Enron Auction-Maybe the Mother of all Firesales

[DealyDo]

Enron Auction Sept 25th & Sept 26th -Click on Auctions on blue navigation bar at top. Scroll down to Enron Auction, check out On-line catalog. There's also a on-line viewer.

Some great items. Many new in box. Flat screen monitors, Plasma screens, herman Miller Aeron Chairs!!! etc. I have enough cash left to bid on the single Soundblaster card.

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Please read the rules. Auctions are not a Hot Deal.

Thank you,

AnandTech Moderator

 

[olouie]

dovebid ah well could be good for some

 

[stockjock]

Whats wrong with Dovebid??? There was 3 pages of 15" Flat panel monitors...wow!

 

[olouie]

dovebid has some less than honorable auction practices, at least that was the case last time i checked.

for example:

"Buyer's Premium: Auctioneer shall charge and collect from each successful bidder a 13% buyer?s premium for each sale at the auction, in addition to the purchase price as bid. Buyers who pay in the form of cash, cashier?s check, company check (with a letter of guarantee) or wire transfer, shall receive a discount from the buyer?s premium equal to 3% of the purchase price (unless such buyers bid over the Internet in a live Webcast auction, in which case the discount shall be equal to 1% of the purchase price). "

I also remeber that when they were having auctions in Europe the were charging VAT and tons of other fees to everyone. Dont know if they worked it out or what, but yeah seems like a hassle to bid / buy unless you are one of their big boys

 

[flythunderbird]

Minimum bid is $200, regardless of item ...

 

[Rhesus]

Direct Link

 

[swNYC]

I'm gonna buy this and put it in my office building's entrance

The Big Enron 'E'

 

[BlackNinja]

Originally posted by: swNYC
I'm gonna buy this and put it in my office building's entrance

The Big Enron 'E'

LOL

 

[BlackNinja]

one of those 50" plasma in my living room would be nice

 

[Britboy]

I bid $250 on a 50" plasma display! I think they retail for like $10K! What the heck...

 

[saintbyrd]

Anyone have a good idea on how to get it shipped to you?

I should probably go down to E' headquarters and offer to pick up and ship out anything for a small (TM) fee.

 

[SweetBaboo]

potential for getting screwed seems extremely high...I'd love another LCD though...or to get a plasma screen for a low price...

 

[CStrikeADDICT]

who the heck would bid 200 for a used vcr??

i wanna find the person setting this up and kick him in the balls...

 

[CPA]

Where did you see minimum bid for all items is $200? When I read the TOS and Rules it stated that the minimum would be set by the auctioneer at the time of theitem's auction.

 

[lsman]

why there is a here?

 

[arcas]

One wonders if Dovebid's practice of offering fee discounts to non-credit-card-using buyers (or, in effect, charging a penalty for those who use credit cards) is legal in the US.

The 13% buyer's premium should cause most people to have second thoughts. Given that these sorts of well-publicized auctions generally fetch prices equal or above what you'd find on ebay, after you figure in the 13% premium, you'd be better off taking your bidding elsewhere.

 

[MiamiJones]

I;ll take one...

 

[puppyfriend]

Originally posted by: CPA
Where did you see minimum bid for all items is $200? When I read the TOS and Rules it stated that the minimum would be set by the auctioneer at the time of theitem's auction.

Look at the proxy bid box. Minimum 200 bid for anything. Not such a great deal for a lot of things.

David

 

[huesmann]

Man, they have a f*ckload of those plasma monitors!

 

[JuanTabonia]

This is probably just another scam by Enron executives to make more money. I think the former employees of Enron should get to buy up that stuff before opening it up to the general public. After all, they got screwed hardcore.

 

[broadwayblue]

i'm worried about shipping costs more than the 13% surcharge. they know you're pretty much at their mercy so i doubt the rates are cheap. plus, what happens if you buy a new in the box plasma or 18" lcd and it doesn't work when you get it? do they send you the original receipt so you can take up the warranty issue with the manufacturer or are you simply out of luck? very risky stuff!

 

[ivwshane]

So realistically what are our chances of getting a good deal on the good stuff? I've never done this kind of auction before and have never heard about anyone elses experience.

 

[Devistater]

I'm tempted to bid on a plasma screen. Bet they will charge $1000 to ship it though.

 

[ShotgunSi]

In reality there are not many hot deals to be found in these auctions. I have been to a few live auctions run by these guys Cowan Alexander in the Bay Area.
Overall its a fun experience to watch everyone bid on all the lots. I went looking for a Herman Miller Aeron Chair but the prices were too high. The only way you get a true deal is to buy in huge quantities. For example the Herman Miller chairs were going for < $350, IF you bought 50+ chairs! Single chairs were going for $500+.
Also the auction fee is a standard charge for most of these large auction houses. I think Cowan was charging 10%. Also you must pay 20% of your auction within 1 hour of winning your auction, or something like that.

 

[TXHokie]

The last dotcom company I worked at went out of business over a year ago. When they went under, a company came in and auctioned off everything. Some of these guys had no idea what they were selling. There was a Compaq server I built that I knew cost over 20k (dual Xeon 800, 1gb, dual RAID card with all 12 slots filled with hot swap 18Gb drives). They sold it to the sysadmin who took my place for $400!!! That's what I call a hot deal!!!!