AuctioneerTech - Auction Podcast

You’re listening to the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast. Today is Friday, 11 December, 2009. auctioneertech.com – technology, auction and auctioneers, auction tech for the auction industry.

Hello and welcome to the 20th episode of the Auction Podcast from AuctioneerTech. My name is Aaron Traffas and today we’re going to talk about the trends and shifts in buyer behavior that find consumers looking for items instead of auctions and what we auctioneers should do about it.

It used to be easy. Bidders used to check the auctions section in the newspaper for something to do on the weekends. We used to put an ad in the classifieds that listed the type of auction we were holding, trusting that the customers wanted to come to the auction. If you hold it, they will come.

Not anymore. Now, instead of looking for auctions to provide needed entertainment and activity, consumers are taking every opportunity to find a gap in their busy schedules that might provide much needed rest. Weekends are for chores and sporting events and movies, not traveling somewhere in hopes that there might be an item of interest that may or may not sell to a competing bidder anyway. Regular consignment auctions everywhere are noticing a decline in physical attendance, and with a few exceptions due to asset type or geography, it’s becoming clear that the interest consumers have in spending hours at auctions is waning.

What does this trend mean for the auction industry? Does it mean we should pack up our gavels and Half Mile Hailers and go home? Of course it doesn’t. It means we must recognize this change in consumer buying habits and adapt. There is still value in the secondary market. Consumers are no longer looking for auctions, they’re looking for items and they don’t really care how the items are sold. If we present better information about the items to the prospective bidders, they’ll make the effort to make the purchase.

An auction event is a collection of auction items. We auctioneers realize this marketing tactic, and it’s what sets us apart from other one-off competitive bidding sites like eBay. It allows us to more effectively advertise and use economics of scale to keep our costs down and to  do a better job for our sellers. What we need to understand and respect is that we must be more granular in our advertising and extend past the event and down to the item level.

The Internet is the obvious answer as a mechanism to list the items at our auctions. Since traditional media is becoming more expensive and less effective every day, our efforts should be focused towards driving customers from our traditional advertisements to our websites. Only there do we have the ability to convey the amount of information at essentially no cost to our clients.

What kind of information should we present and how should we present it?

Descriptions
The more information we convey, the better we can serve our bidders. Aspects such as year, make, model, style, color and condition are obvious components to a good description. If you list an item and someone asks a question about it, use that question as a tip to add the answer to the description so the next possible bidder won’t have to ask the same question.

Pictures
Digital cameras are cheap, and so is the film. A big memory stick and some freely-available picture processing software makes it amazingly easy to present many pictures of each item.

Sale order
Consumers don’t want to wait. While you don’t have to know the exact minute an item will sell, publishing a sale order on your website will let a bidder know when he’ll need to be at the auction or, in the case of Internet bidding, in front of his computer. Provide a sale order and don’t break from it.

While our websites are the most important places to present all of this information, they are not only places we should post our items. Internet auction calendars such as the National Auctioneers Association’s auction calendar, Global Auction Guide, the National Auction List and AuctionZip provide free or inexpensive venues to list our items. Craigslist, niche forums and bulletin boards are other places that may take a little more work but may generate a significant benefit for our sellers and our bottom lines.

The amount of information we can convey about each item is substantial. The more details we post for each item on our websites and those sites listed above, the more likely consumers are going to be able to find our items through auction- and non-auction search channels. If a consumer looks for an item using Google and we’ve posted that item on multiple websites with a link back to the auction listing on our site, that consumer is more likely to find our item and participate in our auction. If the item isn’t listed in the auction description, the consumer won’t know about it and will make a purchase from somewhere else.

It sounds like a lot of work. We can’t simply string out the items in a windrow on the lawn on the morning of the auction. Picturing, cataloging, data entry and item-level marketing are all important but labor-intensive and expensive components to modern auction preparation.

Buyers are looking for items. Our sellers are looking for buyers. Technology gives us new ways to advertise items to buyers for our sellers. The next generation of successful auctioneers isn’t going to be successful because those auctioneers have the best chant or the longest company histories . They’re going to be successful because they’ve figured out the most efficient workflow to present the most information in the most places about each individual item they’re selling.

That’s it for episode 20. Have a happy holiday season from AuctioneerTech and we’ll see you in 2010 with more episodes, interviews and the continuation of our video podcast series.

You’ve been listening to the Auction Podcast from AuctioneerTech. If you have suggestions, questions or comments, or are interested in being a guest, please let me know by going to www.auctioneertech.com/feedback and leaving a message. You can also post public comments about this or any other episode, as well as find show transcripts, on the Auction Podcast page of auctioneertech.com.

We follow @naaauctioneers on Twitter and so should you. Recent tweets from NAA have alerted us of today’s posting of video of the winners of the IAC to YouTube. Here are our 2009 IAC champions Kevin Borger and Terri Walker.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Overland Park, Kan.July 18, 2009 – The National Auctioneers Association (NAA) inducted three new members into its Hall of Fame: Marvin E. Alexander, CAI, of Martin, Tenn.; Larry Latham, CAI, of Las Vegas, Nev.; and Stephen D. Lewis of Morehead, Ky. The three inductees were honored at the 60th annual International Auctioneers Conference and Show in Overland Park, Kan. during the President’s Gala.

