Auctioneer

Auctions to buy and sell goods have taken place since antiquity. Almost everything imaginable has been sold through auctions: expensive artwork, antiques, stamps, coins and rare books being the most commonly known auction items. Yet auctioneers may also specialize in certain types of goods such as livestock, produce, real estate, vehicles, plants and equipment and general household items. The auctioneer's job is to obtain the best price possible for an item and then sell each piece to the person offering the highest purchase price. Therefore, auctioneers must be completely familiar with the goods they are selling so that they can recommend a realistic reserve price to vendors.

Auctioneers are best known for their fast-talking, which is called chanting. The rhythmic and speedy chant is used to create excitement and keep the sales moving steadily. The sometimes-confusing sounding chant is merely a series of numbers connected by "filler" words, which give buyers a bit of time to think between bids. Auctioneers must chant clearly in order for buyers to understand what they are saying. A typical chant may sound something like this: "Eighty, we got seventy five, looking for eighty, standing at 80,000, do I hear eighty? Can somebody gimme 80? We've got 75, any takers for eighty! Come on, 75 going once, going twice...sold to woman in the blue dress for 75,000 dollars. Thank you ma'am."

Auctioneers must appraise each item to be auctioned and set a reserve price in their catalog describing the item's potential worth. Auctioneers try not to sell items for less than the reserve price. Auctioneers will either advertise the auction in newspapers or established auction houses will hold auctions weekly or monthly on set days. Before the auction begins, the auctioneer tells bidders about the conditions of each sale. Bidders must register at the auction if they intend to purchase items. Holding up a bid card or raising a hand are methods of signalling one's next bid. When the bidding stops, buyers often must pay for purchases immediately, as well as make arrangements for pickup or delivery, at the buyer's expense.

Auctions are often held when companies go bankrupt and to sell off estates of people recently deceased. Therefore, businesses can buy special equipment at bargain prices or people can furnish their homes at a cheaper cost. Auctioneers generally work on a commission basis, taking a piece of each sale they make.

In the last few years with the explosion of the Internet, auctions now take place online and auctioneers work in the World Wide Web. Web based auction houses where millions of buyers and sellers auction off items each day, are becoming increasingly popular; however there is no traditional auctioneer involved.



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Auctioneer

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