Mad Mooring Tenders

[Denis R]

Remember a couple of months back there was a bit of traffic on here about BW mooring tender figures, some of which revolved around a bid of £6000 for a mooring in Marsworth?

Did anything ever come of it or other seemingly OTT bids?

Ref. Marsworth, I wondered if somebody had accidentally bid for the whole 3 years rather than p.a. and accordingly didn't complete? Haven't seen it re-listed so assume it went through.

[alan_fincher]

What appears to be a fairly new sailaway is now moored on the stretch where the Marsworth bid was for.

 

Most other boats there I recognise as having been around a while.

 

So I'm guessing it's the one that's sitting they in grey primer, and is probably someone's fit-out project.

 

I could be wrong, though!

[sociable_hermit]

Maybe now everybody is busy convincing each other that we're in a recession and all DOOMED, there has been a down-turn in silly bids?

 

To me the whole thing is a joke. You can't establish true market value unless it's an open auction where everyone can see what has been bid so far. If you know the current price then you can decide whether it's worth more to you, or not. BW would have been better off just sticking all of their moorings on eBay, each with a £200pa reserve price.

[carlt]

BW would have been better off just sticking all of their moorings on eBay, each with a £200pa reserve price.

 

Nah! Proper American style auction with the auctioneer in high speed mode!

 

The best auction I went to was a USAF surplus sale at RAF Molesworth. The auctioneer was a huge Hawaiian soldier who sang the lots through in proper steer sale style.

 

He only paused when he sold 600 (unused) body bags to a very rural looking chap, for £110. He apologised for the break in proceedings and said "I've got to ask. What are you gonna do with them?"

 

The farmer replied, quite bluntly "Grow blumming tomatoes in 'em!".

[Dominic M]

I've just flicked through the latest and a number are going for less than the guide price. Most amazing one is at Brentford where the guide price was £4272 and the highest tender was £1010. Locked gates, water, electric. You are not allowed to live on board but may stay 4 nights out of 7. Sounds like a bargain to me, if London's what you want.

 

But the site exposes how poor the tendering system is - a mooring on the offside at the top of Long Buckby locks has just gone for 2,300+. There were only two bids: the other was for 600+. The person who has to cough up £2300+ must be kicking themselves, when they could have had it for £700.

Edited September 12, 2008 by Dominic M

[carlt]

But the site exposes how poor the tendering system is - a mooring on the offside at the top of Long Buckby locks has just gone for 2,300+. There were only two bids: the other was for 600+. The person who has to cough up £2300+ must be kicking themselves, when they could have had it for £700.

When I used to tender for snatchbacks, BW allowed you to bid "£10 above the highest tender, up to a maximum of...."

 

This would be a much fairer system.

[Nine of Hearts]

When I used to tender for snatchbacks, BW allowed you to bid "£10 above the highest tender, up to a maximum of...."

 

This would be a much fairer system.

 

But then yours would be the highest bid, so you'd always end up bidding to your maximum...

[carlt]

But then yours would be the highest bid, so you'd always end up bidding to your maximum...

I may have not been clear but that didn't happen.

[casper ghost]

The fact that quite a lot of moorings did get bids but didn't reach the reserve shows that BW wasn't serious about letting the market find it's value, just about getting more money from us. No one seems to have mentioned that once they get the average mooring price to go up they will use that to increase the mooring permits for everyone on that canal, as I beleive they use average prices to set mooring permit rates. So we all pay more.

[dor]

As I understand it, if the reserve isn't reached now, they won't accept the tender. If so, I wonder how much money they are losing by having empty moorings, when they perhaps would have let it through an open and honest waiting list system.

[Madmark62]

We have just got a mooring for £200 less than the guide price, I am well happy

[alan_fincher]

As I understand it, if the reserve isn't reached now, they won't accept the tender. If so, I wonder how much money they are losing by having empty moorings, when they perhaps would have let it through an open and honest waiting list system.

If there is a "reserve", it's not the same as the guide price, is it?

 

Clearly many go for less than guide price.

 

I don't know the system, but is the "reserve" disclosed after it has failed to let, or only what the highest tender was, and that it didn't meet the reserve?

 

Just curious as to how it works, that's all.