Marvin E. Alexander, CAI – Martin, Tennessee
Marvin E. Alexander became a professional auctioneer in 1963 when he founded his business, Alexander Auctions & Real Estate Sales in Martin, Tenn. In those days, Martin said he carried around a set of speakers, a calculator, and pads of clerking sheets when he bid-called. Now, the daily operations in the profession have changed drastically, as they rely more heavily on technological agents, but Marvin learned the work necessary to excel at the craft. Today, Marvin commands a mobile office, equipped with office machinery, sound equipment, and wireless clerking and cashiering systems for auction day.

Marvin specializes is in real estate, including industrial and commercial property, farm and development land, acreage tracts, and residential properties. In additional to being an NAA member and past board of director, Marvin is a member of the Tennessee Auctioneers Association, which he served a term as president, and Tennessee and National Realtors Associations. In 1989, Marvin won the International Auctioneer Championship (IAC) competition, and the All-Around World Champion Auctioneer competition in 1997.

Marvin is heavily involved in several community organizations, including the Goodwill Shrine Club, the University of Tennessee Rodeo Booster Club, and various high school, 4-H, and booster clubs.

Larry Latham, CAI – Las Vegas, Nevada
Larry Latham has dedicated his life to the sale of real estate, either by auction or private treaty. Larry began his career as a real estate auctioneer in the early 1980s. In 1984, he graduated from the Certified Auctioneers Institute (CAI) at Indiana University in order to expand his auctioneering prowess. Soon after, he was elected the first treasurer of CAI. In addition to being a leader within the association, Larry was a leader and a voice for the profession in Washington lobbying on behalf of the profession in Congress.

Prior to Larry entering the industry, real estate auctions were generally conducted on-site, which only allowed for one unit to be sold at a time. Realizing that selling real estate piecemeal was inefficient, Larry began gathering large amounts of auction-goers into hotel ballrooms and conducting large scale auctions. He marketed the properties and displayed photographs of the real estate and was able to successfully sell hundreds of properties at a single auction. During the Savings and Loan crises in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Larry was instrumental in selling large amounts of real estate for the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

By the mid-1990s, Larry sold his real estate auction business to Chase Bank and began work as a full-time real estate developer. Larry recently re-entered the auctioneering world in 2008 and created AmeriBid, a real estate auction company whose success includes the disposition of over 150,000 properties.

Larry has four daughters and one grandson.

Stephen Lewis – Morehead, Kentucky
Stephen Lewis was raised in the fast-paced world of auctioneering. His late father, NAA Hall of Famer C. Roger Lewis, established the successful auction company C. Roger Lewis Agency in 1958 in Morehead, Kentucky. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana in 1972, Stephen returned to Morehead to join the family business. The firm specializes in real estate auctions, as well as commercial and estate liquidations.

Stephen has served a term as a president for the Kentucky Auctioneers Association. Since 1985, he has served on the Kentucky Board of Auctioneers Licensing Board. A member of the NAA since 1973, Stephen has served the association as a treasurer and director. Currently, Stephen is a member of five professional organizations and sits on the Board of Trustees for three philanthropic organizations.

Stephen and his wife, Jan, have two daughters and three grandchildren.

2009 IAC Men's Champion Kevin Borger, image from omli.com

Overland Park, Kan.July 18, 2009 – From the pulpit to the auction podium, Kansas Auctioneer Kevin Borger commands attention when in front of an audience. On Friday evening at the 60th International Auctioneers Conference and Show in Overland Park, Kan., Kevin gained the attention and respect of auctioneers across the country and earned the coveted title of International Auctioneer Champion. Eighty-eight auctioneers graced the stage in the 21st annual International Auctioneers Championship. Joseph Mast of Millersburg, Ohio was awarded 1st runner-up, followed by Trev Moravec of Lincoln, Nebraska who was awarded 2nd runner-up honors.

An associate pastor and contract auctioneer, Kevin began his career as an auctioneer at an early age. After mowing lawns throughout the summer at the age of 13, Kevin had to choose between buying a dirt bike or attending auction school. He chose wisely and attended Reisch World Wide College of Auctioneering. He would attend a second time at the age of 15. When he isn’t preaching to his congregation at 1st Church of the Nazarene, Kevin can be found auctioning as a contract auctioneer for a range of Kansas auction firms. Kevin is an a Realtor and Auctioneer with Omli and Associates, Inc. of Salina, Kan. Kevin is a board of director with the Kansas Auctioneers Association (KAA) and has been a member of the NAA for over 10 years. A 2000 KAA bid calling champion, this year’s IAC competition was his second run at the title. His first attempt was in 2001 where he was a finalist.

Kevin resides in Hutchinson, Kan. with his wife, Beth, and their three children.

Overland Park, Kan. July 17, 2009 – Eighty-eight auctioneers from across the United States competed today in the preliminary rounds of the 21st International Auctioneer Championship competition. The competition is sponsored by the National Auctioneers Association and occurs during the 60th annual International Auctioneers Conference and Show. The IAC finals will begin at 7 p.m. today at the Overland Park Convention Center. To view live streaming video of the IAC finals visit www.naameeting.com.

