Was I on the Naughty List? Lessons learned the hard way

I have to admit, I made a really bad decision before Christmas.

I sell medical equipment and from time to time I get requests for equipment where I don't have a current supplier.  I Google searched the item I was trying to source and for some reason Centurion Auction Services popped up.  They were offering some of the equipment I sold.  I immediately thought, "wow this could be a good deal for us. We could potentially pick up equipment and sell it fairly easily in the market."  

I contacted Centurion Services and spoke with Kylen Cieslak and found out about how to bid and what I needed to do; she forwarded me the information as was very helpful.

When I got everything set up, I studied the list of items that were up for auction for two days; writing down model numbers and prices we could pay; while still making a profit.  I talked my best friend into loaning me the extra money I needed to purchase this extra equipment.

I told him,  "I've never seen anything like this.  I knew that auctions existed but I had only seen auctions where beds and bio-med stuff were being sold...nothing I was ever really familiar with."

He agreed to the loan and I put up some money of my own; off we went.  The first mistake I made is to assume that this equipment could be purchase with visually seeing and touching it.  I live in California and the Auction is in Chicago, so I made the choice to bid based on the pictures given to me and the auctioneer experience with selling; which as it turns out was a bad financial decision. 

The auction started fast; early in the morning, like 6:00 am west coast time.  Erik Wilensky began by doing his usual bit and then launched into the auction.  Since the first 300-400 items were beds and over tables and stuff like that I sat and listened, "One and two and one and two," Wilensky stammered, over and over.  Finally they came to the stuff I wanted.  

I was pumped.

"And here we go, this one is going to go...Watch it climb," Wilensky said.

I have to admit, while I was watching my screen and pushing the button on the panel of my computer, listening to the rhythmic pulse of Wilensky voice; pushing the price of each item higher and higher; I got caught up in the excitement.  I could feel my heart racing; my pulse quickening; I wanted the item!

And then, "woo hoo," I got it.  This went on for 10 hours until very late in the night.  I would bid and sometimes win and other times not.  It was fun and it felt exhilarating.  When the auction finally ended I was exhausted and slept like a baby that night.  

Fast forward two days. The invoice comes and it is around $52,000.  Then as we scan the bill we see a charge of 17% buyer’s premium. “Wow,” I’m thinking.  “Tag on another $9,000.00?”

My stomach started to feel nauseous. 

Now I take full responsibility for this entire thing, it just totally caught me off guard.  So I called Kylen Cieslak to see what was going on.

"Didn't you read the terms and conditions," she said matter of fact. "It clearly states 17%."

I was upset and I wanted her to change her mind, but she didn't want to or couldn't budge, so we paid the additional amount.  That’s when it all started to unravel. 

I called the shipping guys over at Chicago Industrial Services and they were fantastic.  Val and Jim took really good care of me and the equipment.  It was bubble wrapped and package beautifully.  I couldn't have been happier; and to make things even sweeter they were ultra-fair on their prices.  

However, when the equipment came and I inspected it, that's when the sinking feeling in my stomach overcame me.  I wanted to vomit.  The high priced items like the flexible scopes were unusable in the present condition; most if not all of them were going to need more work than they were worth.  It was a disaster.

I immediately listed all of the discrepancies; everything that was missing or broken.  I sent an email to Erik Wilenski and Kylen Cieslak and again they wouldn't budge, except on two items that were the totally wrong items.  They did agree to refund us that amount, so that was good.  

However, the worst part of the whole thing wasn't the terrible equipment or the damage scopes it was that I was going to have to tell my best friend I totally screwed up.

I didn't want to break the news to him, mostly because I didn't know what to do.  So I sat in my living room quietly just thinking.  I stared out my sliding glass window and couldn't help feeling remorseful.  

"How could I be so stupid?"   I kept thinking.  "Why didn't you go and look at this stuff?" 

The self beating kept coming and coming.  I felt desperate and alone.  And I immediately wanted Centurion Services group to make this right, but Erik Wilensky and Kylen Cieslak, were both adamant about not budging on policy, "Where is As is," they both said.

Ultimately, I gave up. I resigned to the fact that this is just one of those deals that didn't go my way.  My friend Sid said, "Hey you can keep harping on this failure or learn from it and spend your energy on making the next one work."

His speech didn't cheer me up much, since I had to tell Brent we were about to lose most if not all of our money.  And I didn't have any more money to pay him back. I had sunk every last penny I had into this bet.  

I have been reading this book called the “Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson, he says, "do the little that you don't feel like doing over and over every day and your life will change for the better… using the law of compound effort, big results will arise."

For some reason this little catch phrase has kept me going.  Last night, I went shopping for my kids and family and I stopped by the bank to see how much I could spend on their gifts.  I had $295.00 left.  

In the past I would have went ballistic and totally broken down.  But this year I felt lucky.  Ya, I'm not going to be able to buy everybody a present, but my girlfriend Allison baked cookies and made handmade gifts for me to give to my brothers, mom and dad.  There was enough left in my checking to get my son Taylor a gift card and to send some trinkets to my two children in Arizona. 

But I’m not going to let this set back ruin my Christmas, in fact, this is going to be the best Christmas I have ever had.  I am humbled by this experience and I can sit quietly knowing I have people in my life who love me.  It's definitely not about giving gifts this year; that will have to wait, but it is about giving me; and that is ultimately what I have needed to do for years.    

I don't recommend losing it all to realize this, but the real gifts are the people you love and who love you back; thank you to everyone who loves me and I love you too.