Bidding War

Every so often I look around for a Gen 1 Glock 17.

An actual, vintage, 17.1 is very hard to come by and, usually, very expensive; so I end up looking at the Lipsey's Gen 1 Classics.

A couple weeks ago I found one with a penny start and not much bidding, so I put a max bid of $300 on it.

It went from $250 to $260 and it stayed there pretty much until the last half hour.

The last two bidders didn't get past my $300 until almost the last 15 minutes, then spent the next hour and a half running it up to just over $400 in $5 increments and resetting the clock to auction's end because of Gunbroker's 15 minute rule.

While $400 for one of these appears to be a decent deal, the bidding war reminds me of why I bid the way I do.  Put the max I'm willing to pay as my max bid and then let it ride, or not.

Because these two, "it's just $5 more," for another $100.

There's going to be around another $100 in fees, shipping and taxes too.

I learned about auction fever with my '91 Caprice.  I paid $8k for a solid $5k car because I couldn't let the other bidder win!  If I'd stuck to my plan, I would have paid $4,500 for a 9C1 and gotten a 350 instead of a 305.

But I learned something important that day.