Your auction is set to start in about an hour (if you actually decide to start in about an hour?) and I’m an interested bidder. I’ve driven 120 miles and am parked about 4 blocks away. I approach you asking, “Are you the auctioneer?” You reply you are, and I ask, “When will the Utica tool sets and related will be put up for auction?”
This is a reasonable question. I don’t need to know exactly when these tools will sell, but I deserve to have an idea — in about 2 hours, early afternoon, not until after 3:00 pm? However, just as important as you having an “order of sale” is that you stick to it. Don’t tell me 3:00 pm and then sell them at 11:30 am (nor tell me 11:30 am and sell them at 3:00 pm) for example.
Yet, as your bidder here at your auction at 9:30 am, you’re telling me I might be there 1 hour, 3 hours, 7 hours? You have no idea how long it will be before your extensive Utica tool collection comes up for auction? No idea at all? Even more astonishing … you expect me to hang around your auction to see when you finally decide to sell what I came to buy.
I’ve often held that auctioneers should treat people how they would prefer to be treated. What auctioneer attending another auctioneer’s auction would prefer that there was no “order of sale” or that the auctioneer had an “order of sale” but then changed it arbitrarily and/or capriciously — so in essence, there was no order?
When I first started in the auction business, my mentor always had an “order of sale.” He said it only made sense that the bidders knew what direction he was going to sell. We’ve maintained that tradition, but many auctioneers consider some sort of order of sale paramount to include in their opening announcements as well as posted on their website.
More bidders = more proceeds. More proceeds = happier sellers. Happier sellers = happier auctioneers. Yes, it is that simple, and everything you can do to get more bidders to attend and participate, the happier you and your seller will be. That includes making their experience reasonable, and necessarily not unreasonable.,
If you are an auctioneer making it more difficult for bidders (tie bids, no retractions, reopening bids, no order of sale, arbitrary policies and procedures, etc.) then we would ask, why? We suggest after the auction, count all the cash, credit card receipts, checks, wire transfers, etc. and add them all up — and ask yourself, “Where did all this money come from?”
Maybe while you’re at it, lie about what you’re selling, misrepresent condition of items, disclaim and assign all responsibility for honesty, integrity and fair dealing. In other words, you can do anything you want, and you’re (supposedly) not responsible to anyone for anything. We’ve written about this concept many times including here: https://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2021/02/17/are-auctioneers-intentionally-misleading-buyers/.
Finally, there isn’t an auctioneer not looking to engage more (and younger) bidders … so if you can’t tell them — at minimum — about when certain auction lots will likely sell (and stick to that plan,) don’t wonder anymore why you can’t attract those bidders you seek. There’s always that other equation: Less bidders = less proceeds. Less proceeds = unhappy sellers. Unhappy sellers = unhappy 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, and an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and Western College of Auctioneering. He is faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University and is approved by The Supreme Court of Ohio for attorney education.
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