Auction.........

Goose

Well-known Member
I went to a large farm auction yesterday. It was done by one of the most prominent local auction companies and, frankly, gave new meaning to the old clich? "Chinese Fire Drill".

There was easily enough stuff on the auction to have two rings, but they ran only one the entire day. They ran three hours just on rack items. They had one auctioneer calling the bids and four ringmen. Several times two ringmen would each hold up an item and the bidders wouldn't know which item then were bidding on. They'd have to stop and sort that out. Then after one man had bought quite a number of items, it came to light that the clerk had been writing down the wrong bidder number and they had to straighten that out.

After the rack items, and contrary to usual auction practice, they went immediately to the big high dollar tractors and machinery instead of leaving those items till last to hold the crowd. They also picked some items out of a line to sell and then came back down the same line to sell the rest.

This is the same auction crew that I've seen work well as a team before. Yesterday just didn't seem right for some reason.

Something was out of kilter.
 
They have to sell as the owner demands. They may have been fallowing his directions not their own. I have seen some messed up auctions over the years. Most of those had the owner involved in deciding the sale order.
 
One auctioneer here has a spring and fall consignment auction. They found out the hard way that the big ticket items don't generally hold many folks anyway. They were holding the big ticket items till last. They would have maybe 20-50 buyers left when they got to the tractors out of 300-400 at the start. And most of the guys staying for the big stuff didn't even go near the junk wagons (as I call em) during the bidding. When they first got there they might glance at what was there then would go a look at the other stuff, then hang out by the tractors and combines.

Now as far as being disorganized, we have an auctioneer here who's always like that, every auction. I find it extremely annoying.

Rick
 
Goose some thing I like at auctions is scheduled times for big ticket items. They advertise the big items sell at say 12 noon or 1 pm. This way those buyers can plan on that. I do not think holding the big ticket items holds many people. It actually seems to lose the big money fellows that will not take the time to set around all day waiting on the big ticket items. Also an old auctioneer around here used to sell the big ticket items right after the junk wagons. His reasoning was that if a fellow bought larger tractor he might be interested in a large disk, plow etc. to fit that bigger tractor.
 
(quoted from post at 08:38:35 06/26/16) Goose some thing I like at auctions is scheduled times for big ticket items. They advertise the big items sell at say 12 noon or 1 pm. This way those buyers can plan on that. I do not think holding the big ticket items holds many people. It actually seems to lose the big money fellows that will not take the time to set around all day waiting on the big ticket items. Also an old auctioneer around here used to sell the big ticket items right after the junk wagons. His reasoning was that if a fellow bought larger tractor he might be interested in a large disk, plow etc. to fit that bigger tractor.
xactly. I was at an Auction last April looking for a big 4 wheel drive tractor,..there were 2 versatiles and three 4whl dr John Deere's in that sale, there were also a couple spare Deere rims with brand new 23.8 x 38 tires on them. The wheels sold ahead of the tractors for $300 the pair( a steal really as they cost here upwards of $2500 each at the tireshop) I would've bid them up them had the Tractors sold before the wheels as i ended up buying 2 of the JD's after losing the bids on the Versatiles.( the tractors where the last items to sell)There was also a heavy disc that went cheap but i was not gonna bid on that if i had nothing to pull it home with as it also sold ahead of the tractors and i did have a clue as what they would go for.(I bought the 2 deere's for less than 1 Versatile,..there were no bidders left but me and 1 other guy.)
 
When Mother had auction for Pa's equip. This was 25 years ago. Anyway first thing auctioneer asked when he came to talk was-- what's the shiniest equip you have? Ok we park that up front so it is what people see first. Their impression is that this guy really took care his equip. No matter if the rest is old and run down. Also take all the batteries out of everything---and throw them away and buy new. For the price of a battery I can get you 500 more for the tractor.
 
(quoted from post at 22:01:26 06/26/16) When Mother had auction for Pa's equip. This was 25 years ago. Anyway first thing auctioneer asked when he came to talk was-- what's the shiniest equip you have? Ok we park that up front so it is what people see first. Their impression is that this guy really took care his equip. No matter if the rest is old and run down. Also take all the batteries out of everything---and throw them away and buy new. For the price of a battery I can get you 500 more for the tractor.

Agree, if you can get it started they seem to bring more. Sometimes little to no interest in old non-starters.

A 3 times a year consignment auction near me does the "junk" wagons first then goes to the tractors and at the same time doing the lawn and garden tractors and equipment. When tractors are done they move right into the other equipment while they have someone calling antique and hand tools and other small items. Usually 3 rings running, if you are by yourself you have to prioritize what you want to see sell.
 

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