Wow, quick auction. Must not have been much there today.....

Want does "BB" mean?

Buy Back = Went home with original owner

Buy Back

Buy back.....didnt sell

Man, wwle...

The days of lots of pins moving at auctions seems to be past. I think that is why Fun! is not doing TPF auction this year.

So if you are the buyer - are there any additional fees on top of the hammer prices? Or is the hammer price it (assuming you are paying cash)

Usually the buyer has to pay the 20% premium and depending on the state sales tax too...

20%....Ouch. Now I understand why there are the parking lot deals. Thanks for the clarification.

I would have bought wwe but I knew I was bidding against the seller so I stepped out, if they want to load and take back home so be it lol

Good move.

According to their site, it's 10% with a max of $100. So, not too bad if the pin is expensive. That said, haven't really found much in terms of deals at the auction... They may pop up now and again, I guess.

http://auctiongamesales.com/faqs/

Those are the seller fees.

Damn, they charge 20% to the buyer, too? That's nuts.

Was there something wrong with the Popeye? That seems awfully low. Someone quoted me a Popeye lately at $2000. Maybe I should use this info as a bargaining chip.

What's a buy back? It sounds like the seller didn't get the price they wanted, so they bid on their own item? Why not just use a reserve (minimum price)?

That's what I thought. $5k for a TZ + 20% ($1k) + NC Sales tax ($338) for a total of $6,338 is crazy when most private TZs go for 5-6.5k depending on condition. I am also assuming that when you are at the auction, you can play if they are working - but are not allowed to pop the PF or open up the backbox to determine condition or look for hacks.

Would love to attend someday, but at those prices - I think I'll keep to private sales.

most auctions i have attended they charge a flat fee of $20 (to seller) if it is a buy back

I think if you can find the owner they will sometimes open the game, I have seen a few ppl doing that. You have to bring a long (LONG) extension cord with you just in case you can't find a plug for the game you can make your own. If those numbers above are what you pay I'm glad I stopped bidding when I did on wwele sheesh, something told me ta stop

You are correct - it's when the seller buys back his own pin. Buying it back via bidding allows him to bid a potential buyer up to his reserve...whereas a reserve would simply not be met when the last bidder outbid the other legitimate bidders. Buy backs suck, but so does losing a lot of money as a seller if there is a small turnout for the auction. I can see both sides of it.

I'd pay those numbers for a super clean TZ But not if I couldn't go thru it with a fine tooth comb. As for WWE, sorry, I'm not a wrestling fan, so I'd doubt that I'd pick one up even for bargain basement prices.

Better would be to have a starting bid on the pin and not allow the buyers to (shill) bid.

You probably need to find the owner to open it up for you. I've only been to one (Jan) and conditions were terrible so I didn't stick around. When I saw the prices the machines went for, I agree 100% that private sales are the watch to go... Deals to be had here are few and far between or in the parking lot. Although, if you are into EMs and project pins, maybe there are some possibilities...

Heh, I just saw your collection. If you ever decide to part with your TZ, give me a pm But I agree with you, the auctions don't appear to be the way to go.

Anyone know about poor Popeye?

Thanks Lori,

The last Popeye that I saw locally on CL was $800. I know of a local OP that has one that he may part with, but no idea on price.

I didnt look to closely but the cabinet was badly faded.

Will do ... I might be soon if the usage on it doesn't pick up! Maybe it's the honeymoon with GoT but it hasn't been getting many plays lately...

I still remember the first time I realized that buy backs were occurring (maybe 15 years ago). There were these 4 people bidding this game (TAF) up over and over again, one of them was Royce Green, his grandson, his wife(?) and another Green Coin employee. I thought they didn't realize that they were all bidding on the same pinball and I was laughing about it. After I was outbid, Royce asked me what I really wanted to pay for it.................................. DUH. Then I remember Rick P. (RIP) telling me years later how he banned Royce from the auctions for a number of years because of back door sales. Today, its just accepted if you want to have an auction with 300-750 lots.

I think it's 10%, 13% if you pay with a credit card. But then you have to pay tax on top of that. However if you bring something to sell you don't have to pay the 10% so you could potentially save a bundle. Unless you are a licensed reseller (ie you have a tax id) you still have to pay the tax though.

Figures the one auction I miss has a Baby Pac. Damn it.

I've been on both sides of this equation, albeit many more times as the bidder than the seller. As I have stated many times before I am in favor of the buy back system. They clearly advertise that is what can happen if you listen to them going over the rules at the beginning, or bother readying the thing you are signing to get a bidder number. It's also on the web site. So nothing underhanded going on.

They could do reserve prices or starting bids, but I like to believe that what an owner "needs" could be very fluid depending on how the auction is going. To me it's more sporting to just let them bid on it as well. I have never let one of them trick me into paying a singled dollar more than I wanted for an item. But because it is a sport I can say many of them have re-loaded games they have brought when they were bidding against me and they got too greedy.

I think the main reason they allow buy backs is because it's just easier than trying to figure out who's zoomin who. You'd never completely stop it, operators are shady and would just bid on their friends or whatever. Also if you think about it, they don't really charge a buyback fee, they just charge the seller the same fee they charge him if he buys anything.

So basically they're just keeping it super simple instead of trying to police every single item to make sure the owner or one of his cohorts isn't bidding on it.

Do you know where? Honestly can't find much on their site at all. I've only been to one auction and didn't even register as there wasn't anything I was interested in.

That makes sense and agree that no starting bid makes it more exciting (at least perceived). I realize this might not work either but maybe even an "auction estimate" sign then, as a way to indicate what the seller might be thinking it should get. As I said I've only been to one auction but the machines were in such poor condition and/or unplayable, just not worth the time to wait around.

Yep, I stand corrected on that. I couldn't find their terms on the web site either. I'm pretty sure it used to be on there before the web site was redesigned. I know they announce as such as the beginning and I remember they used to post their terms at the auctions.

Auction Game Sales gets an "F" for not disclosing buyer fees or sales tax fees on there website. Frankly, there is no excuse for this type of shady practice. Not sure if the same rates for buyers are in effect. This was from 2011. Buyer fees at 2011 auctions were 13%. No mention of even higher fees if credit cards were used for payment. Somewhat of a common practice to add on an additional 2 - 3%. Current sales tax rate is 6.75%. Total 19.75%. (no credit card fees included)
TZ $5000 hammer $5987.50 total
FT $2450 hammer $2933.88 total
JY $3300 hammer $3951.75 total

CONDITION is everything.

Excellent/CQ condition = happy buyer
Players condition needing full shop (or more) = buyer feeling butthurt

When I went years ago before Rick passed away they were VERY clear about fees when you registered to get your buyer number. VERY CLEAR....

I haven't been to an AGS auction since Rick passed away, but they were always crystal clear about their fees when you registered. I don't know if that's changed, but it's something I never 'not noticed' having attended at least 10 of those auctions over the years.

I attended and bought my first pin at the November 2015 auction. At the time I was totally clueless to pinball machines and the auction itself. I bought a nice Grand Lizard, with 60% LED lights installed (no idea at the time) for a winning bid of $1700. Buyers pay a 20% fee PLUS NC tax. My total cost for GL was a little over $2100. Now with 5 months of research under my belt I can see clearly I way overpaid for that machine, but hey we all have to start somewhere.

Laser Cue must have been nice? very fun game.