Absolute bargain

[Alfred]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/used-national-bee-hive-with-extra-one-bord-and-22-frame/293866582250?hash=item446bd030ea%3Ag%3AOq8AAOSwH9tfxTGR&LH_ItemCondition=3000

Thought it was April 1st for a moment

[Justabeekeeper]

The amount of firewood that sells as second hand equipment is astonishing, a lot of it sells for more money than seconds from thornes.

[Alfred]

I wouldn't even use this guys stuff for firewood-it would give off more pollution than heat!
Seconds is a better way but I make my own kit wherever possible and prioritise offcuts,leftovers and reclaimed stuff.
But ,for the bees sake if nothing else, it has at least a passing resemblance to well-made equipment.

Looking at the rest of the listings doesn't inspire much confidence either...

[AdamD]

Those are the sort of hives you make up in an absolute emergency in swarm season, nothing more in my view. Maybe someone will but them.

I was at an auction a few years ago and there were a couple of new and keen beekeepeers there who had seen the price of new WBC hives, I assume, and were out-bidding each other for the WBC's that were at the auction. Several of us were looking at each other with the obvious thought of "what are these people doing?" Afterwards, as the successful bidders examined the hives they had bought, they looked rather crestfallen and embarrassed as they realized that they had bought some part-repaired bits of timber that resembled hives but needed a huge amount of work to get them usable.

[Alfred]

I've seen similar at agricultural auctions
Two old rivals in a bidding war over a roll of weed stricken rusty barbed wire.
Anyone else walks twenty yards over to the merchants shop and gets a brand new reel for half the price.
It's good entertainment though.

[Patrick]

As ever, the best way to get a bargain at auction is to know what a bargain actually looks like and would cost.

Either do the rounds before it starts with someone experienced or simply take a supplier catalogue with you to check against the price new. A tape measure is handy to check dimensions are correct too.

Not sure why WBC’s attract such high prices, often for stuffed equipment. I know their fans love them, but the secondhand market around me seems dominated by usually knackered woodwork. A real buyer beware market sector if ever there was one.

[Alfred]

And why Adams newbs were after Wbcs anyway?
Hardly suitable to learn on
The designer clearly never had to engage a tactical retreat....
More a case of back to the vicarage for cream teas and Victoria sponge.
I've got an antique one right at the back of a shed waiting for restoration but it might be there a while!

[AdamD]

WBC's are OK. Ish. I have 4 in the front garden - the rest of my hives are Nationals or derivatives which are elsewhere. However WBC's have twice as much wood and are therefore twice as expensive to buy. They also take more time to deal with. And you always seem to run out of a lift during the summer, or some don't fit others which is a real faff. You can't do manipulations like a top entrance too (Snelgrove), so they are limited in some of the more advanced aspects of beekeeping. Clipped queens, if they swarm, can finish up in the space between boxes and the lifts, which can be an interesting thing to deal with.
And if yours are a bit manky, you can't get mouse-guards on them with the obvious consequence as you may have seen in another post of mine!