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 :).

Auction School Day 4: Runnin´ an Auction and the Table

Okay....so we didn´t ACTUALLY "run" the table, but me and Samantha did end the night with like a 5-0 record playing pool last night.

Me and Samantha havin´ some margaritas!

Yesterday (Day 4) and Today (Day 5) seem to be the most mentally straining days for me. I´m not sure if its the amount of information that is being drilled into us or what, but I´m just SO tired.

Yesterday we learned a lot about setting up different kinds of auctions and the type of help you´ll need to run one and the different qualities each person has to have. For example: most auctions whether they are Estate Auctions, Equipment Auctions, Consignment Auctions, etc - you will need 1...maybe 2 auctioneers, a clerk (and a good one), 2 cashiers, 2 ringmen, and you could need toters to run items to people and help them load up mechandise. It is also a good idea to have a back up to many of those positions.

We also did some more bid calling. I´ve added a few videos of classmates, so you guys can get an idea of what our days are full of. Mr. Moon has us going up by different increments all the time. Chance (first video) has so much energy. She is just entertaining when she gets up there. Chuck (second video) used to sell at a car auction. This guys if FAST. The next video is Randy. He´s an antique guy from the Houston area. He´s got his own style and is really good at incorporating different filler words.

Well...yesterday was also a classmates birthday. Me and Samantha (new friend from Nachadoches) and the two gold and silver fellas - Blondie (Chad) and Birthday Boy (Justin), and the rad guitar-playing auctioneer Mike went to this little steakhouse, ate good and had a few drinks. I don´t think I´ve laughed that hard the whole trip. Then we went to this little bar\pool hall type place and me and Sam wrecked shop :). Blondie MIGHT have scratched on the 8 ball two of the 5 times we won, but A WIN´S A WIN!

Birthday Boy...

The birthday party :).

I really am spent and a day behind, so you´ll get to read a couple of blogs this time. BUCK UP BABY!!