Men’s Division Finalists: (Alphabetical Order)
Paul Adams, CAI – Middleton, ID
Kevin Borger – Hutchinson, KS
Cory Craig – Troylorville, IL
Eli Detweiler, Jr., CAI – Ruffin, NC
Rodney Johnson, AARE, BAS – Cannon Falls, MN
Cody Lowderman – Colchester, IL
Joseph Mast – Millersburg, OH
Paul McCartan – Rochester, MN
Trev Moravec – Lincoln, NE
Mike Nuss – Gering, NE
Troy Orr – Jamestown, ND
Zach Shelley – Haure de Grace, MD
Kevin Teets, CAI, CES – Mt. Clare, WV
Andy White – Ashland, OH
Mark Younger – Maryville, MO

Women’s Division Finalists: (Alphabetical Order)
Regina Andrijeski – Curtis, NE
Camille Booker, CAI – Richland, WA
Kristine Duininck, BAS – Spicer, MN
Anita Younger-Espey – Maryville, MO
Letitia Frye – Scottsdale, AZ
Heidi Hill, BAS, CES – Union, OR
Terri Walker, CAI, BAS, CES – Memphis, TN

Perhaps the most attended event of the International Auctioneers Conference and Show, the competition began in 1988 with the first IAC title being awarded to Paul C. Behr, CAI, of Denver, Colo. The IAC Women’s Division began in 1994, which was won by Marcy Goldring-Edenburn, CAI, of Farmington, Ill.

The top male and female winners of the IAC receive a cash prize of $10,000, trophy, and ring. The IAC competitors are judged on their presentation, chant, voice timbre, body language, and other performance elements of effective auctioneering. Participants are also judged on their answers of interview questions.

We’re settled in at the Overland Park Convention Center, ready to officially kick off the festivities tonight. The unofficial kick-off held last night with the Aaron Traffas Band at the Mayo Auction Center went very well. We’re going to drop a little of the formalities over the next few days with perhaps more frequent updates, using I instead of the shielded we, and perhaps even throw in some video if I can find someone to hold the camera.

I’ll be updating my TwitPic photostream regularly, so head over there for the pictures. Here’s the NAA’s press release I picked up from PRWEB.

Auctioneers ‘Sold’ on Kansas City
60th International Auctioneers Conference & Show – July 13-18, Overland Park, Kan.

Overland Park, Kan. (Vocus/PRWEB ) July 11, 2009 — Auctioneers from the across the world will travel to Overland Park, Kan. for the 60th International Auctioneers Conference & Show next week. This year’s conference will take place July 13-18 at the Overland Park Convention Center. This year’s event will feature over a thousand auctioneers celebrating one of the world’s fastest growing and oldest industries. The conference is coordinated by the National Auctioneers Association (NAA). Headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., the NAA is the nation’s largest association dedicated to the auction profession and industry.

The NAA and its members will be celebrating six decades of service at this year’s conference. Highlights of the conference include over 40 educational seminars ranging from technology in the auction industry, to growth in the real estate auction market. One of the major highlights of this annual event is its competitions. Each year the NAA crowns the world’s top male and female auctioneers at its conference. Auctioneers from across the world will compete for the coveted International Auctioneer Championship (IAC) title. In addition to the IAC competition, conference attendees will enjoy the International Ringman Championship (IRC) and the International Junior Auctioneer Championship (IJAC). Conference attendees will also be provided with one of the largest trade shows in the history of the event.

To learn more about Conference & Show, visit: auctioneers.org/conference2009.

In 2008, the live auction industry sold $268.4 billion in goods and services in the United States. The fastest growing sectors of the auction industry in 2008 were residential real estate and agricultural machinery and equipment auctions. With over $83 billion in gross sales, automobile auctions continue to lead the industry. The auction industry is vast and diverse with auctioneers specializing in a variety of markets, such as art/antiques, automobiles, machinery, real estate, personal property, and charity.

About the NAA
Headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., the National Auctioneers Association (NAA) represents the interests of approximately 4,400 auctioneers in the United States, Canada, and across the world. Founded in 1949, the mission of the NAA is to promote the auction method of marketing and enhancing the professionalism of its members through education and technology. To learn more about Auctioneers or to find an auctioneer, visit: www.auctioneers.org.

Contact:
Chris Longly
(913) 541-8084 ext. 31

# # #

Aaron Traffas Band to play Monday, July 13, at Mayo Auction Center

We’re finally back from the combine after a month away from auctions, technology and blogging, and we bring late-breaking news of an event that can’t be missed.

Robert Mayo of Mayo Auction and Realty has graciously offered to host a social event the day before NAA Conference and Show at his auction center in Kansas City. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s also hired the Aaron Traffas Band for entertainment.

The Aaron Traffas Band, fronted by this author, recently reformed with a new sound and new personel. It will be our first show with the new line-up and set list and we’re really excited to make our debut for our auctioneer friends the day before the world’s largest gathering of auctioneers commences in Overland Park, Kansas.

For those of you who are unable to make it to the convention or at least to the pre-convention social event, we’re planning on making a live stream available at multiple locations including, but not limited to, www.auctioneertech.com and www.aarontraffas.com. Tune in to either site at 6:30 p.m. CDT on Monday to catch the action. Follow @traffas on Twitter for more details.

The National Auctioneers Association announced yesterday that Senate resolution 86 was passed on Tuesday. This resolution officially designates April 18, 2009, as National Auctioneers Day. Here’s the text of the bill from govtrack.us.

