring for my enclosed porch.
As we previewed the items, we came upon 19 cases of TrafficMASTER Dark Hickory laminate flooring. I was elated; this was the type of material that a contractor had suggested I consider for my house because of its sturdiness. We had hit the jackpot by finding the laminate, I thought, especially if it was sold by the case.
Each case held nearly 24 square feet of flooring, and since the kitchen floor measured 260 square feet, we needed 11 cases. I was hoping that we could get it at $10 a case. That was way less than the $21 a case at Home Depot.
When the auction began, the auctioneer explained that the flooring would be sold by the square footage. I was deflated: That $10 a case could jump to twice as much – and way beyond our means. The case at Home Depot was 89 cents a square foot, so we knew it would be foolish to bid higher than that.
As the auction progressed, the price of the laminate flooring was still on my mind. Even if it sold by the square footage, I was sure that it would still be considerably less than the more than $4 a square foot that someone paid for Brazilian cherry hardwood flooring. It had a rich tone and it was beautiful.
When the TrafficMASTER finally came up for bids, the auctioneer started at 50 cents a square foot. From there the bid quickly shot up and we didn’t even bother to jump in. It kept going past 75 cents, then 90 cents and then $1. It stopped at $1.10 (which did not include the auction-house premium of 15 percent).
“You want all of them,” the auctioneer asked the winning bidder, who seemed a little unsure about whether to take all 19 cases. He finally nodded and said yes.
The buyer obviously had not done his homework. He could have gotten the same product for 20 cents cheaper at Home Depot.
It’s always a good idea to know what stuff is worth before bidding at auction. Cell phones, Google and eBay have made it very easy to compare prices. Auctions are still a good place to buy at low prices, but you have to educate yourself.
Another thing, prices tend to be higher at special auctions like this one. Had these products been offered at one of the auction house’s regular biweekly auctions, that TrafficMASTER probably would have sold for $10 a case, or less. And we’d be taking it home.
