Sunday, June 28, 2009

Megabucks bid on a Messerschmitt


While our economy still seems to be in the dumper, there are some rays of sunshine.

Last week I stumbled on the ebay (UK) auction of a 1961 Messerschmitt Tiger Tg-500. The car looked to be in great shape, but the thing that really caught my eye was that the bidding was at $125,000, and the reserve hadn't been met.

My first thoughts were that someone had posted the car to test the water, with a "crazy-high" starting bid, but when I went into the bidding history it showed that the bidding began at $200, and that 29 bids had been involved in getting the price up to $125,000.

I made a note to myself and went back to the auction when it was ending. In true ebay fashion, the bidding jumped up in the last seconds, closing at $159,100 -- but still not reaching the seller's reserve price.

I can't speak for what was in the mind of the seller (or the hopeful bidders), but I think I would have jumped at a price of almost $160,000.

What would you have done?

No comments: