Building material auction, any experience??

[Paul Steiner]

I my local paper I saw an ad for a building material auction put on by Peak auctions. I quickly found their site and found that they specialize in auctioning building material. Has anyone been to a peak auction and what do you think?
My wife and I are renovating and I am wondering if it is worth my time?

[Mike Monroe]

Never been to an auction put on by Peak, but years ago I went to cabinet maker's retirement auction and picked up a variety of lumber; cherry, mahogany, hard maple, all for $1 a bf. It was all quality kiln tried stuff, the cherry was real bargain as their was a few slabs of 8/4 in the pile.

[William Nimmo]

I have been to many auctions and can offer this. There can be some unbelievable deals on materials, but you need to buy it in lots that are already defined. If the price is right it does not matter. Who cares if you buy twice as much flooring as you need if you pay a quarter of the price of retail. Sell the stuff you dont need afterwards on craigslist.

I have 12 foot 8/4 cherry that I purchased for 5 dollars per board. Sure I had to buy 50 of them, but if you have the space its a no brainer.

Dont forget the buyers premium, usually 15 percent over what you bid and bring cash. No cc or checks.

Watch the auctioneer, they can be sneaky, some will start off at a price , have no bidders and when you bid they will up it to the next amount. Example, " ok, bidding at 10 dollars , 10 dollars , 10 dollars , ok 15 to you in the back, now at 20 dollars, etc.' meanwhile they never had the opening bid at 10. This is where you might offer 5 dollars and see if they take it. Some auctioneers never go lower that predetermined opening bid, but absolute auctions they must sell everything so they will accept what the first bidder will start at.

Also stuff is sold by the lot or by the pieces in the lot. example; So a closet is full of mixed items and it might be a lot. Bidding is one price for everything in the room. 10 dollars for the lot is 10 dollars. Or it might be 100 pieces in this lot. Meaning a bid of 10 dollars is per piece bringing you to 1000 dollars total for this lot.
Another thing they do is option. Example ;If there are 20 lots of entrance way doors and each lot is just one door. They will bid the first one and give the high bidder the option to take all 20 doors at the same price. So the 7th door in ,is the mahogany one that you want , but it goes to the guy who bid 25 dollars on the first one if he uses the option to take all.
Be careful on the numbers as I have seen stuff sell for more than retail, at the same auction where items sold at a penny on the dollar.
They are FUN and exciting. Good Luck

[John Toigo]

I've been to several Peak auctions. They run a clean sale - very straightforward. I've done very well at their sales. Of course 'caveat emptor'. Make SURE you know what you're bidding on.

[Stephen Cherry]

Peak auctions is OK, they have them near Baltimore several times each year. You want to bring a friend to watch what you bought while you pay. The deal you get depends on who shows up. Many materials are sold in big piles- the high bidder takes as many as he wants, then the auction runs again- then winner takes as many as wanted.

Whatever you do, avoid Charleston Auctions of Ft Wayne Indiana. They are a complete rip off, complete lack of integrity of the auction process. I have bought from lots of auction houses, and these guys are the absolute worst. I think that their guy stole my lumber, or sold it to someone else. I can't be sure, but I do know that I bought a huge lot of lumber from them, paid for it, and with PAID IN FULL receipt rented a 24 foot box truck and drove 5 hours to get my wood. When I got there, the punk told me 'somebody else picked up your wood for you". Every other auction house I've dealt with makes you show ID, sign, and checks your load. Not these guys.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?154528-Auction-Integrity&highlight=

[Paul Steiner]

Okay I went to the preview of this auction this past Friday. There were very many items. I saw some things I was interested in but nothing I had to have right now. Also really did not want to wait around for the auctioneer to get to the items I was interested in. The quality of the items varied. The flooring looked like it was low cabin grade or utility grade flooring. They put out three sample planks pulled from each pallet of flooring and none of the samples were clear or without milling marks. The cabinets were mass production units, on par with what you would be at a box store. They had pre cut granite countertops that were pretty thin. The spa shower units were interesting, I would eventually like to put one in my house, but the units at the auction did not have brand name marking. The toliets, sinks, faucets, windows, and other hardware was all brand name material. The lumberyard portion of the auction looked good, siding, beams, composite decking, and other lumber, there were deals to be had there.
Did anyone attend the auction? I would interested to know what the turn out was like and if there were deals to be had.