Bad Auctioneers!!!

I saw Goose's post below about the "bad" sale he was at. It made me remember an auctioneer that used to sell around here. He was so crooked that when he died we all said they would have to twist him into the ground. LOL He has been gone now for 10-15 years.

I was just home from the service. That would make it 1978. My father-in-law was wanting a newer truck to haul lime. (that was his business) He had two older ones and they where getting rough. So we went to a sale about 20 miles north. This crooked auctioneer had the sale. I would not have gone if I had known he was the auctioneer. There was a 4-5 year old Ford Louisville 700 with a lime bed. The truck only had 5000 miles on it and had never seen salt or weather. Clean as new. That truck and bed would have cost 20-25K new right then. My FIL decided he would go to $17,500. The auctioneer had a hard time getting the bidding started at 10K. Then when my FIL started bidding it really took off fast. I was watching and could not see anyone else bidding. I told my FIL to stop bidding after his next bid. When he made his bid the auctioneer jumper right back at him with another bid. No pause or anything. So My FIL just stood there. There was not another bid made. They knocked the truck off at $16,500. We stayed around an watched a few other thing sell. We could tell that there was something fishy going on. Any of the high value stuff would jump bids so fast you could not see anyone bidding. I saw one guy raise his own bid twice in a row. Just before we left one of the auctioneer helpers came up to us and ask my FIL if he would give his last bid for the truck as the winning bidder had problems. So they got caught buy bidding!!!! My FIL was a smart old dog. He said he would not give more than $12,500 for the truck. The guy said they could not do that and tried every which way to get my FIL to give his last bid. We left the sale and talked about how crooked the whole sale was.

A few days later the auctioneer called my FIL and asked him if he would still give the $12500 for the truck. He did buy it and owned that truck until he died.

When we went to pick up the truck the owner was there. He told us how he had given $21K for the truck new. We asked him if he had a reserve on any of the big items. He said no. We had thought about it and thought maybe the seller had told the auctioneer to hold a reserve on the better stuff. The seller was really mad as he had a few friends call up mad about how the sale had gone. It seems we where not the only ones that thought the auctioneer was a crook.

So them playing fast an loose cost the seller a few thousand dollars on just that one item. After that if I saw that auctioneer having a sale I just would not go.

yep i have seen the same thing go on here with an auctioneer. just pulls bids out of the sky.

There was a dairy herd that sold that way here just a few years ago. A guy caught on and asked who he was bidding against. The auctioneer said "well,I've got a buyer wanting me to buy so many head for him".
Dammed shame for the guy who owned the herd because nobody wanted to bid after that and they hardly brought beef price.

3 local auctioneers of a few more total are pretty good about not letting you bit against yourself: One will even explain it in the intro, the other 2 will, when you do bid against yourself, tell you that they got your bid, so will their help.

I worked with a local auctioneer to hold surplus sales for the county. She was ethical and very open about when she had pre-bids or online bids on items. She also recorded the entire auction. She tried to run an honest sale and treated us fairly, unfortunately she lived on the east side of the river (next county and state) so some of our County board members had it in for her. We were selling a garbage truck and she had an on-line/prebid of $10,000 on it, latter she told me she was glad someone bid $11,000 on it because she really didn't want to arrange shipping the darn thing to Arizona. Auctioneer services is one of those things normally we don't use to often I think that encourages some shady characters to join the craft after all if you're not happy they don't get your next auction- you know the one you probably wouldn't of had anyway.

Years back I was a used tractor and machinery dealer and attended literally hundreds of auctions across the midwest, (Often Stilesville and Archbold and Sikeston n all over Illinois) so I pretty much saw it all and learned (from experience) how the auction game was played. What you describe goes on but I didnt let it stop me from buying so long as my profit gap wasnt exceeded. I usually didnt bid but once or twice max, after all the ONLY bid that matters is the last NOTT all the early fast ones. I waited till they were done jacking and all the rif raf were done (no use running up the bid) and decided if I wanted to give that price or not, bid once n turned away n walked off (where I could see if anyone else was really bidding or not lol). At some sales the sales tag had a code telling the auctioneer the minimum an item had to bring (like black horse) so us dealers already knew ahead of time they would jack until they got there......

Yep it goes on and no I dont like or agree with it, its just that it "went with the territory" if you were a frequent and countrywide auction buyer.....

John T NOT saying its right or I like it remember, ONLY that yep it happens but I might still buy if I had a farmer back home who I knew I could make a reasonable mark up......The seller had his min price either from the auctioneer jackin n by bidding or a plain old announced fixed reserve, that was his choice (honest or not) and I had the option of my choice also.....

