From: Neil E. Amrhein (neil@netfox.net)
Date: Mon Jan 20 2003 - 17:36:46 PST
> David...
> I have heard and seen first hand that the descriptions and pictures rarely
> match the lot up for bid how does this happen? how often?
> You say in one sentence to bid by the descriptions and web site photo but
> then in the next two you encourage preview and state that the vehicles
could
> be missing parts and need repairs what efforts are made to determine these
> conditions?
I don't think David was saying "you should buy from the website pics and
descriptions". What he said was basically "If you want to bid from the pics
and description, bid accordingly" That usually means not knowing if a
vehicle runs, is missing parts, etc....
Everyone should remember one thing:
At the current time, buying from GL is really NO DIFFERENT than buying
from DRMS used to be. The vehicles are sitting in the same place they would
be for a DRMS sale, and they were turned in to the DRMO at that location.
I personally don't remember any DRMO catalogs with *better* information than
the GL descriptions usually contain. And pictures? Yeah, right! In your
dreams. If the DRMS site had a picture for what you were interested in, it
was like winning the lottery.
If you never bought or bid at a DRMS sale, and you are thinking GL is some
kind of dealer, you are mistaken. GL is an auctioneer of *all* U.S. surplus
property. They are not your local "automobile" auction house. Vehicles are a
only a portion of what they sell.
We should probably all consider each GL sale to be the equivalent of a
regular "estate" auction. There may be appliances, furniture, etc... with no
guarantee of operation or condition. You preview the items that you are
interested in and decide what to bid.
Also, even though they are "online", they should not be considered the "eBay
of surplus". Ebay has sellers who usually know about their property and can
represent it with many details, to have a satisfied customer. GL is selling
stuff that they usually know nothing about, hence no guarantee. Maybe you'll
get lucky and the guy working at the specific GL location will be into
trucks/cars/etc... and will be able to say "That truck needs a starter,
transfer and radiator. Oh yeah, batteries too." But, for the most part,
these guys are just doing their job, selling stuff that the government does
not want, and they are not "into" military trucks. I'm sure every one of us
would love to have their job, so we could crawl all over the trucks and
check out what mods the military might have done, etc.... But, they probably
don't have the same interest, so they probably could not give you better
information (even if they wanted to) without some serious coaching as to
what they are looking for.
Could GL improve this situation and increase their revenues? Absolutely. In
fact, I think they already have started. If they know a truck runs, they say
so. That is good sales technique for them. However, as a bidder, I know that
"runs" does not mean any of the following: *shifts*, *stops*, *cools
properly*, *has belts on it*, *has antifreeze in it*, etc....
This thread is evidence that they are helping to increase prices, no doubt
due to the inclusion of pictures and good descriptions when possible, and
the easy of bidding online. Maybe they are doing too good of a job for some
folks tastes. I have been shocked lately at what some of these vehicles are
going for (especially when you add in the buyers premium and tax), and I
think it is getting somewhat ridiculous. However, when enough people get
burned with bum trucks that they overpaid for, prices will even out. Besides
there are still plenty of bargains to be had on GL. They may not be near
your home, but I'll bet most (if not all) dealers are usually willing to
travel hundreds of miles from their locations to inspect a few trucks that
they want to bid on.
Personally, I can't afford to buy another truck given the current prices. I
am content to let it settle back down, or to save my pennies and buy from
another collector or dealer. Will I pay more? Sure. But, they deserve to
make some money for taking the risk. If I do buy from GL it will be only for
a reasonable price.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Apr 23 2003 - 13:25:02 PDT