will reserves be secret again?

just confirming...

games can be removed after auction on saturday or will turned off if still there after auction?

cool.
thanks for the clarification

i think you just claimed Tron LE is worth more than $9,400.00 USD

no argument here

my worthless 2 cents

Foreward: i would recommend going to the auction, at least for a while. It's an exciting experience.

Setting context:
i was a very active buyer of pins last year.
i sat through the entire auction at TFP last year.
i'm a cheap bastard (usually), except for a few people on pinside who i've convinced otherwise

I didn't buy a single pin. But, lots of other people absolutely did, and I'm sure they are very happy with their purchases. I could have easily gotten any of those pins for much less money somewhere else & in a short time frame (except for the very-very rare pins that are tough to find, ie: Varkon, BBB, & that proto-Woz).

Target Customer Market for Auction:
...and that's why I'm also not the target market for the "FUN!" company to sell to. I believe their customer-base is largely someone willing, able & excited to pay anything to get 1 (or more) particular pins in their home. "FUN!" isn't running a "get a deal auction". He is running a "maximize profits at all cost auction (including not selling via reserves)". ...and that's totally ok. it's his business, not mine, or anyone else's.

Pricing:
From memory (and it's been a year...) about 95% of the pin prices last year were over-priced (with OR without all the taxes & fees), especially for the quality of each pin. I seem to recall maybe 2 pins being a fair price & I was a little surprised they sold for such, considering what all the others were going for (if, they actually sold. maybe they didn't because of the "reserve" setting).

Target Market (again):
It was entertaining to go to the auction last year and experience it. I would recommend it, if you haven't done it before. But honestly... tons of us in the room where giving each other crazy looks and laughing with each other at what the prices were going to. But... we weren't the ones bidding or buying either (wrong customer segment). Grossly generalizing, we're the dorks that scan the market frequently hunting for the pot of gold (on one end of the extreme spectrum), and that particular auction at TFP is for other customer types (probably less dorky) on the other extreme end of that spectrum.

Online Influence:
There were lots of bids coming in from online. I know that's just how it works these days, but I'm always a bit weary of those types of bids, wondering if they are all legit or not. That's just me being stupid (i know), but still... i just don't know if the original seller it tossing in their own bids out of site (online) to try to get the price going up.

More Audience Observations:
Also, after the first 10 to 20 pins were auctioned, a lot (i mean a lot) of people began to leave. I don't think most of them had intended to buy and were instead just curious about the auction in general, but several told me they were leaving because of the prices. It wasn't the type of auction the were expecting (no price "deals").

Now, I think they are saying that this year, they are going to toss in some project-pins (for me that usually means clunkers with 2 legs in the salvage yard & 2 legs in a hero's workshop), to try and appeal to a different customer segment. But, that's interesting if i'm interpreting it correctly (and i usually don't, so if you haven't been laughing already or completely blown me off, here's your chance). Here's why... If your pins are on a spectrum (maybe something like):
0: scraps/parts only
25: heavily abused, damaged (wood, paint, plastics, electronics, everything)
50: non-working, visible damage, but repairable (and parts on market)
75: non-working, no visible damage, electronics damage or simple aging breaks (and parts on market)
90: working, has visible damage (wood, paint, plastics), but playable
95: working, only playfield wear & dirty
100: working, has that HUO clean but used look to it.

Then you plot your customer segmentation (spectrum) over the pin quality spectrum along with the pricing that "FUN!" is using, I believe there's still going to be giant gaps between what's for sale, how it's getting priced, and the customers attending the auction.

A "project pin" that's more expensive at the auction than it would be elsewhere is still as unappealing to my customer segment probably as much as average/standard working pins that are overpriced.
I think the reason is... this auction is designed to absolutely maximize profits at all costs by getting bids from different customer segments who are willing, able & excited to pay any price to get them + use of reserves to not even sell the pins. Hopefully putting "project pins" (if that's happening) on the auction doesn't have a negative impact to the folks selling project pins in the parking lot at TFP.

Also, just want to make a shout out to Jared for putting so much time, "POSITIVE" energy, and passion into this great little industry we have the opportunity to enjoy together.

ps. go to the auction, it's fun.

hope that helps for any n00bs

price caps

@Jared,

will the project pins be on the floor too, or somewhere, where we can identify them as being in the auction and see what they look like close up, since last year, we only saw photo's of each pin being auctioned on the slideshow projector?
I recall many of the working pins being on the floor last year, but don't remember if they were tagged with something to know they were going into the auction.

thanks.

Thank you, sir

i was waiting for that

fyi... Jared does a really great job helping the auction run very smoothly and professionally.

Exactly.
For example, take my wife...

...please

I bet several of those will do really well

If they don't let you look in them, it's more an episode of Storage Wars

hmmm... the football arcade looks fun.
wonder what the MM will go for at an auction?