Thanks for your explanation. I assume the laws in Canada are similar.

When we, as a dealer, hold an auction or place stuff in a consignment auction, we do it because we want the equipment sold. It costs serious money to prepare equipment for the auction and the auctioneer fee needs paying. We don't want the stuff back.

Some of our auction pieces have gone too cheap, but then some went for more than our estimate. We rate the success of the auction against the pre-auction estimate we make of the overall sale price we obtain. Individual prices don't matter other than to provide one more data point on what the true value of that machine was.

Our big goal is to make sure that people with intent to buy equipment don't think our auctions are a waste of their time. If they bid, they have a chance that they will end up with the equipment they wanted. We may lose on a few pieces, but in the long run we are better off if everyone believes our auctions are fair.