Dad always said an auctioneer was a "king for the day" Most around here are smart a$$e$ and don't care for any of them and I wouldn't trust them any further than I could throw them. Not to say that there aren't some honest ones out there but they seem to be the exception and not the rule.

I just bid on a rotary cuter in N Wisc. Called the auctioneer and asked if I could put in an absentee bid on it. He said fine, what's your price. I told him and he said he would email me with the results either Sunday or Monday.
Since the auctioneer had my bid in his pocket there might be some there who wondered who they were bidding against.

Ya,in Archbold back 35-40 years ago,when they walked and didn't use P.A.s,there were usually only two or three bids and things were sold. They practically didn't even stop walking. For the most part,the minimum was on the tag on most of the stuff. Saved a lot of monkey business trying to start low and get the bid up there.

rrlund, about 40 years ago was the first time I went to an auction. It was Archibold with the farmer I worked for - quite an education!

We have an auctioneer in our area that will accept pre-bids. By that I mean if you can't make it to the auction, and you want to go to $2500 on a old pickup, that is where he will start the bidding. Is this a common practice, or do they usually start it low enough until someone else bids and then possibly work it's way up to the pre-determined price. They did this on a cattle brand at a farm sale several years ago. The guy had said to go to $5000 on the brand. Auctioneer started it at $5000 and no one else bid, so it was sold at $5000. If he would have been at the sale, probably could have gotten the brand for a couple hundred dollars, since it wasn't even a very good brand.

Like I said our local company was pretty straight forward, before she'd take a bid she's announce that she had an absentee or internet bid on an item, if possible she'd get a starting bid from the crowd and bid her absentee or online bid against the crowd. As mentioned in the earlier post some of the county supervisors were put off because even though she was born in our county, raised and attended school in our city (heck she went through high school in the same class as one of our judges) moving across the river upset some of the county supervisors. She worked to insure she had bidders at the sale and made some real effort to get us a fair price. We'd pay 10% commission on motor vehicles and she figured out the 3 or 4 minutes it took to get another $1000 for the car was $100 in her pocket, $100 for 5 minutes work is good money. She also knew if she couldn't get us wholesale plus her commission for vehicles we'd dispose of them by sealed bids. There were other auctioneers willing to do the sale for the same money so unless she could do better she'd loose the auction we grew our annual auction from $60,000 to over $100,000 in 4 years and went from 12 hours to 6.

The auction game is pretty much about larceny. Owner wants to steal the buyers money, buyer wants to steal the owners stuff. It's the essence of a free market and been like that for thousands of years.

I've seen it both ways. The auctioneer should make it clear to the absentee bidder how it works and announce how he's conducting the bidding; as long as he makes it clear what he's doing I don't have a problem with it either way.

It's fun to watch others' secret bidding techniques. Depending on my mood I either get in at the start and bid fast up to my price then stop cold, or wait until just before the item is knocked down and jump in for a couple of fast bids.

I seen a smart crooked auctioneer have a flunky out in the crowd that he could call on when he gets caught like that. Auctioneer said flunky made the bid, the guy was clueless to what was going on but agreed. I happened to be watching flunky. He never moved a muscle to make a bid.
After his employee said he made the bid the auctioneer reamed the whole crowd out for daring to question his integrity. After that half the crowd walked away and left.

Yep I bought a few tractors from Yoder and Frye way back then, brings back memories.....

John T

I was at an auction one time, with one of my "favorite" auctioneers, he always thought I was invisible, when I would make a buck, or two bid. I saw him step on a yellowjacket nest, and was trying to warn him about it, when he told me to shut up, and let someone who had money, bid, So I did shut up. But I couldn't help laughing!

Once when I had a used car dealer's license, I took an Olds Cutlass to the dealer's auction in Lincoln, NE. I put a $3400 protection price on it. Like you said, the paperwork was rigged so the auctioneer knew the seller's bottom dollar.

The bidding stalled out on the Olds at $3250. The ringman asked me if I'd let it go for that. I told him I had to have $3400.

The ringman replied, "We've only got one guy bidding. We'll work on him some more".

The started the bidding again and pretty soon they hit $3400 and sold it.

Sometimes on those dealer auctions, I think there are as many deals made in the parking lot as in the auction ring. And you can get permanently barred from the auction if you get caught.

I took an old Buick to the same dealer's auction once and put a $1400 protection price on it. A dealer I knew had high bid at $1250 and it was a no sale. A few minutes later the dealer asked me if I'd take $1250 if I didn't have to pay the auction commission. I told him I would. He told me to let the car sit in the lot with the keys in it and if I met him in the far corner of the lot he'd slip me a check.

It kinda gets to be a game.

