Auction shenanigans? OT

There was an auction this past weekend that I had wanted to make but didn't. This auction was advertised as a two day ordeal with some farm machinery and lots of horse tack, saddles etc. as the owner owned a saddle shop in town. A friend of mine made it to the sale and explained to me how it went down. On day 1 about mid afternoon the owner feels the auctioneers are doing a lousy job so he shuts the auction down early as bids were low and stuff was going cheap. On day 2, less people show up and the bidding gets off to an even slower start so the owner stops the sale again telling the auctioneer he is doing a bad job and sends him home. The owner then proceeds to try and sell his items garage sale style to anyone interested and at this point my buddy leaves. In fairness to the owner my buddy did think the auctioneers were rather unorganized and were rushing through to get the many items sold. I dont know who I feel sorry for the most, the owner, the auctioneers, or the people who expected a 2 day sale but didn't get one. What do you think? Have a good one.

Most auctioneers have a signed contract, he may be in for some real problems when the lawyers get a hold of him. I have to agree, I have seen some really poorly done auctions in the last few years.

Auction sales are always a gamble, no matter what anyone says. When you sell auction-style you are at the mercy of the bidders. And if they don"t feel like spending a lot, you"re not going to "win" a lot with your gamble. I"ve always thought auctions were a fair way to sell because they reflect the market price for that day. The owner must have had preconceived ideas of what his property SHOULD bring, and so was disappointed. He should have just advertised his goods, with HIS prices attached, and found out the hard way what he actually had.

Went to a farm auction last winter, when we arrived they were selling the contents of the machine shed one 1 lb box of bolts or nuts at a time, then they moved on to chains and spud bars 3 or 4 hours later they were still selling from the shed and are probably still there selling from the shed. Sometimes when they try to make as much as they can they end up making alot less then they would if they move things along.

Sounds to me like there is probably a lot more to the story. I've seen the same situation several times and it was equally both the auctioneer and the owner's fault. For the most part always hire local auctioneers that know the value of the items that are being sold.

Auctioneers all have a differnt style. Around here there are two main types and if you have never been to one of their sales you don't know what you are going to get. The biggest and best around here along with a few others move on. In the small stuff they will open something out at $10 and if no one bids the ring men start pile'n suff on till they get a bid and normally by that time some one will run it up to $25. The other guys will drag crap on all day to sell $500 worth of stuff out of the shed and then them and the owner get real mad because 75% of the crowd has left by the time they get to the big stuff. They will set there and take 5 min. to sell a $3 claw hammer, then get mad cause the next one just like it only brings $2. The third one doesn't bring a bid so they stand there begging some one to bid insted of just tossing it in the next bucket of tools and going on with life.

At the end of the sale both types will bring about the same amount of money for the same line of stuff. The big guy ain't going to get you as much for the stuff on the trailer but he is going to move on and do alot of advertise'n and draw 3X the crowd. The differnce is the fast one will get it over by lunch and you can be loaded up and get home by dark. The slow guys keep you there till dark then you have to spend a half a day on Sunday haul'n home the pile of scrap or the 3,000 tobacco sticks that were in the back of the barn they forgot about and you bought for $5.

If any one wants to have a sale they don't need to hire the first guy in the yellow pages. They should atleast go to one of their sales before hire'n anyone. If you aren't planning on being there for your sale pick some one to do it and tell your wife and kids.

Dave

I was at a farm estate sale a while back - they had sold a lot of the equipment and were starting in on a quarter mile long junk and scrap iron...

A lady came down and started hollering at the auctioneer... He ignored her at first, but she got more irate. Finally, she announced to the crowd that "she didn't want anything else sold..."... The auctioneer gave up and the crowd dispersed.

Come to find out, she was the sister of the legal owner and didn't even actually have a single legal say-so on any of it...

She just had gone around acting like the boss for so many years in the family, she just intimidated everyone...


