Auction fever

On Friday Michael and I went to the buyers' preview of some 'home maker's' items at auction near Coffs Harbour and came away with a list of a few things we might want to buy if we could. So this morning I nervously went to the auction - my first - and came away the proud owner of three brand spanking new toilets!

There were almost 200 bidding cards given out and the place was heaving. It seems to be a bit of an outing because people brought along their children, parents, friends, neighbours... lots of people milling around and surprisingly few of them actually bidding.

Once things got under way it went very fast. The auctioneer spoke so fast it was hard to understand and to keep on track with the lot numbers in the catalogue. And I didn't realise how it worked with the top two bidders: where there were multiple identical items the lead bidder won the right to decide how many of them they wanted and if any were left the second bidder got first option on the rest.

The shower cabinet, vanity unit and tiles we were after went for silly prices. The vanity unit went for more than it would have cost brand new! People definitely get carried away with the bidding process, and I can understand why; I didn't even bid on these items because the starting prices were high and the prices went up very quickly.

The toilets I was interested in were in the second lot sold; the first ones were 'sold up' up as being quite expensive and accordingly went for a higher price, but the lot of six toilets I was interested in wasn't highlighted in that way and I got three in the end for $377 each (a significant saving on the $549 each for the ones quoted by Warren's bathroom people). They're nothing special: white porcelain toilets with your standard behind-the-seat cistern. Nothing fancy, they're not wall-hung or with concealed cisterns or anything. But they have a 4* WELS rating and dual flush system which means they're very water-efficient (for a toilet), which is great. These three will hopefully grace our family bathroom, the separate 'powder room' as it's known over here, and the toilet in the studio. We'll get a matching toilet/bidet set for our en-suite but at least the other three will match.

So there you go. I understand why people get carried away: there's a 'buzz' that's to do with anticipation and anxiety and the thrill of 'beating' someone else for the prize. Winning the bid is easy: all you do is keep sticking up your bid card for the auctioneer to see, so that you bid more than the opposition. And it's so tempting when you see the one thing you'd have liked disappearing out of your reach! Being sensible requires planning and a bit of discipline. I could ill-afford the time to research the recommended retail prices of the auction items, but I looked stuff up on the web and came up with some figures. Then I calculated how much I would be prepared to pay, added the 11% buyers' premium charged by this auction house and evaluated the result and, if it seemed reasonable, that was my top price. All I have to do now is pay the balance (after leaving my deposit) and work out how we're going to transport them up to the shed on our block.