SRES 86 ATS

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. RES. 86

Designating April 18, 2009, as ‘National Auctioneers Day’.

March 31, 2009

Committee discharged; considered and agreed to

RESOLUTION

Designating April 18, 2009, as ‘National Auctioneers Day’.

Whereas auctions have played an important role in the sale and exchange of goods for nearly 2,000 years;

Whereas auctions have been an integral part of the marketplace in the United States and around the world;

Whereas auctioneers sold nearly $268,400,000,000 in goods and assets in 2008;

Whereas the National Auctioneers Association has 5,000 members and has its headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas;

Whereas, in 2008, members of the National Auctioneers Association raised $16,000,000,000 for charity through benefit auctions;

Whereas auctions are growing in popularity and are used with increasing frequency in the marketplace;

Whereas, through competitive bidding, auctions demonstrate how the free enterprise system establishes fair market value;

Whereas trained professional auctioneers ensure that auctions are conducted in a manner that is fair to both buyers and sellers;

Whereas, in the past, Federal, State, and local governments have designated days and weeks to celebrate auctioneers; and

Whereas the designation by the Senate of April 18, 2009, as ‘National Auctioneers Day’ will heighten awareness of the contributions made by auctions and auctioneers to the economy, culture, and way of life of the people of the United States: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate designates April 18, 2009, as ‘National Auctioneers Day’.

Kansas auctioneer and NAA member Dave Webb was helpful in passage of this resolution, as was Chris Longly from NAA staff. Thanks, guys, for working to raise awareness about auctions and auctioneers.

One of the hats that many auctioneers wear is that of an appraiser. Appraisals can be court-ordered or requested by sellers wanting to know what their assets are worth. Many auctioneers, masters of the secondary market, serve as experts on the value of property.

We caught up with our friend Jack Christy, Sr., CAI, BAS, CES, MPPA, of Christys of Indiana, and asked him why appraisals were necessary. “Everything needs to be reappraised,” said Christy. “Antiques are down 70% in our market.”

Proper appraisals aren’t easy, and not all appraisals are the same. An appraiser must know before beginning work on a project if the appraisal is for replacement value, fair market value or liquidation value. These values are usually very different and serve different purposes. Because of the differences in appraisal types and qualities, it’s important to know that the person doing the appraisal is going to do it correctly and in a standards-compliant way.

Dr. Harlan Rimmerman, Director of Education for the NAA, says that new IRS regulations will require that the IRS look for credentials of appraisers. “They now want the appraiser to have credentials as well as experience. The credentials must come from an approved provider such as NAA. The GPPA course teachers those new IRS regs,” said Rimmerman.

The GPPA and MPPA designations from the National Auctioneers Association lend credibility to an auctioneer’s appraisals. The NAA’s GPPA program is a member of the Appraisal Foundation, the Congressionally-authorized entity in charge of regulating certified appraisers. The Appraisal Foundation publishes a set of standards known as the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). Here’s the course description for GPPA from the NAA website.

GPPA designation from NAA

The GPPA class examines the responsibilities of the appraiser and discusses the factors affecting the value of appraised items. Experts and classmates will discuss industry trends, the function of the appraiser, identification, valuation and methodology of appraisals, as well as the responsibility the appraiser has to the client.

The GPPA course also provides basic information about appraisal work including teaching you how to search for comps, what to look for as far as condition, identifying marks and other conditions.

You will learn about personal property, antiques, machinery, equipment, farm, and construction equipment. The instructors will provide examples as well as materials to help you start your appraisal business. You will also learn about the GPPA appraisal template and practice preparing an appraisal report using the template.

You will be able to customize a standardized appraisal format, market your appraisal services, enhance your research skills and improve your appraisals. An examination is given at the end of this course.

On the final day of GPPA you will participate in the Appraiser as Expert Witness program.

Christy, Education Institute Trustee and Chairperson of the GPPA Committee, said that the NAA is currently working with the International Society of Appraisers on an alliance that will work to augment the offerings and designations of each with those of the other. In addition to the standard five-day GPPA course, the NAA currently offers optional specialization courses in the following categories.

• Construction and agricultural equipment
• Manufacturing and process equipment
• Small business valuation
• Antiques and residential contents

Each of these optional courses is a two day course, offering 14 credit hours towards the 24 hours of continuing education mandated by the GPPA designation every three years. The alliance with the ISA will allow other specialization options in addition to those currently offered by NAA.

“It adds value to the invoice I send,” said Travis Hamele of Hamele Auctions. It also ads legitimacy with the courts. Judges who notice the designation are far more likely to accept the word of the auctioneer as expert testimony.

Once an auctioneer has years of experience conducting appraisals as GPPA, he or she may apply to receive MPPA. This is a peer-reviewed application and confirmation process that doesn’t require additional coursework outside of the yearly continuing education requirements for GPPA and all NAA designations. Once the committee reviews the application and judges that the auctioneer has demonstrated experience and professionalism in conducting appraisals, he or she may be designated Master Personal Property Appraiser or MPPA. If you’d like to learn more about GPPA or MPPA, visit the course webpage.

Arguably the most varied section of the auction industry with regards to training and professionalism is that of benefit auctions. There are many professionals who have been auctioneers for many years who specialize in charity and fundraising evens. Yet there are still many organizations who still hire DJs and hobbyist bid callers to perform their auctions. These uninformed organizations thus miss out on many of the more advanced money-making components and techniques brought to the table by professional benefit auctioneers.

