Customer Reviews

Adventures at the Auction: The Ultimate Guide to Buying and Selling at Auction -- In Person and Online

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While I watch little television I do admit I like "At The Auction" on HGTV (House and Garden T V) with the author of this book Leslie Hindman.. The book is just shy 250 pages and has Chapters about:

Starting Out: Types of auctions the top 10 auction bargains common myths and misperceptions Five auction blunders and how to avoid them and the 10 criteria for determining value of an item. i.e. "I can't afford auctions", "You have to be a real expert to buy" " I can always change my mind if I find something wrong with the item".

Getting Ready: Why people buy at an auction The presale exhibition "As Is" and what this really means and Scoping out the Exhibition

Buying at the Auction: Setting the scene and Bidding. Am I the only one who couldn't afford to bid on even lint at Jackie O's auction?

Selling at the Auction: Where does the stuff come from and Choosing an auction house.

Collecting: which deals with an introduction to collecting everything from Books Ceramics, Dolls, Fine Arts, Furniture, Glass (American cut, Carnival, Crackle, Depression, Mercury, Milk Ruby etc) And no milk glass is not the same as milk in a glass.

Jewelry (no my cubic ziconia thingie wasn't listed) , Metalwork, Quilts (ours get used so they will never be collectors items), Oriental rugs, Silver, Timepieces (nope my trusty TIMEX wasn't listed) etc.

Then the Glossary of terms and even Internet auction information and abbreviations and then a listing of U S auction houses. WOW did you know that Hyden Idaho has an auction house? No auction houses in Nowhere Nevada.

The title of this book claims that 4 subjects will be covered: Buying at live auction, selling at live auction, buying online and selling online. Personally, I was hoping that the author, a real expert in selling things at auction, would share some tricks of the trade and tell me some things about selling that I don't already know.

Unfortuneately, the only subject she really covers adequately is buying at live auction (and she does an excellent job at it). Her comments about selling at live auction boil down to how to pick an auction house. You can find much more than she tells you about buying online in the Ebay help pages. And she says even less on selling online.

It's too bad! She could probably give us Ebay sellers some really good advice about how to present our articles and how to put together and split up lots to maximize appeal. She knows how to do these things and she writes very well. I get the feeling that she wanted to do a book that encouraged people to attend auctions (she founded a big auction house in the MidWest so she would be interested in that) but her publisher wanted to do the Ultimate Guide.

She won the argument -- and we all lost out!

Good for someone who wants to attend live auctions; practically useless otherwise!

Anyone who has watched Leslie Hindman on the "Appraisal Fair" or "At The Auction" television shows knows that she's got to be fun, informative and professional. This book blends a good overall coverage of the auction world, many amusing anecdotes and a considerable amount of very helpful tips to the novice auction-goer. She covers both live auctions and on-line with a lot of really solid advice, but she keeps her sense of humor. If you like watching Leslie's television shows, you've got to get this book. It makes you want to meet her and ask all those pesky antique and auction questions you have--until you find out she answered most of them in the book!

This book is good for what it is--but the Internet auction information seemed to be tacked on as an afterthought at the end of each of the four major sections. I think that the Internet auction information should have been organized in a section of its own.

For example, the section on "Choosing an Auction House" discusses catalogs, commissions, marketing, etc. The Internet information included in this same section included selling basics, attracting a clientele, feedback, opening bids, and fraud disputes. These topics just do not fit into a chapter with live auction information.

Another thing--the Internet topics are not even listed in the Table of Contents, giving me more reason to suspect that they were afterthought!

One reviewer listed all the chapters and their contents, so I will not duplicate that.

I did learn a lot about appraisals, estimates, "as is", and the top ten auction bargains including silver flatware, chandeliers, old books, and monogrammed objects.

I bought this because I did not know everything about auctions. However as was not going to buy a pig in a poke. The first thing going for it was the fact that I watched Leslie weekly on HGTV and this has helped me many times. Secondly I opened to the sections that I already feel comfortable with such as books and glass. She knew what I knew.
Now that I have read this book ad applied some of its principles I can tell you that it is a keeper. If you already know the subject it is nice to have it restated in a different way. If you do not know the subject you can live on every word she says. There are very few color plats in the book; yet the descriptions are so clear that color plates are not necessary.
Even online auctions are covered and I found the fact that there are very many online auction locations not just the big three of interest. For those people that have never been to an auction this book will give them the courage and the tools needed.