[6pt-Sika]

Any local auction company I've ever been to that was selling guns or whatever that had a reserve always announced this item will be started at such and such because thats what the owner set it at .

Went to a local auction about 5 years ago expressly to view and possibly bid on an original signed Pennsylvania flintlock rifle . Not until I sat there for 2 hours waiting for it to come up did I find out the gun had a reserve that was maybe $3000 over what I had planned to spend . On the one hand they told us upfront when it was brought forth . But on the other hand if it had been disclosed in their catalog it would have saved me the trouble of driving the 25 miles to Charlottesville , sitting there for almost 3 hours for nothing and the return trip home !

Oh yeah no one bid on the rifle .
Now when i go up and preview their auctions I generally leave an absentee bid and before I do that I aks if the item has a reserve .

To be totally honest my patience for sitting in the auction house is next to nothing . There are a couple other places semi close to us that generally have semi annual gun auctions that my father and I attend . And generally if they have something I want I will wait since they are a bit of a drive . Also preview the same day as the auction which tends to make it longer . But sometimes it works out and alotta times it doesn't .