THE AUCTION DILEMMA or WHAT THE HELL TO SELL?

A Guest Article by Capstone Sands

It's just before dawn on Wednesday morning...you know Gleaux or Zoey Rose will be up and around checking the panels are full for the 4.20 Auction...yours isn't yet and you're staring at the inventory drawing a blank.

Even after years it's something that can stump us all and we all want to avoid the dreaded "FUTURE SALE".  That being said, auctions and public tastes are capricious beasties.  Even with what you think are the best of your plants, opening at an insane price; the panel you think is awesome may still go completely unnoticed or sell with little interest.  Often it depends on the time of the month, the season and other unpredictable factors like two random breeders from opposite sides of SL both needing the very strain you happen to be selling on the week they both attend.

As unpredicatble as Auctions can be there are some general rules of thumb I follow to get best results.  With only one future sale under my belt in four years we thought it was high time to share the Top 10 with my "phellow pharmers".

CAP'S TOP TEN TIPS FOR SELECTING AUCTION PLANTS

1. Avoid 1-seed females wherever possible, unless by necessity in a mutant LE breeding pair
2. Avoid Standard strains completely unless they're discontinued AND rare (eg. Rocky Mountain High, Cascadia Crush)
3. Rare, discontinued Standard strains should be auctioned as a 2 or 3-seed female with male breeding pair
4. Standard strains hybridized with FX should be at least a 2-seed female with male breeding pair
5. Closer to perfect stats = higher the likely final sale price
6. 3-seed LE perfect stats breeding pairs started at baseline price almost always sell, regardless of rarity and time of month
7. Solo 2 or 3-seed female or male mutants (dwarfs, giants, etc) should open as close to baseline as possible
8. Rarer single mutants (ultras, superweeds and double mutations), rare LE 3-seed pairs and seed boxes are more likely to sell for higher prices and are safer to open at higher prices
9. The rarer the LE or mutation the higher you can start the opening price
10. Don't overprice - the profit only goes up if you open at baseline - auctions stop dead when buyers suffer sticker shock.  If you want $5K for the items on your panel, it's a slow month, and panels have been selling low, be prepared for a "FUTURE SALE" or consider selling on a plot at retail prices.

Any ideas I haven't covered here or questions I can help out with - shoot me a notecard or drop one for Gleaux, Zoey Rose and the Auction team in the suggestion box on the deck at CSL central (or leave comment below:)