Featured You Win An Item Due To An Accidental Bid: Worst Case Scenario?

Heavens! The box lot with smelly old tupperware and dented dinged up aluminum pans, a pile of mismatched stainless and ruined pyrex. Along with a couple boxes of dollar store Christmas stuff and well worn dish towels. And several ratty baskets. For some ridiculous amount because someone thought the pyrex was good.

 

How about finding an old rats nest in the bottom plus petrified rat as an additional goodie? I actually have seen this at a few auctions, especially when the resident was a hoarder.

 

Aaaaack!

 

I've told this story before, but here it is again:
I once almost bought a car at an auction. Almost.
I was at an auction barn out in the sticks with my father. I didn't have a car at the time and was looking for one. The auction was indoors, the usual mishmash of stuff, nothing of any particular interest, when the auctioneer put up for sale a car that was out in the yard. He wanted $1000 for some land yacht of a thing I hadn't even laid eyes on. My father suggested I bid. I told him I hadn't seen it and asked him if he really thought bidding was a good idea. He said sure, so I bid. He hadn't seen it either. I had the complete attention of everyone. After a very long pause, the auctioneer very quietly asked if anyone would bid $1100. There was a deafening silence, but after another, infinitely long pause someone else bid. I think it was one of the auctioneer's assistants. That auctioneer spent a good fifteen minutes trying to get me to go to $1200, but enough was enough and I did not buy the car. I saw the car when we left the auction. I looked for it specifically. It might have got $50 from a junker.

 

I accidentally won two "miniature" WW1 medals... what happened was, I was searching ebay for Silver WW1 medals, "I always get outbid on these", as I was searching there were a set of two WW1 medals with 24 seconds left on auction at 18 pounds I clicked on it and sniped the auction before I had time to read the description, I didn't really want the "miniature" medals I thought they were the original full sized medals but oh well I went ahead and paid for them as it was my own fault but a lesson learned. I'll probably sell them on once I've found the ones I want, but for now I've got them pinned up above the bedroom door.

 

I once had an online auction open on my computer as I was waiting for a painting to come up to auction. It was a very high end auction, with museum quality cut glass being sold as well. My cat jumped on the computer keyboard just as a $50,000 punch bowl set was being auctioned. I nearly had a heart attack.

Thankfully, he had not hit the bid button. ; -)

I was imagining what that conversation with the auction house would have been like. “It was my cat! I swear!”