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Questionable Estate Auction practice

Yesterday I attended an auction with high end equipment.
I won a pair of speakers but after all the items in the setup, (turntable, amp, pre-amp, cassette deck, cd player), were sold as individual pieces, the auctioneer restarted the bidding as a set. This starts the bidding at the total price bid for all the items. As a result someone bid on 'the set' so all the individual bidders were SOL. I was not willing to go that high to get the speakers, (I didn't want the other items). So I lost the speakers even though I bid the highest. I was upset and I'm not sure if this practice was even legal. Anyone ever here of this? BTW-Speakers where Apogee Duetta II's.
fse
yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
5,655 posts
 
I agree with Hifiharv,they would have been nothing but a headache and an expensive one to boot! Consider that you had a lucky day.
fse OP
1 posts
 
Thanks guys. I am aware of the degradation of Apogees, I have Calipers right now. This pair of Duettas was in excellent shape so the price was right to me.
I don't have the form they had me sign and I'm kind of over it now so I don't think I will go further. Especially since I scored about 600 albums in excellent shape today for a fair price.

I think someday I will get a pair of rebuilt Duetta sigs for a fair price and then all will be good in my world.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Sleazy practice at best; deliberately deceptive in all likelihood. It seems to me like they knew they had a bidder for the whole system and used the individual bidders as "shills" to run up the price. Plenty of very questionable practices in auction world; on line and in person. However, the reality is that there is no practical relief you could be granted, because you didn't suffer any loss in an economic sense. Even if what they did is "illegal" letting it go like you did is probably best for your mental health.
raks
468 posts
 
I don't do auctions but this is the craziest thing I ever heard. What would the auctioneer do in the event the hammer came down and the winning bidder refused to pay unless the auctioneer lowered the bid price?
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"However, the reality is that there is no practical relief you could be granted, because you didn't suffer any loss in an economic sense."

I know why you would think that but its not really relevant. Assuming there are no special laws for a case like this, or a wavier of rights by the OP, when those speakers were won by Fse, the auction company had a legal obligation to sell the speakers to him. When he won the auction, a contract was created. Beyond that, nothing else matters. Just because there was no loss doesn't mean they could just walk away from the deal. Raks, in his post is correct. If the OP decided not to pay, the auction could come after him for the exact same reason; there was a contract.
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