To our valued auction customers:
Why Do Auctioneers Sell at Retail After the Auction Sale Has Concluded & Why Do The Bidders Buy This Way?
A number of Auctioneers have started appearing across the Province of Ontario advertising under the banner of "AUCTION SALE" through flyers delivered direct to your homes and businesses. Bidders are reporting that when you attend these sales, an auctioneer or an individual who stands at the front of the room and claims to be an auctioneer conducts somewhat of an offering of products for about an hour or 90 minutes. Once he has exhausted all the higher priced items in the room he then shuts down the auction sale, and tells the audience/bidders that he will now deal with them one on one if they want any of the items that were not purchased by auction.
The room then opens up on a retail selling level and bidders actually buy and pay more than they would have by auction. This makes no sense at all as an auction is where you determine what you pay for the items of interest.
This format only shows that the items were all reserved and had minimum bids that were not achieved when offered for auction. The public should be aware that any company that offers items for sale after the auction has concluded are not really auctioneers. They are simply using a method of advertising to assemble people in a room and hope that they can sell them one on one, rather than through the true auction process and experience.
Why would any bidder attend an auction sale, bid $500.00 and not be successful and then pay $1000.00 for the same item after the auction by private negotiation with the auctioneer.
One auctioneer in particular who seems to do this at every auction sale he appears at is "John D. Marshall". Bidders are reporting that they will not even stay at the auction sale after the preview period when they see who the auctioneer is. Charity events have also reported that this auctioneer performs in a similar manner at fundraisers.
This process is damaging to the auction experience and gives the bidder a false hope of obtaining items by live auction when advertised. Bidders should ask at the registration desk if the auctioneer sells after the sale has ended, if the answer is yes, you can assume the items carry very high reserves and that the majority will not be sold.
This happens quite often in the Real Estate Auctions, however the bidders are well aware that there is a minimum to moderate reserve on the property. Results have shown that the reserves also are too high and the process is not working for the buyer.
The flyers you find in your mail and newspapers should be the first tip off that the auction sale advertised is simply a retail sale. Bona fide "Auction Companies and Auctioneers" generally place their advertisements in dedicated auction sections of the newspapers and on their websites.
Chances are, any company advertising an auction sale by way of direct flyers to your home or business are in the retail business and conduct auction sales with novice or unlicensed auctioneers. Most of these purported auctioneers have no background in the Professional Auction business and it can be seen by attending any one of their sales within the first ten minutes of any sale.
1 comment:
Your right those guys have their heads up their asses!
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