The Auction Whisperer

In the auction business, technically there is no such thing as a tie bid. What you have instead is a mistake.

Most ties happen when an auctioneer has a ringman catching bids for him. The auctioneer will have one bidder at one price but the ringman thinks the auctioneer has his bidder instead, at the very same price. If no other bids are forthcoming then the result is a tie bid.

One of two things can happen.  Either the auctioneer declares that his bidder is the winner, after all he’s the aucitoneer; or the auctioneer will open up the bidding between his bidder and the ringman’s bidder only.  No one else is allowed to participate.

The auctioneer’s bidder is the high bidder of record. The ringman’s bidder has to hit the item at the next increment or he is out. If that person bids then the bidding continues until one drops out.

A tie can also happen when two bidders leave an absentee bid for the exact same amount of money on the same item. If no one in the audience bids, eliminating this conflict, then the auctioneer simply picks which of the two left bids he will accept. The other is thrown out. Sometimes this process is as scientific as the auctioneer closing his eyes and picking one.

01/30/2012 by Anne Benedetto

Heck no. Allow me to elaborate. Not all auctions are as formal and sophisticated as Christie’s or Sotheby’s. Many estate auctions are loud, fast and a little crazy.

I am going to use our auction house as an example. We used to draw around 100 bidders per auction. We had an auction every week and we usually ran between 450 to 500 lots. Our building was made of metal and was 10,000 square feet. It didn’t make for very good acoustics.

Our auctioneer had to deal with a sizable number of absentee bids that were his responsibility to execute, as well as a number of phone bids. In addition to that he had to deal with bids coming from all over the building. The audience wasn’t just in front of him – they were everywhere.

There were some dealers who were afraid that someone would see them bid. They didn’t want anyone to know what they were buying so they would hide. They hid behind poles and big pieces of furniture. They also hid right behind the auctioneer.

The people behind the auctioneer would bid by tapping something or by clearing their throats. If they didn’t clear their throats, that meant they were out. So not only would the auctioneer have to worry about hearing what was being said, he would also have to worry about what wasn’t being said.

Now let’s briefly take a look at the people who actually sat in the audience. There were always three different groups of people. Dealers who were there to buy for their businesses, retail people who were there to buy for themselves and those who were there to socialize.

During the auction, the socialites would pass around photographs and recipes to their friends, they would wave their hamburgers around and they would constantly use their bid cards to fan themselves because they were too hot. They didn’t appreciate the fact that a less experienced auctioneer would have called that bidding.

While the auctioneer had to ignore the animated behavior of some, he had to watch for the not so animated behavior of others. A slight tilt of the head, a tug of the ear or a barely noticeable crook of someone’s index finger 5 rows up. With all this going on, our auctioneer would still manage to sell in excess of 100 lots per hour.

The real test of our auctioneer’s ability to keep his cool would come after a sale when some guy would complain to him that he missed his bid. You’ve got to be kidding me!

09/10/2011 by Anne Benedetto

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No. There are twenty-one states that do not require auctioneers to be licensed. When I learned about this statistic some time ago, I was rather surprised. Currently these states are as follows:  

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.

This is not to say that there are not certain restrictions placed on auctioneers by cities or counties within some of these states. Also, some of these states may have a few exceptions. I can’t imagine that there are any states that would not require some sort of a license in order to auction off real estate. So as you can see, there may be some sort of regulation in place even if though no formal state license is needed.

In the remaining states, auctioneers must either attend school or go through an apprentice program before they can take the required test to get a license. Nothing is ever cut and dry so there are some other nuances that affect licensing. For example, in some states, you do not need an auctioneer’s license to auction your own merchandise. You only need a license to auction other people’s merchandise. Also, a license is not required in some states to conduct a charity auction.

In Florida, auctioneers must be licensed and there is quite a list of rules and regulations to which they all must adhere. However no license is required to auction livestock, even though some livestock sells for thousands of dollars.

There are no federal laws governing the auction business. The closest we come to such a thing is the broadly applied Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

08/23/2011 by Anne Benedetto

If you are liquidating a personal property estate, we have information to help you. Click here.