Home auctioneers make dreams come true for India’s eagle-eyed bargain hunters
On a scorching rooftop in a smart neighbourhood in the Indian capital, 40 Delhiites with an eye for a bargain peer over auction tables creaking with used, broken and half-eaten items, the front line of a thriving second-hand economy.
Everything will go. There is nothing we cannot sell. The only question is price
The auctioneer’s voice rises to a frenzied pitch as the numbers soar higher, each item wielded to a rapid bidding war – 200 rupees (US$3), 300, 700 – as sheaves of Gandhi-emblazoned notes change hands in a flurry of shouts, winks and the occasional scuffle.
Mobile phones missing chargers, American shaving foam cans that have lost their pressure and expired food packets are all on display, together with a vacuum cleaner, outdated Apple laptops and knock-off designer sunglasses – labelled coyly as “local”.
“Everything will go,” said Ashok Sood, a professional home sale organiser who arranges weekly auctions at homes or embassies in New Delhi, mostly for well-off Indians or expatriates who are moving on. “There is nothing we cannot sell,” he adds proudly. “The only question is price.”
Delhi’s second-hand circuit goes far beyond a humble car boot or garage sale, attended by hundreds of full-time dealers who buy to sell on and savvy middle-class Indians scouting bargains.
“In India people recycle more than anywhere in the world. Labour is cheap and brains are sharp. Out of three things that are not working, they make two work,” Sood said.
A grocer by trade, he spotted the niche at the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi when he saw foreigners being offered money for their Nike trainers and Sony Walkmans, rarities at the time.