By Carol Ekarius
In this article …
Related ArticleOvercome Auction Phobia
That vendue was one of the first farm auction sale we ever attended .
It was a Saturday afternoon in late February , and cars and pickup , many pulling stock trailers , were teem up a gravel route near Deer Creek , Minn.
We were in the line , with our trailer hitched behind , and our Leslie Townes Hope set in high spirits that we ’d find just the right group of heifers , at just the right Mary Leontyne Price , to start our own herd of dairy cows . In spite of inhuman temperatures and current of air , the farm auction was drawing a good bunch .
We bought five Holstein heifer that Clarence Day ; black and white bottle - baby that would form the groundwork of our dairy farm herd almost two age down the line .
But since that February afternoon we ’ve give ear hundreds of farm auctions ( and held one of our own ) .
We learn what many rural family have always known : Farm auction bridge are a capital fashion to expend a day — offering a probability to socialize with rural neighbors , and the chance to buy anything from antiques and collectable to demesne and stock , or tractors and trucks . ( Maybe even the kitchen sink ! ) You just never know what you ’ll find at a farm auction .
The account of AuctionsAuctions have a foresighted , and sometimes notorious , history . The first auction sale that historians have confidently document happen in Babylon , about 500 B.C. At these earliest auction bridge beautiful woman were sold into marriage .
The Romans used auctions to dispose of all kinds of property , from food grain and livestock , to the spoils of war . In fact , in 193 A.D. , the Praetorian Guard sold the whole Empire at auction , after killing the ruling Emperor , Pertinax . alas for the successful bidder , Didius Julianus , his acquisition was short live — two months after he claimed the Empire , Rome fell in battle to Septimus Severus .
During the 1500s , the British start out using “ public outcry ” to sell item , with the terminus “ auction sale ” making its debut in British dictionaries around 1600 . The British stylus of auctioneering made its way to the New World with other settler , but it was often used for deal out the place of debtors — or for selling slave , present early vendue in this land a big name .
After the Civil War , Army Colonels traveled around the body politic selling clutch and redundant Army goods . Civilian auctioneers followed the Colonels around , and set likewise , so that soon the populace began to address all auctioneers as Colonel — a deed of conveyance still used by auctioneer today .
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The Market Sets the PriceToday , over 35,000 auctioneer practice the craft . Most are Renaissance man , sell antiques one day , livestock the next mean solar day and used eating place equipment another . The auctioneer works for a seller , and his or her goal is to maximize profit for the vender .
allot to Bob Shively , CEO of the National Auctioneers Association ( NAA ) , auctions are unlike other marketing methods because they really allow the market place , on any given day , in any given office , to set the cost between a emptor and a trafficker .
“ At auction , the market sets the price ; the literal estate mart gives a good good example , ” he aver . “ Typically , if you wanted to trade your house you ’d call three or four realtors . They ’d come over and evidence you your house is worth $ 100,000 and you ’d put your house on the grocery store for that price . But in the majority of sheath you ’d end up sell it for less than your request price . So the traditional real estate market play from the price total down , but the auction method of marketing is based on the price fail up . More times than not we find that the price realized at auction sale is comparable to , or exceeds , that welcome through other marketing strategy .
“ There is age - old thinking that only ‘ distressed property ’ is sold at vendue , but it just is n’t so , ” says Shively . “ For years , industrial substantial estate and farms and ranches — specially bare farmland — were often sold at auction sale , but nationwide we are seeing a tangible spike in auctions where residential real the three estates sell at auction also . The National Association of Realtors anticipate that within five years , almost one third of all existent estate minutes will probably be auction bridge based . ”
At Auctions Buyer Beware Rule AppliesAlthough auctions can be a lot of fun , and a good way to buy , trade or swap almost anything , they can be a dangerous way for the naive to shop . They are a “ emptor - beware ” globe , where items are sold “ as is ” and all sales are final .
An auction I recently serve provides a good illustration . I got there early in the first light to scrutinise items I was interested in . There were all kind of neat household items — some antiques , and some innovative — on a hay wagon , and I spent clip looking things over .
When the auction sale got going a couple of nicely dressed women who look to be straight out of the urban center initiate bid against each other on a sports stadium that looked like an antique , but was actually a modern reproduction you could probably pick up in a section store for $ 10 or $ 20 . One of the womanhood was pleased as clout when she experience the trough for $ 108 , but her jaw dropped when the auctioneer handed her the bowl and she realized her misapprehension . By then , it was too former — she had bought the bowl .
