Well I was reading the paper this morning and seen that they were having a government auction at 1:00 pm. My boss was looking for some shelving and I told him that the auction had some listed in the paper. He told me to go the auction and call him when they were being sold. I got there at 1:00 and went and got my bidder number. I started looking around and didn't really see much. They had a lot of school desk, lockers, and other normal stuff you would find in a school. I saw a table in the distance that had microscopes. There must have been at least 40 of them. I took a quarter out of my pocket to see how good it worked. It took me a few minutes to figure it out but it worked very nice. Well about 30 minutes later we got to the bidding. I bid the microscope up to $80 and two other guys got in a little bidding war after I gave up. The guy won the bid at $180 and he ended up taking about 25 of them. The auctioneer put it up for bid again and again I bid it up to $80 and the other guy bid $100 and won and took all but 2 of them. The auctioneer again put it up for bid and started at $80, I didn’t do anything because I was hoping he was going to go lower and this lady waved here bidder number. She only took 1 leaving 1 more. The two guys that won the others were walking away and the auctioneer said I have 1 left who wants it for $80, I said I will take if for $40 and I won the last one. It just shows waiting sometimes pays off. The only reason I didn’t bid higher than $80 is because I didn’t think I was going to buy anything and the terms of the auction were cash only. I only had $80 in my wallet. I will make sure I have more cash next time I go to auction!! When I got back to work at 3:30 I told my boss he has to send me to auction more often. Well here is a picture of it, it a Leica StereoZoom 4. It has 10X eyepieces so you can go from 7X to 30X. I have been looking at coins all night in 7X and absolutely love it!!
They are closing 2 of the schools in the area to save money. I have never been to government auction before.
Yeah I got $560 worth of shelving? If we would have bought it new it would have been over $5000. Sorry no pictures of that!!
Oooooooooooo, a stereo microscope. I've been thinking about one for several years but the prices are too much for how often I'd use it. But for what you paid, wow! I could do that. And a nice magnification range. Rare that you'd want to go above 30x. All in all, a great buy. Congrats.
Very nice binocular microscope! I find the 7x to 30x is well suited for coin viewing. You can also aim your digital camera through the eyepiece & take great close-up photos. Please post some photos. I will now tell everyone my longtime secret. Go to http://www.go-dove.com and you can often find all types of really expensive scientific & industrial equipment for pennies on the dollar. I purchased my binocular microscope & later purchased two nice fiber optic illuminators for my coin hobby. (We also purchased a couple optical disc & semiconductor factories & shipped them to our Toronto warehouse but that is a different story). Just be aware that the most expensive thing about buying items at these auctions is the packing & shipping. If you cannot personally go there & pick it up, then you will need to hire someone to pack it and then send your courier or truck to pick it up. This can cost many times the auction purchase price of the item(s). For small (items like a microscope), I have found that you can sometimes contact the local UPS Store & make arrangements for them to pick up the item for a minimal charge. I'll straighten-up my coin play area & take a photo of my illuminator & microscope tonight. Very best regards, collect89
Wow what a great deal, Leica makes top notch stuff. That deal sure beats my $26 Swift from EBay. Contrats....
I saved the B&L microscope from the dumpster when a company was closing in Rochester NY. I purchased the boom stand on Ebay. The illuminator (and a second one) was bought through a DoveBid auction for $35 plus something like $50 shipping. I recommend searching the DoveBid auction site for deals.
