A Day at the Auction

Had the opportunity this week to work several days at an auction site in Vicksburg.  Its interesting to see how these events go down.  You show up on the day of the auction, sign up for a bid number, sit down, and enjoy the fun!

A lot of other things have to happen before auction day: items for sale are surveyed, contracts have to be signed, items are consolidated into lots, lot numbers are assigned, pictures are taken, and an inventory catalog is put together.  The day before the auction is preview day, thing finally, its auction time!

The events leading up to auction day can take weeks and are often months in the making.  The sorting and assigning "lot numbers" is by far the most labor intensive task.  Items are either assigned an individual lot number or are accumulated into packaged groupings such as garden tools, mechanic tools, sets of dishes, etc.

A picture of each "lot" is taken, along with the lot number.  The item is cataloged into the inventory.  The items are presented to the buyers at the auction gallery through the use of a video monitor.  This speeds up the sale time dramatically, compared to the days of physically presenting each item to the crowd.  This is an absolute necessity when the catalog has over 500 items for sale.

The day before the auction is preview day.  The auction site is open to the public so that they can get an up close look it any item that they might be interested in buying the next day.  Auction employees are stationed throughout the site to make sure that items are not moved, or lot number tags changed, and to answer any question about the items that have been inventoried for the sale.

Depending on the volume of items to be sold, a concession area may be on site.  These are typically run by charity groups as fund raisers, or outside vendors.  This is a great way to keep the bidders on site through the day.  My job on this day was concessions, including grill master and sales.

The auction starts promptly at the designated time.  With the video monitor, the auctioneers are able to got through around 100 lot numbers an hour, depending on how fierce the bidding wars become.  Items are sold absolute, unless the seller has put a reserve on it, which gives the seller the right to refuse or accept the highest bid, if it has not reached the "reserve" minimum bid.

Once the item has been sold, the auction company staff is at work preparing all the necessary paperwork for the item.  Most of this activity is done electronically, via "wifi connection" between all of the staff working in the background.

Once you have paid, you can take possession of your purchase, and have it verified at the exit door.  There is usually a day after the auction that is reserved for pickup of items too big or too heavy for the buyer to manage on auction day.

As quickly as the auction gets started, the concession area is already busy, with iced drinks, and smoke drawing them in for an early bite.

It was interesting to watch the crowd come and go.  Today's auction was at a motorcycle shop.  Lots of cycle guys, young and old, looking for a deal.  One young couple arrived on a "street rocket", with the female passenger hanging on, almost in the fetal position.  Lots of potential buyers, with weathered beards, or long ponytails neatly arranged in a French braid.  Then there was the "Blue tooth boys" who had me wondering, were they talking to themselves, each other, or somebody else in Blue tooth headset land.  Its funny to see buyers come out with items that were such a deal that they just could not resist bidding on and suddenly they hear the words SOLD!