My Sunday afternoon was occupied by cheers and jeers as I participated in the auction sale conducted by HMR Auctions in Dau Exit, Mabalacat, Pampanga. The last time I went there was during the construction of my resort, July of last year.
The auction site/warehouse is not hard to find. It is on the right side of the highway after you exited DAU from the NLEX. The area is not air-conditioned but is well ventilated.
What I hate is the comfort room: you cannot stay there for 10 seconds, full of cobwebs, it stinks, and no lights. It should have been appropriately called Uncomfortable Room.
A day before the Sunday auction, I searched the 2000 square meter auction warehouse for possible items that I need for the office building that I am now constructing. Yes, it would be an advantage if you take a look on the items for auction a day or two before the Sunday auction.
I found a lot: brand new office tables and chairs with side cabinets; fluorescent light fixtures; post lamps; Stanley cylindrical knobs, dead bolts, and door closers; coffee makers, toasters and microwave ovens; book shelves, cabinets, drawers, and a lot more.
The auction started at 11 A.M. As I was not interested on the first 200 items, I decided to go there at 2 PM. The auction would usually last until 6 PM as there are more than 400 lots (containing several units/items per lot) to be auctioned. There were about 40 bidders present.
The items ranged from home appliances (flat screens, refrigerators, freezers, coolers, washing machines, ipod docks, electric fans, toasters, ovens, etc.); home furniture (beds, dining tables, kitchen utensils and wares, chairs, lamps, cabinets, garden sets); office furniture, electronics, toys.
Most are second hand items, others are brand new or slightly used. There will surely be an item appropriate to one’s needs. Be careful, though in buying electronic products.
Some are 110 volts, not appropriate to our 220 lines. Some are not working or have incomplete parts. But some are really good buys, like the electric fans, microwave ovens, toasters and coffee makers that I bought before.
How does the auction go? Very easy.First, you have to register and pay P5,000, refundable or consumable. Then you will be given your bid card with particular number. All you need to do is to raise this card when you want to bid.
Each lot consisting of one or more items has a corresponding number. The auctioneer would announce the Lot No. for auction and the lowest bid price for each lot or each unit per lot.
Each lot may contain 1 or more units. For example, Lot 1 consists of 3 units of electric fans. If the offer to bid at P1,000.00 is for the whole lot, that means said price is for the 3 electric fans. But if the offer was P1,000 per unit, the bid price is only for 1 electric fan.
Hence, if there are 20 units in a lot and the bid was per unit, you can choose to buy 1 or more or all the items on said lot. Remember that the bid price has an additional 15% premium for the auctioneer.
If there are no bidders for the stated price, the auctioneer has the option to lower the price. Most of the times, he lowers the price to almost half and people start to bid.
But if you are indeed interested in the item and feel that the staring price is reasonable, you have to raise your card and bid. As per my experience, the anticipation that the auctioneer would lower the starting price proved negative.
If there are no bidders, he was quick to announce failure of bid and would go to the next item, thus losing my chance to bid for that lot.
There are really items with so many bidders, that you ended up buying the item at a higher price, but still reasonable.
Sometimes, you would shout in joy when no other bidder emerged and you got the item at such a very low bid price. Then, you would lose some to other bidders who are more than willing to bid higher.
And of course, bid only for the items that you need or else, you would end up buying things that would only occupy too much space in your garage.
When I, my wife and brother arrived at the auction site, we already missed the photocopy machine. A brand new machine would cost P80,000.00 but it was sold to the highest bidder at only P6,000.00. It is a working machine. After registration, I was given a bid card.
I ended up the highest bidder for 4 brand new units of office tables with side cabinets at only P2,000 per unit; 8 units of fluorescent light fixtures for only P3,000; 2 junior billiard swivel tables slightly used for only P1,000 per unit;
2 units of family tents for P1,200 per unit; big microwave oven for P800; two toasters for P600.00; 14-cup coffee-maker at only P800.00;
Stanley door knobs (18 units), door closers (5 units) and door deadbolts (12 units) for an average of P150 per unit; and to my wife’s delight – various items of casserole, kettle, coffee grinder and brewer, electric griller, glasses, and mats,all at only P1,000. My brother got his heavy duty electric drill for P1,200.
You don’t have to pay the items at the end of the bid. You just need to get your bid statement and can pay and get the items after 3 days, otherwise, you would be charged with storage fees.
We also made friends with some of the bidders, most of whom have their surplus shops, some are personal buyers like us. We celebrated our victory at Jollibee along the NLEX on our way home.
It was a cheerful Sunday afternoon.