What sets the professionals apart from the hobbyists? For what credential in an auctioneer’s resume can an organization look to assure them that the auctioneer can handle their event with education-induced professionalism?

The National Auctioneers Association offers the Benefit Auctioneer Specialist (BAS) designation course. It’s a three-day course that teaches the components, techniques and possible pitfalls of charity events from large-scale galas to smaller fundraisers. Here’s the description from the NAA website.

Benefit auctions are one of the fasting growing segments of the auction business.

This course is designed to teach the planning techniques that create successful benefit auctions. Learn to specialize your marketing skills and create a business strategy to build your clientèle and profits.

In addition to classroom instruction, students will usually attend a benefit auction to observe the process from start to finish.

Benefit Auctioneer Specialist, BAS

Course topics include:

• Fundraising components of benefit auctions
• Item acquisition
• Audience development
• Additional revenue items
• Contractual agreements
• Solicitation of benefit auction clients
• Public relations and self-promotion

Before receiving the designation, an auctioneer must submit a benefit auction summary report. As with all NAA designation courses, there is the yearly designation fee and continuing education requirement.

We caught up with Dee McKee, BAS, and asked her about her experience with the course.

The BAS designation can be earned by individuals who are not trained in bid calling, but who work in concert with professional auctioneers. Having a BAS designation brings an auction professional with both technical and legal expertise to benefit fundraising events. The use of contract is emphasized as it focuses and assigns responsibilities on details such as sound system, ringing, settlement amounts, and access to addresses. This along with BAS knowledge in how to generate the maximum dollars through timing and introduction of diverse marketing, bidding and staging methods can make significant differences in the dollar results of any benefit event.

If you’re an auctioneer looking to expand into the charity and benefit sectors, taking the BAS course is a must. If you’re an organization looking to increase your bottom line from your fundraising, look for an auctioneer with the BAS designation.

NAA CEO Hannes Combest, CAE - image via GCM Blog

Hannes Combest, CAE, is the Chief Executive officer of the National Auctioneers Association. Yesterday, she launched a blog over at Blogspot with a series of articles about the Certified Auctioneers Institute, currently underway in Bloomington, Indiana. We’ll be covering CAI next week as the conclusion of our series on NAA designations, but head over to Hannes’s blog now for some great play-by-play accountings of the most educational and exciting offering from the NAA Education Institute.

To our knowledge, Hannes’s blog is the first and only blog from a member of NAA staff. We hope Hannes continues to post and that blogging might become part of the official duties of several members of NAA staff, perhaps officially making it into the new NAA website which is currently in the works.

You’ll find a permanent link to her blog in the blogroll of auction support sites in the lower right column of this website. If you know of any other non-vendor, non-auctioneer weblogs or websites, please let us know in the comments.

“You only have one opportunity to sell the family estate. Shouldn’t you make sure you have a top-notch professional?” The tag line for the Certified Estate Specialist (CES) designation course from the National Auctioneers Association makes clear the importance of choosing the right professional to handle your estate.

There is much more to properly handling the entirety of someone’s worldly possessions than dragging it all out on the lawn on auction day – or worse, windrowing it on the lawn and tagging each piece with a price. An auctioneer with the CES designation knows what to do, how to do it and who should be involved.

Here’s the official description from the NAA CES website.

A Certified Estate Specialist has advanced education in exactly how to deal with the settling of estates, from working with family members to dealing with lawyers and accountants.

Certified Estate Specialists are accustomed to dealing with other professionals, such as CPAs, tax attorney’s, financial planners and family lawyers. They are familiar with the legal requirements and restrictions on their geographic areas, and will use their knowledge to bring the greatest return to those involved in the sale.

Learn to market your services to professionals (CPAs, trustees, tax attorneys, financial planners, etc) who deal with estates.

Certified Estate Specialist

This course covers:

• Legal and financial aspects
• Duties
• The relationship of parties involved in an estate
• The role of the auctioneer
• How to position your firm to take advantage of this opportunity

This recently-overhauled, three-day course is taught by one of several, excellent instructors. It teaches auctioneers both how to professionally and profitably manage estate liquidations as well as better market auction services to other professionals who may be executors and decision makers for estates.

As with any NAA course, the benefits of the solid course materials are greatly augmented by the interaction with the instructor and the other auctioneers in the class. Your next opportunity to take CES is July 11 through 13, just before this year’s NAA 60th Annual International Auctioneers Conference and Show in Kansas City.

The sale of real estate at auction has become an increasing trend in the United States. Having long been the default method of liquidation for distressed properties, real estate auctions are becoming mainstream. More and more buyers and sellers of real estate are realizing that the auction method of marketing can many times be superior to traditional real estate listings.

The National Association of Realtors claim that “[all] types of property can be sold at auction. For sellers, auctions mean immediate cash and no long-term carrying costs. For buyers, auctions can save time and money.” The National Auctioneers Association claims that over $58 billion in real estate was sold at auction in 2007. Real estate auction volume has increased each year since the NAA started tracking it in 2003.

Having long recognized the importance of real estate as a component of the auction industry, the NAA offers a professional designation called AARE – Accredited Auctioneer Real Estate. AARE is a  prestigious designation, held only by several hundred auctioneers worldwide.

