I just went to an auction.
They probably had $25,000 value of used screen printing eq, uv driers, paint booths, etc. eq (im guessing easily $100k++ for this stuff new)
The 5 biggest lots did not sell for the minimum bid of $100.

It was funny. The auction was only advertised for one week and there were
a total of 15 bidders including myself. I went to buy some warehouse eq.

The biggest problem was that this stuff was HUGe.
One print line, 3 pieces in a row was about 20' x 50'
Another was 15' x 30' (two pieces)

I wish I had the guts to buy this stuff and try and resell it.

the first piece was a ATMAX 1225G screen printer.
I looked it up and you can still buy them new.
http://www.atma-usa.com/prd_content.php?sno=79

Click on that thread and tell me you wouldn't pay $100 for that piece of equipment.

It reminds me of a local show we have here called
"the liquidator"
The guy has a warehouse and buys and resells stuff. Sometimes he just
hooks up a buyer with a seller and takes a 10% fee.
http://www.oln.ca/shows/the-liquidator/

Oh BTW the eq was all hooked up with air venting;ink drainage/cleaning and electrical, so you would have to take it apart to move it.

Are you sure these are absolute auctions? Most are not.

How do you know it works?

Are you actually familiar with this equipment, or are you just googling around like everyone else? I've seen many instances where old outdated models that no one buys anymore are still listed on Amazon at their original MSRP. It means nothing.

Ferrous scrap value is about $450 (UK prices). No money in it by the time you've paid to have it moved.

Unless you've got a buyer lined up, removal and storage is going to eat into what profits you make.

I do NOT know how the equipment works.

Given that, still everything worked. It was in place and all still hooked up. There were samples of previous (recent) jobs that were all over the place. It looks like this company came in and made a HUGE killing with custom banners/posters/etc for the 2010 winter Olympics. It also looked like they had a ton of government contracts for the provincial Lotto and local Transit authority.

I am guessing the key sales contact with the company got a better offer from another company or just off and started his own company and took all the business with him. (Just a guess)

I was told by the baliff that the company was way behind on its rent and owed money to others creditors as well. The landlord wanted the current company out right away so they could rent out the property again, so this was an UNRESERVED court ordered sale. (unreserved = no minimum)

If you are interested in recent auction disasters, look up the Detroit Packard Plant fiasco.

Absolutely.
I have a 6,000 sqf warehouse just several blocks away from the auction location, and have moved big equipment before. We moved 3 pieces of equipment 20 kilometers to get to this warehouse and it cost us 2 days and
$3,500.

I would guess to move the same equipment three blocks would have cost us
$3200. (save on the truck travel time only)