I'm an old hand at eBay, which doesn't take gun listings, but new at using the various gun auction sites (you know what they are).
As sort of a self-imposed orientation drill I've been tracking some auctions for doubles that are representative of guns I might like to own. I note that the vast majority of the time they open and close with no bids. Then the seller simply relists and away we go again on another seven-day ride.
As nearly as I can figure, this is because the opening bid price is set at what would be a high-end price for the gun. That price is not necessarily always an unfair price, mind you -- just a top price. The point is that these ain't really auctions. They are merely guns-for-sale listings masquerading as auctions. There's nothing illegal, unethical, immoral or fattening about this, of course. But it is mystifying for someone who is conditioned to believe that the word "auction" means something very different.
I have sold hundreds of times on eBay (not guns, of course) by setting an opening bid of 25 cents and can count on one hand the number of times my item did not close at a good price. And I've sold lots of stuff at prices way higher than I expected to. Economics 101 tells us that an object is worth what a willing buyer will pay in an arms-length transaction, and that an auction is the best of all ways to get the true value of an object so long as you have a critical mass of potential buyers (and in many cases two constitute enough). What's better at getting a critical mass of potential buyers than an auction that the whole world has access to online? The inference I draw here is that the sellers on these sites simply don't truly trust the system to work.
I guess I'm intellectualizing a bit here so if I were to put this into the form of a question it might be, what do the knowledgeable folks here think of buying at online auction? Do you buy from the auction sites? Am I wasting my time looking for a decent buy at these sites? Does anyone have any advice for buying from sellers on these auction sites?
If you can't partake in an auction that's really an auction, then you might as well buy from an established and reputable dealer online, since the shipping and FFL hassle is the same either way. Or am I missing something here?