I was at one auction where the auctioneer had any pre-bids written down in a sealed envelope. He would announce before each item he had a pre-bid and put the envelope in plain sight. He then auctioned the item off. He then opened the pre-bid. If the pre-bid was higher then they got the item. I kind of like how he did it.

Now days with the Internet and cell phones you can't tell who is bidding. You just have to have a high limit and go to it.

A bad auctioneer can really cost the seller big money if the auctioneer does the sale order wrong. I was at a friend's sale last winter. He went with the cheapest auctioneer he could find. The guy usually sold house hold stuff. The day of the sale had terrible weather but there was a large crowd to start the sale. The auctioneer messed around on hay rack items until late afternoon. Then he started on the line of late model high priced equipment. I know of several pieces that the seller lost thousands of dollars on as guys had left the sale. Two brothers had driven down for the Twins Cities and had to leave to get home for milking. They told me they would have gone to $150,000 on the guys combine. It only sold for $125,000. It might have brought a good bit more if it had sold earlier. He could have junked the hay rack stuff and made more money.

This discussion reminds me of a local auction several years ago. We had a local auctioner of questionable repute running the auction. A local "card" had some stuff on the auction. One of the "cards" items came up for bid and the bidding was going pretty well when the auctioner stopped the bidding and told the "card" he could not bid on his on items. The "card" shouted back at the auctioner "Why not, you have been doing it all day!"

The auctioner resumed with nothing else said.

With the prebid in the envelope and not opened til the other bidders quit... that doesn't seem fair either if he doesn't give the bidders there a chance to bid against the absentee bidder.

I had the high bid on a tractor that an indiana
auctioneer was selling.He asked the consignor if he was going to sell it.He said "yes",and the auctioneer said "sold" and pointed to the back of the crowd and called out a number.There were only two bidders on the tractor and i bid everytime it was my turn.The other bidder was about 20 ft from me.I would have went 500
higher.They wouldn't tell me who bought the
tractor,but a friend of mine said it was on the auctioneers lot a week later.

some good,some bad. and some are just stupid.

I went to Archbold a few times. People watching there was interesting. Some folks looked like millioniares. Others looked like bums. I would run into a couple of local jockeys down there, including one guy who held his own auction every year. Some of that stuff went from one auction to another or to a dealers lot.

my uncle sold his hobby farm last summer, i was in the bidding for his tractor, the auctioner's father-in-law outbid me, that was OK , but what really burnt my uncle and i is this,

the auctioner gave his little speach even before the auction began about everything beeing a "as is" no warranty,

the tractor was a Kubota, shifting from high to low range was stiff, had been that way for YEARS, the seat and a whole bunch of stuff had to come off to even look at what was needed to fix,

the auctioner's father in law got the last bid

after all was done and uncle was waiting for the check the auctioneer calls saying how the high/low shifter was out of adjustment and they took it to the dealer to fix and it cost almost $300. to fix, then he held that out of uncle's check! duno what all was said, but needless to say the auctioneer got a earfull from uncle,

and now the auctioneer is a county comminisher,scary stuff

I went to a local auction once with a local auctioneer who some called shady. Anyway the son had started his own company and dad was there with his crew to "help" out. It didn"t take long to find out that dad"s crew like to call ghost bids and a lot of them. They got caught pretty good on one item when he yelled "SOLD for $80" and looked at a guy and wanted his number and the guy told him he quit at $45 bucks (Which was true). Several of us standing there had seen that and backed away and eventually they sold the item to him for $45. Bidding dropped off dramatically after that.

I went to a sale barn to buy a bull. Had one picked out. Before my bull came through the chute, a really nice Brangus (which I usually run) looked to be a couple of years old, popped into the arena. The auctioneer started his jabbering and nothing happened.

I got to thinking that the bull would be just right for me. So I hit. Immediately, the auctioneer looked the other way and high into the stands and came back with a counter bid.

This went on for a few bids and I decided that it was getting out of my reach so I quit bidding.

The auctioneer hit the other bidder and came back to me with no reply, he immediately stopped the auction. In short, there was no "other bidder". He was just jacking me up.

We got it stopped in plenty of time for him to ask me if I would buy the bull for my last bid. I thought it was a fair price, and since a seller was on the other end which is me sometimes, I agreed.

Was well worth the bucks.

Mark

We have a few auctioneers around here that will pull bids out of the air just have to watch yourself. Just remember they are suppose to be working for the seller. We do have one almburg that seems really good.

You said, "I thought it was a fair price"

I guess you did think it was a fair price, since you were bidding against yourself and ran it up there without a gun to your head. I'da told him to start over and let an honest contest determine the "fair price". But then I don't like auctions because of the auctioneers.