Here’s the official description from the NAA website.

An auctioneer with the AARE designation has gone the ‘extra mile’ to ensure they offer the highest level of professionalism and the most up-to-date information when it comes to selling properties. Whether selling residential, agricultural, commercial or industrial properties, AARE auctioneers have enhanced knowledge in all pertinent areas, such as:

Accredited Auctioneer Real Estate

• Marketing techniques
• Financial/investment calculations
• Evaluating cash flow
• Holding-period analysis
• Tax consequences of buying and selling properties
• Multi-parcel real estate auctions

We asked AuctioneerTech friend Tom Jordan, CAI, AARE, CES, MPPA, why an auctioneer should take the AARE courses. Tom is a member of the AARE committee and a candidate for NAA Education Institute Trustee. He posted his reply on his blog. Here’s what he said.

Most real estate brokers are taught how to sell real estate the traditional way by listing the property and putting it in MLS. They either learned this through going to a state approved real estate school or the real estate agency they work for or both. The auction method is not taught in real estate schools, though there is nothing wrong with selling real estate the traditional way – not all properties are good for auction and, on the flip side, some properties will do better at auction. The NAA Education Institute designed the AARE designation to fill the knowledge void both for Realtors(R) and auctioneers and real estate brokers of the auction method of how to sell real estate at auction.

Tom also noted that the second of the three courses was recently rewritten to make it flow better. The course now requires a working knowledge of using a calculator for financial functions so the class time can be spent on learning real estate- and auction-related equations.

The AARE course is offered is three classes. Each AARE class is two days in length.

• 100 Emphasizes how to market residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial properties
• 200 Learn the techniques for evaluating cash flow, holding period analysis, tax consequences of auctions and the challenges associated with each
• 300 Working in groups, students evaluate properties, design a proposal to get the sale, and plan, conduct and prepare a post-auction report

The NAA requires that each auctioneer with the AARE designation successfully complete all three classes as well as submit documentation of ten auctions, an auction summary report and an application to gain the designation. In addition to the initial requirements, there is the standard yearly designation fee and requirement for continuing education.

Realtor(R) Dave Sommers, AARE, recently received the designation. “The instructors were excellent,” he said, “especially Manson Slik. The course makes what you’ve been doing seem fresh. As with all NAA courses, the additive benefit of the camaraderie with others adds so much to the course materials. Knowing that there are other auctioneers who have dealt with the same problems you’ve had and can walk you through solving them is an invaluable benefit.”

Your next opportunity to take the AARE courses is in Chicago in April. For a list of upcoming courses from the NAA, see the NAAEI Events List.

This press release from late February isn’t exactly exciting, but it isn’t exactly unexpected. While the auction industry, on a whole, hasn’t been hurt nearly as badly as other sectors of the economy, the tune we’ve been hearing from auctioneers everywhere has quite definitely waxed somber.

Overland Park, Kan., February 20, 2009 – The National Auctioneers Association (NAA), the nation’s leading association of auction professionals, reported today the results of its 2008 industry survey. In 2008, approximately $268.4 billion in goods and services were sold at live auction in the United States, a decrease of slightly less than 1% compared to 2007.

Growth in 2008 was limited to five sectors of the industry: agricultural machinery and equipment, commercial and industrial machinery and equipment, land and agricultural real estate, residential real estate, and charity auctions. Significant decreases in gross revenue were reported in art, antiques and collectibles (-9.3%), automobile (-5.4%), and personal property (-5.1%) auctions.

“The results of the industry survey are consistent with what we are continually hearing from auctioneers across the country. While some sectors of the industry have been impacted by the economy, others have grown or held strong,” said NAA President Randy Wells. “Consumers continue to attend auctions to find treasures and sellers continue to utilize professional auctioneers to help turn their assets into cash.”

Agricultural machinery and equipment auctions led the industry with gross sales revenue increasing 1.9% in 2008. The commercial and industrial machinery and equipment sector also witnessed growth last year. In addition to increased interest in auctions, growth in this sector can be associated with consumers choosing to purchase used equipment at auction, in place of buying new.

Since the NAA began tracking the industry in 2003, gross receipts from real estate auctions have increased each year. Last year, residential real estate auctions increased 1.1%, along with land and agricultural real estate, which grew 0.5%. Commercial real estate dipped 1.4% last year. Real Estate Owned (REO) properties were also a major contributor to the industry’s growth in 2008. Banks frequently contract professional auctioneers to sell foreclosed properties at auction, as well as refer auctioneers to customers with troubled assets and use them to sell their own foreclosed properties.

The NAA released the following press release on Wednesday. As the NAR continues to recognize the value of auctions for more than just distressed property, it’s good to have Bill Sheridan involved so directly.

REALTORS® Appoint Former NAA President to Lead Auction Forum Committee

Bill Sheridan appointed to head NAR Auction Forum Committee, image via sheridanauctionservice.com

Overland Park, Kan., February 4, 2009 – Michigan auctioneer and past president of the National Auctioneers Association (NAA), William (Bill) L. Sheridan, CAI, AARE, was recently appointed by National Association of Realtors® (NAR) President Charles McMillan to serve as chairman of the association’s Auction Forum Committee. As president of the NAA in 2007, Mr. Sheridan served as a member of the REALTORS® Board of Directors for one-year. As chairman of the committee, Bill will lead a forum at NAR’s mid-year legislative conference and national convention for the next two years. The purpose of the forum is to educate REALTORS® about the advantages of working with professional auctioneers and the benefits of utilizing auctions in the selling of real estate.