Howard

I've talked to a couple of auctioneers, and they have told me that they are having to work a lot harder for the money than they used to. And there isn't as many auctions and a lot of new auctioneers, so more competition. I was at one auction last year, a newer outfit, drove the bidders crazy, the guy hopscotched all over the place, no plan at all. For years, I used to go to auctions all over southern Michigan and nw Ohio, and I have seen the auctions decline. A lot of people at auctions are hobby farmers, and a lot of them don't have the money they used to. The BTO's usually don't bid on old stuff at auctions, just not their thing. Used to be a lot of people did some farming on the side. Hard to do now, jobs aren't paying as well, hard to get started now. I do see some guys like me, former auto workers, doing truck farming. I might as well, getting hired at 54 looks pretty tough.

I'm going to a consignment sale tomorrow. I looked over some of the equipment last night, looking for a grain drill. They had 3 or 4 that fell into two groups; can't afford or operate (hydraulics) or need too many parts/repairs. The have a few rolls of snow fence I'd be interested in and some T posts plus a trailer full of tool stuff. Nice way to spend part of the day.

Larry in Michigan

Sounds to me like the seller is a packrat who really doesn't want to sell anything. I've never heard of a two-day auction; usually the auctioneer has as many auction rings going as is needed to get through everything in one day.

After reading it a 2nd time, I think the owner is probably unrealistic about the value of the tack. People are giving horses away. Tack is going really cheap.

around here seems like there are more auctions. Of course we've got 17% unemployment with few hopes of that improving soon (I'm driving 1:15 to work now). There are good auctioneers and poor ones. DO NOT NOT have a friend be your auctioneer or real estate agent it rarely if never works. Inlaws had an estate sale for grandparents. 15 hay wagon loads of stuff/junk. 1 auctioneer-1 ring, poor crowd, rain. Bad day. He gave up after the big stuff and 3 wagons once the crowd left (who begged him to keep going) the sun came out and it was a nice day. He was a friend of someone in the family and he didn't care that it went badly but would have cared if they didn't ask him. Sold the rest to whomever for $75-100/each load. Uncle retired from dairying in 1987 and had a complete liquidation (minus real-estate and milkers). From the tools to the tractors to the hay, 50 cows/heifers. He paid an extra 1% to have a local but popular and reliable auctioneer come. Crowd was HUGE. Filled hay field with 400 cars and still had big trucks in another field and cars on the road. If the auctioneer was good, i'd feel sorry for him as I've seen pack-rats at other auctions no-sale 80% of the items because he thought his junk (and it was scrap level junk) was worth more.

Probably a combination of a poor auctioneer and an equally lousy owner who had know idea what his stuff was worth. The owner probably got the cheapest guy he could find and got exactly what he paid for. In the end everyone - including the bidders lost out.

The local consignment auction here seems to have hit upon the solution- starts at 9, selling tools, welders, rototillers, lawnmowers, etc. Then at the stroke of noon, sells tractors, then cars and trucks. Then main auctioneer starts on the implements, and another auctioneer goes back to the small stuff, and they both go until done. Seems to satisfy most everybody.

I wasn't there,BUT sounds like someone who didn't really understand auctions,or had unreal hopes,and hired a "bargin" auctioneer too.Which might have accounted for the crowd,Ive seen a good auctioneer,selling GOOD stuff,draw a good crowd,in horrid weather.

2 day auctions are very common,with some large equiptment auctions going on for near a week.
Wonder if there was a contract? Might have not been if owner started selling "garage sale" format.either way bet there were some pizzed off folks.

we have father and son who have 3 auctions a year near here.
they are slower than spring thaw in jan.
sometimes their sales will go to 5:30 or 6 pm start
in about 9 am.
lots of times crowd will leave before they get to good stuff. they spend to much time on stuff like fence posts and gates.
some of the stuff people drag in should have gone to scrap yard.
leads me to another subject need a nation wide program to collect old paint and tires instead of trying to sell them at auction.

I've been to a auction like that before that got shut down by the owner and other stuff pulled out just as I drove up. Everything I had spent time driving to go bid on wasn't going to sell. I'll never go to another auction held by that "famous" Nebraskan auctioneer because of his snide remarks to me when I left nor to another auction if the owner holds one again some day. They held another auction near here last spring and a blizzard had been predicted for at least a week and they went on with the auction. Probably would have done better if they held off but I was not going anyway. Plus they do the buyer premium BS so now way was I going.