The moral : To get respectable buys at an auction , you need to be an educated emptor . Although any auctioneer worth his salt wo n’t enjoin you it ’s an old-timer if it ’s not , he also wo n’t say during the bid , “ Hey madam , you ’re bid too much for a section - store bowl . ”
Larry Theurer , an auctioneer from Wellington , Kan. , who has been in the job since 1976 , andis current Chief Executive of NAA , agrees : “ There are a turn of things we commend . Know what you ask before you get to the auction bridge , and cognise what it ’s worth . shoot the breeze with a reputable auctioneer or someone in the farming occupation to avail appraise your indigence before you go to your first auction . ”
Do n’t grease one’s palms a full-grown tractor and enceinte equipment if it ’s not needed ; bigger is n’t always effective , says Theurer . “ There are divergence in timbre that auctioneers and experienced farmers make love about , but that freshman do n’t always live ; one model may have a history of problems , or be punishing to find parts for . Some brands always wreak more money , but that ’s because they are more reliable . In my experience , most hobby sodbuster , because they have outside jobs , need to buy good caliber equipment so they do n’t have to spend all their time working on it . ”
The same employ to livestock . “ Quality vary from Fannie Merritt Farmer to farmer , ” says Theurer . “ seek to deal with reputable people . Horses are a perfect example . Despite all the in effect mass , there are some real crooks in the sawbuck business . So , there are ripe horses , but there are also horses with inherited trouble . For novice buyers , they wo n’t even have a clue what those problems are . ”
The way around the problems that Theurer points out : descend early and thoroughly inspect any goods you might need to adjure on . If you ’re thinking of bid on expensive token , like breeding stock , machinery or vehicles , you’re able to ordinarily stage an advanced visit to the auction site to get a close look . Bring along your own personal expert — a mechanic or veterinary — if you are serious about investing in equipment or livestock .
verbalise to the auctioneer ; talk to the owner . “ If someone require me before an auction starts , I ’ll give them an reliable range that the item they ’re looking at should sell for , ” say Theurer . “ I want buyers to be satisfied with what they buy . ”
TopThe Future of Farm AuctionsThe time they are a changing , and auctions are changing with them . “ Farm auctions , it ’s no arcanum , are fall in number , because we have sold so many Fannie Merritt Farmer off in the last decade or two , ” say Theurer . “ For model , we do about 10 farm auctions per year now ; a decade ago we were doing double that . But one modification we have keep is an increase in the book of equipment and consignors at our consignment auction bridge . The consignment auction bridge is a neat opportunity for small farmers to deal , and for begin Farmer to corrupt all case and sizes of equipment . We may have 100 to 125 consignors — it ’s a Brobdingnagian , full day . We ’ll have tractor that are 30 or 40 year sure-enough , some of collectible type , to innovative four - wheel - drive tractor . ”
The Future of Farm Auctions
Also , you may be able-bodied to take advantage of another change . consort to NAA ’s Shivley , “ By and large , auctioneer are move into the electronic age . Many are already employ online broadcast medium of auctions via the Internet . They accept online dictation as the bouncy auction is call for place , essentially bringing the earth into the auction . It throw auctioneer the ability to maximise value for the seller , which is who they are influence for . ”
It also gives emptor the prospect to participate in vendue they commonly could n’t attend — or to rest affectionate and dry while bidding from the solace of household on a cold wintertime Clarence Shepard Day Jr. .
The Fastest Talker in the WorldAuctioneers are known for the chant they use to sell products , and for Bill Sheridan , of Sheridan Realty and Auction in Mason , Mich. , his chant — and his noesis of the auction bridge line of work — has earned him the title of World Champion Auctioneer .
Bill bug out out in the auction bridge business in 1975 , work first at a livestock sales agreement b , and later branching out to his own commercial enterprise .
Bill explains his winning technique , “ The chant is the annunciation of a bidding , and call for a in high spirits command . Some auctioneer lend lots of ‘ noise , ’ but I sense like the public wants to grease one’s palms and they are n’t really interested in fancy words . I have worked hard to develop a melodic chant that ’s full of rhythm and pleasing to the ear . I seek to keep it clean and neat , with no supererogatory garble . ”
The macrocosm patronage is an real auction with over 500 bidders .
Eighty - eight competitor from every state as well as Canada and Mexico contend last twelvemonth , and all competitors had to first win at a state of matter championship .
During the rivalry each competitor sells three item while seven judges assess their technique , their ability to catch bid , how they maintain order in the auction bridge and get economic value for the items they are selling .
Bill sold a camera , a bone necklace and a watch during the first round of judging . After all the competitors have sold three item each , the top 15 competitors come in up for a question - and - answer session that assesses their cognition of the commercial enterprise .
If you are looking for a farm auction bridge in the upper midwestern United States , there ’s a good chance you might find Bill .
Although he no longer play on a regular basis at a sales event b , he ’s still very tangled in the agricultural sector , and still sell set of livestock at private farm and special cut-rate sale , like the Upper Peninsula Beef Expo Sale , and the Michigan State University Arabian Horse Farm Sale .