Real estate auctions continue to grow in popularity as more and more consumers are utilizing the auction method of marketing to buy and sell real estate. Industry research has shown that residential real estate auctions were the fastest growing sector of the quarter-trillion dollar auction industry. In 2007, gross revenue of residential real estate auctions increased 5.3% with total sales growth of residential real estate sold at auction increasing increased 46.6% between 2003-2007.

“It is an honor to chair this committee for the REALTORS® and act as a liaison between these two wonderful professions,” said Bill Sheridan. “The Auction Forum allows auctioneers to educate Realtors about the auction method of marketing, as well as how to earn commission income together in partnership. There are numerous advantages to using auctions to buy and sell real estate in today’s marketplace.”

Bill Sheridan is the founder and president of Sheridan Realty and Auction Company in Mason, Michigan. An auctioneer of over 30 years, Bill specializes in real estate and agriculture related auctions. Sheridan is a licensed broker and auctioneer in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Sheridan has earned Certified Auctioneers Institute (CAI) and Accredited Auctioneer of Real Estate (AARE) designations. In addition to being a member of the NAA and NAR, Mr. Sheridan’s professional affiliations include the Michigan Association of Realtors, Michigan State Auctioneers Association, American Society of Farm Equipment Appraisers, International Society of Appraisers, Livestock Marketing Association, National Cattleman’s Beef Association, and other regional REALTOR® organizations.

To learn more about Bill Sheridan visit www.sheridanauctionservice.com or call 517.676.9800.

As we were searching for the links for our coverage of the KAA Winter Convention, we were surprised by the almost-complete lack of designations listed with each auctioneer on his or her respective staff pages. While it’s possible that all of the auctioneers for whom we were searching simply didn’t have any designations, we think it’s more likely that those auctioneers who had designations simply didn’t have them listed. Listing an auctioneer’s designations next to his name on every piece of marketing material as well as the website is an important pieces of a holistic institutional marketing campaign.

While many auctioneers use the basic education found at an auction school and are happy conducting business indefinitely based solely on those fundamentals, more and more auctioneers are realizing the importance of continuing education to ensure that their businesses are using modern business practices.

There are currently seven professional designation courses offered by the National Auctioneers Association institute. These designations prove to prospective buyers and sellers that an auctioneer has continued to learn and improve his processes.

CAI – Certified Auctioneers Institute

AARE- Accredited Auctioneer Real Estate

ATS – Auction Technology Specialist

BAS – Benefit Auction Specialist

CES – Certified Estate Specialist

GPPA- Graduate Personal Property Appraiser

MPPA – Master Personal Property Appraiser

We covered the new ATS designation back in November. We’ll be covering each of the remaining designations in the next couple of months, concluding with an article on CAI in March.

Kurt Aumann, CAI, ATS

Joining me today for the fourth in the Auctioneer Interview Series is my friend Kurt Aumann, CAI, ATS. Kurt is an auctioneer for Aumann Auctions from Nokomis, Illinois, and is currently the Vice Chairman of the National Auctioneers Association Education Institute Trustees.

You’re listening to the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast. Today is Wednesday 28 January 2009. Auctioneertech.com. Technology, auctions and auctioneers, auction tech for the auction industry.

AuctioneerTech: Hello and welcome to the fifteenth episode of the Auction Podcast from the AuctioneerTech. My name is Aaron Traffas and joining me today for the fourth if our ActioneerTech.com interview series is my friend Kurt Aumann, CAI, ATS. Kurt is an auctioneer for Aumann Auctions from Nokomis, Illinois, and is currently the Vice Chairman of the National Auctioneers Association Education Institute Trustees. Good evening, Kurt, and thank you for joining me.

Kurt Aumann: Well thanks for the invite and I’ve been looking forward to this.

AT: We are trying something new this episode and we will try and do it in the future, but we are streaming this live, the recording anyway, from auctioneertech.com, so if you’re listening to this in the recorded version, know that if you pay attention to the website in the future you’ll be able to watch us recording these live. Back to the questioning, Kurt, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be an auctioneer.

KA: Well I grew up in the business and went to auction school at the tender age of 12, so I have been in it my entire life. My dad started a business and it was, I would say a small local business – maybe county wide. And there were a lot of household and state auctions and so on and so forth. After I got out of school, I decided that maybe that universe just wasn’t quite big enough for me so we started focusing the business more on some niche markets. Things have grown since, so it’s been a good ride.

What is Aumann Auctions today and what kind of stuff specifically do you sell?

Well, we have a staff of about a half a dozen auctioneers and we’ve got 16 members of our support staff and we followed several niches, you know, throughout the company – throughout the evolution of the company. We have some things that we don’t sell anymore. Things we’re active in right now are the toy market, the petroliana market – the signs and the gas pumps, gas globes – we do a tremendous amount of business with antique tractors and actually do that world wide. Lately we’ve been getting into intellectual property, selling existing business as on going entities, and some commercial liquidations and of course real estate with the focus on farmland.

