Are gentleman's agreements a thing of the past, or did I expect too much?

[Vintagedeputy]

Originally Posted by molenick

I am confused about the auction. It was a live auction and the lots were set to go in a specific order with specific items in them, but the auctioneer moved up one of the lots?

There was no specific order and its more of a BIN sale than an auction. No lots were numbered or anything like that. It was literally random items on tables and the seller walks around naming prices. It generally goes something like this - "Coke sign $10, box of baseball cards $20, old brown bottle, $5"...If you saw something in a preview photo, it could literally be an hour before the seller showed that item and named a price. When you see an item you want at the price named, you reply and the seller stops, pulls the item and labels it sold to you. It's a bit of organized chaos.

Originally Posted by molenick

And the button you wanted was part of the lot, and you wanted the auctioneer to remove the button from the lot and run it separately (which he did not do)?

The button was not necessarily part of a lot. It was in a "tray" which is how some of these sales run. Some sellers use soda can cardboard trays, shoe box lids, etc. Sometimes they sell everything in a tray as one lot, and sometimes they say "each item in this tray is $5 each, tell me which ones you want" and they sell items individually. You just never know how they're going to sell it. Sometimes they'll start selling the tray as a whole and someone will mention that they want one item and then they separate. Again, organized chaos.