An auctioneer selling 1,023 lots in 12 hours is a world’s record? 85.25 lots per hour for 12 hours is a world’s record? This might be the most lots sold in 12 hours that
Guinness World Records has ever heard of, but it’s hardly the most items sold in 12 hours by an auctioneer.
Here is the story we saw … noting this world’s record, published September 18, 2019: https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-auctioneer-sets-record-for-most-items-in-24-hours/.
Admittedly anyone selling 85 lots an hour (for 12 hours) if pretty fast. However, countless auctioneers around the United States have sold more than 1,023 items in less than 12 hours. In other words, an item every 42.23 seconds?
Further, it would not be difficult at all to find an auctioneer selling faster than 42.23 seconds per lot … we are certainly one of those auctioneers. Lastly, this world’s record involved raising “$1,100 for their chosen charity.” I would hope they raised more than $1.07 per item total?
The previous world’s record was apparently an auctioneer selling 610 repossessed cars and motorbikes in under six hours on Jan. 14, 2010 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. That would be about 100 cars/motorbikes per hour, or about 35 seconds per lot. For sure, many auctioneers have sold more than 610 lots in under six hours.
I certainly don’t begrudge any auctioneer for securing a world record. On the contrary, any good or interesting news about the auction industry in the public media is good for all of us, and there’s room for much more.
In fact, this might be something our own industry could coordinate or track and publish on a (our) website for the public to view? Maybe we should be scouring the Internet for any auction-related stories and archiving them in a centralized place? Actually, there’s surely software that could do all that for us?
World records can be tricky things generally, as we wrote here in 2013: https://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/world-record-auction-price/. When does anyone have a world record, really?
Nonetheless this is indeed a Guinness World Record but is it really a “world record?” I feel sure it’s not. Maybe we all need to do a better job getting the word out about all our good work we do as auctioneers?
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, CAI, CAS, AARE has been an auctioneer and certified appraiser for over 30 years. His company’s auctions are located at: Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, RES Auction Services and Goodwill Columbus Car Auction. He serves as Distinguished Faculty at Hondros College, Executive Director of The Ohio Auction School, an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and America’s Auction Academy. He is faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University and is approved by the The Supreme Court of Ohio for attorney education.
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