Creating That Sense of Urgency

First off.... I apologize for my lack of posting lately. Hopefully...over the next few months I'll be able to share stories with you about the last couple months :)!

At the last general consignment auction I helped at, we did things a little different.

We started the auction out....like we always do. Well...we had A LOT of items and not near as many bidders as we did the month before. I call bids closer to the end and you could tell that there was VERY little interest in some of the items... It was kind of like we were pulling teeth to get a $5 bid at times - so a couple of the auctioneers decided to ShAkE things up a little bit.

It seemed a little CHAOTIC at first, and it was a little hard for the clerk to keep up with everything going on because we were skipping ahead 20 lots, then we'd go back 10, etc. I have to say though...that she did a FANTASTIC job. She's good...

So instead of beggin' for a bid, we asked the bidders to tell us WHAT they wanted to bid on. One of the other auctioneers would go with them, get the lot number they wanted to bid on, we'd get it up on the screen - so everyone knew what we were selling. The person that wanted that lot - started the bid. Then I auctioned it off and we went from there. We developed a system and kind of had the Auctioneers/Ringmen take turns with the people that came to them for an item.

I DEFINITELY have never seen that done, BUT it did the job. It was the end of the day and folks were kinda sittin' there with their eyes glazed over. This made them get up to their feet, so they could bid on what they wanted. If they wanted it - they had the chance to take it home if they were high bidder & we didn't have to worry about passing over items. AUCTIONS are ALL about URGENCY! This helped pep things up a bit!

I had to share that story. You never know what could happen at an auction and every one I go to, I seem to get put in a little different situation.

Be expecting MORE posts this week. I've got a lot of catchin' up to do. Remember to BUCK UP BABY! I kinda feel like the pony express! I've been ridin' hard in SO many different directions - I can't seem to catch up. Don't fret though....everything will wind down eventually and I'll have some pretty cool stories to tell :).