A workmate recently bid on a car at a reputable car auction outfit. he won the car at $5500. He was then approached by staff telling me that there was a reserve of $6750 on it and by being the highest bidder he was entitled to buy the car for this amount! He said there is no way he was paying that so she went off to ask the seller how much he wanted for the car. The seller wanted $6250 minimum. He wasn't going to pay that either, even if he wanted $5501 there would have been no deal. The gavel was dropped at $500. After the auction he was pointed to what was clearly indicated as the estimate in the catalogue $6200 to $7200.
The auctioneer shouldn't have gone below the seller's reserve. Now he knows the auction house will obviously have pages of legal jargon to cover themselves but an auction is an auction and a figure was agreed between him and the auctioneer. What a waste of time. Yeah right.
