<DocScrutinizer05>
yes, you quite likely had a chance to outbid them on particular items. alas the auctioneer requests for a deposit of 25% before starting bidding, and accepts only wire transfer
<DocScrutinizer05>
and they expect you had traveled to Oulu personally a few days ago already, to inspect the goods. They don't offer any sort of proper description of what you're actually bidding for
<DocScrutinizer05>
a few lousy snapshots mainly of serial number of device, plus a 20 words short specification / identification of the item
<DocScrutinizer05>
is all you got to decide how much it's worth
<whitequark>
this doesn't sound too problematic
<DocScrutinizer05>
so even when you could transfer the 25% deposit during next 36h, it's is still quite a gambling, and odds are you pay the money wire transfer fees in vain
<whitequark>
I mean travelling there solves the problem of broken devices, no?
<DocScrutinizer05>
huh? no, when you purchased an item, you paid it. No way to step down no matter if device is broken, incomplete, or completely different to what they described in their webpage
<whitequark>
well sure, so you inspect it before purchasing
<DocScrutinizer05>
not this time
<DocScrutinizer05>
the inspecion days were during last week, the auction ends in two days
<whitequark>
yeah, not right now, sure
<DocScrutinizer05>
well, next auction is in...
<DocScrutinizer05>
(SHANGHAI?
<DocScrutinizer05>
Bidding Opens: March 30. 2015 9am
<DocScrutinizer05>
Location:Shanghai, China
<DocScrutinizer05>
>>A $2000.00 deposit is required to participate in this event<<
<DocScrutinizer05>
Inspections: March 25th and 26th
<DocScrutinizer05>
registration is only for companies, private persons are not even planned for
<whitequark>
that's why you have some kind of SARL registered on you :p
<whitequark>
or GmbH or whatever
<DocScrutinizer05>
sure
<DocScrutinizer05>
which doesn't help either, to make a money transfer from Germany to ... ??? USA? Finland? in 24h
<whitequark>
actually I had transfers go through to RU (!) in 24-48h
<DocScrutinizer05>
and I'll prolly not fly to Shanghai to inspect what next auction offers
<whitequark>
it can't possibly be worse between 'first-world countries'
<DocScrutinizer05>
48h sure
<DocScrutinizer05>
even 24h might be possibly, just this particular auction starts in ~6h
<DocScrutinizer05>
and such money transfer costs an arm and a leg, most probably for nuttin
<DocScrutinizer05>
and in the end I want my money back, or maybe not since I had to add another few bucks on top to pay for the transfer fees, prolly it's cheaper to simply forget the money
<DocScrutinizer05>
we could consider participating if we had a - say - 10k bucks so all those little expenses and unconveniences wouldn't matter that much
<DocScrutinizer05>
ot 100k
<DocScrutinizer05>
or*
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<DocScrutinizer05>
let's make it real: let's assume there's a nice scope that costs a 15k new. They have an initial bid of 500 for it, used. Realistically on eBay you could get such scope for maybe 7k. How high may you bid to still make a bargain? considering you fly to there to pick up that scope, pay 22% VAT plus 16% Premium Buyer whatever that is, on top of your bid. Then you pay import tax depending on where to you want to take the scope. Would
<DocScrutinizer05>
you actually be interested in the whole deal still?
<DocScrutinizer05>
NB there will be dudes that bid against you who have literally bundles of EUR in their pockets, and they have their business math pretty clearly sorted and know how high they may go to make a margin. And they calculate with sending their own truck to pick up a 200 or 500 items, not fly to there to pick up one
<DocScrutinizer05>
could you beat them? would you want to?
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<whitequark>
doesn't make sense for one scope, no
<whitequark>
if you wanna pick up a bunch of hardware though, sure
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<DocScrutinizer05>
exactly
<DocScrutinizer05>
it only makes sense when you play their game, and accept that their margins define what you never will reach
<DocScrutinizer05>
IOW when they accept they make a margin of say 20% by selling the items on eBay or wherever, then that's by far not the margin/bargain you could achieve when you want to outperform them. Based on your expensive logistics against their streamlined one
<DocScrutinizer05>
when they make a 50% then you could expect to get the item maybe a 30% cheaper than what it will cost you on eBay
<DocScrutinizer05>
or you will get beaten on bidding by them
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<DocScrutinizer05>
those 30% are on "TCO" incl all your expenses for shipping and whatnot
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<DocScrutinizer05>
now you can ask yourself "do I want this scope for 7k - 30%? Or do I want to gamble and hope they are not interested in this particular item for whatever reason?"
<DocScrutinizer05>
if you can't answer "yes" at least once, forget about it
<DocScrutinizer05>
MB that gambling holds quite some risks and expense, when you really want to do it
<DocScrutinizer05>
NB even
<DocScrutinizer05>
at very least you need to do the money transfer, twice (in case you don't win that gambling game), plus you don't know when (and even if) you get back that deposit
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<DocScrutinizer05>
then there's yet another aspect, a quite nasty one: That auction for example sells scope probes separately. When a big guy buys the whole lot, odds are they get the scope with matching probes and can complete the set. When you buy the scope, you either need to get expensive probes as spare parts, or you hope for finding and shooting the (or some) matching probes in same auction
<DocScrutinizer05>
instead of probes, think of any other arbitrary accessory needed for an item
<DocScrutinizer05>
or think of the "switch rack" + "controller for switch rack" they offer. There's quite a number of such sets consisting of more than one part, which make sense only when you get a complete set