<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>jacobolus</author><text>The books were worth tens of thousands of dollars (sold individually on the second-hand book market, after being carefully catalogued etc.), but nobody interested in buying books happened to be at the auction and the auctioneer set a $1 minimum bid because he didn’t know anything about books and was more interested in disposing of the books than making money from the sale. The auction house could surely get significantly more for their books if they knew the right venue to sell them (somewhere frequented by used booksellers), but I guess it wasn’t worth their trouble to figure out where that might be.&lt;p&gt;This is sort of like the time I went to a car auction as a kid and some college students bought a lightly used stretch limo in perfect working order for (the minimum bid of) $100.</text><parent_chain><item><author>spywaregorilla</author><text>&amp;gt; He looked around at the faces in the crowd and said, “I’m opening the bidding at one dollar.” I about shit myself. I bid the $1 immediately to get things rolling. Well, after I bid, he looked around and said, “Once, twice, sold that man there for $1.” I just laughed… and wondered how the Hell I was going to get this pallet home and what I was going to do with all those books.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; When I asked the auctioneer afterwards why he’d let it go so cheaply, he said, “Did you see anyone trampling you to get in a bid?” I said no, I didn’t. His reply, with a smirk on his face, was, “Gotta’ know your audience in this job.”&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Well, needless to say, I got the books home and spent a few years going through them and selling some, giving some away, etc. However, that’s not the point of this story. The point was finding things in books. So, with that in mind…&lt;p&gt;Dude goes to an auction and finds books. Nobody bids on the books. Dude is amazed that the auctioneer is willing to sell him something nobody wants for a low price. Dude spends years going through those books.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m happy for this guy.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?</title><url>https://noctslackv2.wordpress.com/2022/08/02/whats-the-strangest-thing-you-ever-found-in-a-book/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>ColinWright</author><text>Your summary is kinda accurate, but I can&amp;#x27;t help but feel that you&amp;#x27;ve missed the point completely.</text><parent_chain><item><author>spywaregorilla</author><text>&amp;gt; He looked around at the faces in the crowd and said, “I’m opening the bidding at one dollar.” I about shit myself. I bid the $1 immediately to get things rolling. Well, after I bid, he looked around and said, “Once, twice, sold that man there for $1.” I just laughed… and wondered how the Hell I was going to get this pallet home and what I was going to do with all those books.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; When I asked the auctioneer afterwards why he’d let it go so cheaply, he said, “Did you see anyone trampling you to get in a bid?” I said no, I didn’t. His reply, with a smirk on his face, was, “Gotta’ know your audience in this job.”&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Well, needless to say, I got the books home and spent a few years going through them and selling some, giving some away, etc. However, that’s not the point of this story. The point was finding things in books. So, with that in mind…&lt;p&gt;Dude goes to an auction and finds books. Nobody bids on the books. Dude is amazed that the auctioneer is willing to sell him something nobody wants for a low price. Dude spends years going through those books.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m happy for this guy.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?</title><url>https://noctslackv2.wordpress.com/2022/08/02/whats-the-strangest-thing-you-ever-found-in-a-book/</url></story>