Aumann Auctions is one of many members of the MarkNet Alliance. You were involved, I believe, in the creation of that franchise. What is MarkNet Alliance and why did you build it?

Well, it’s legally a franchise, but frankly we operate more like a coop. kind of like the old farmers coop elevator, and it allows us to service national contracts, that we wouldn’t normally have a chance of service on an individual basis. That really creates a distribution network that we can use and it’s allowed many of us to really book some business and do some business that we wouldn’t normally have gotten a chance to do. It’s a best practices group. We share ideas and our resources and a lot of partnerships on different deals form. It’s a little hard to describe in just a few minutes, but it’s been a fantastic experience and we’ve got a really, really great group of guys that are in it and I really look forward anything that I do with MarkNet.

I was teaching the ATS course this last November in Baltimore and we were demonstrating different website technologies when incidentally went to your website and was demonstrating that, among others, when I discovered your Streamline Bid system. What is that and what does that do for you that other existing products do not?

Well, it’s actually it’s an online bidding system like many of them that are out there. The only difference is that it’s integrated into a piece of backend software. So it’s also integrated in the project management and task list and managerial over sight. It’s a piece of a much larger piece of software that serves a function of live capturing and conducting oline auctions.

We delayed the recording of this episode by a few days because you had this big auction that you mentioned earlier a couple of days ago that you’ve been working on for a while. Tell me a little bit about the propriety and kind of how you handled the event and how it went.

Well, actually I have to give MarkNet a part of the credit for this deal because it certainly helped us win the contract, at least that’s what the sellers told us. It was a project of selling an estate and was 3900 acres, almost 4000, and it was all high quality, highly productive farmland, over 99% tilable, and it was over 1600 acres that was contiguous which is very unusual in our part of the world. I know you get out in your country, Aaron, out in Kansas it’s not so unusual, but whenever the farms back here – there’s a lot of farms broken up in forties, eighties and in 160s, so to get 1600 acres contiguous is a pretty big feat. We broke the farm up into 43 different tracks and offered it in a multi-parcel method. The auction took just a little over 6 hours and it brought 24 million dollars. So it was a great day.

I assume you had some help from your MarkNet partners in the actual conducting of that auction – or was it handled exclusively with Aumann Auction staff?

Well, we had all of our staff there, but there were also a lot of MarkNet members that came in and worked the floor. I’ve gotta tell you that I had the likes of Troy Crowe and Bryce Hansen and Brian Beckort and J.J. Dower and Chris Pracht, Joe Burns. I had a team on the floor. As you know on the multiparcel method sale, those floor guys are the ones that make the money, and explain the process and the bidding methods to those bidders and it was a sight to see. It really was, ’cause I mean those guys were just all all-stars and it came off very smoothly. I gotta tell you, and it’s not just because I did the project, but I don’t think we left a dime on the table.

Wow. That was actually the term I was gonna use in describing that crew of auctioneer you just named was all-stars. It sounds like a great team that anybody would be pretty lucky to have on site at an event. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I don’t know for certain that I’ve covered it or that I’ve discussed it a whole lot with any of my guests up to this point. Would you, if you wouldn’t mind, briefly kind of describe what the multipar auction method is, how it works and what kind of software, if any, you used for this event?

The method is actually, in my opinion, the absolute fairest way to sell a piece of real estate because it allows the small tract buyer to bid at the same time with a large tract buyer by allowing the auction to proceed by the cumulative total, not by the individual track price. So in other words, three small tract buyers, the total of the bids for three small tract buyers, as long as they exceed the bid of the large tract buyer, then that’s how the propriety sells. So it gives the bidder the freedom to put together any combination of tracts he wants to put together. So it sounds a little confusing when you see it. I always tell people that the best way to understand it is to just place a bid. You start to understand the process really quickly then.

So did your propriety sell – how many buyers were winners on your propriety and was it broken up or was is pretty big chunks that were bought and how long did the auction take?

Auction took six hours and we actually had 10 buyers, although one of the buyers was a consortium of farmers that elected to bid collectively. So that was the largest bid up on the board which was around $15.5 million and that was about 2,400 acres and 2,400 acres ended up being divided, I think, 16 times, maybe, something like that. So there were 16 people in that consortium.

What technology tools did you use during the sale and in a normal course of multi-par?

Of course we used a piece of multipar software that we’ve modified a little and came off well. Probably the neatest thing we did that we got the most comments on was we really made it a multimedia event; we had a lot of screens. We had video coverage throughout the room and of course we had alternate screens between different bid boards so people can get any kind of information they wanted at any time. It really came off well; it looked like a multiplex theater.

Well certainly congratulations on it, I heard nothing but good things both from you and from other people around you that I’ve talked to since you conducted the event. It sounds like it was done very well and very professionally. You are based there in Nokomis Illinois, a bustling metropolis of a couple thousand people.

Actually downtown Nokomis

Downtown Nokomis. Little smoggier down there than it is elsewhere?

That’s right, that’s right. I mean I just wanted to draw that distinction.

Well, there were you are, about an hour and a half I think northeast of Saint Louis, as an auctioneer of some more specialty kinds of items – you mentioned the petroliana and the toy market and the antique tractor market – what are some ways you’ve overcome the problems posed by geography using technology or other means?

The remainder of this episode will soon be posted.

We’ve received some search traffic from users searching for the phrase Auction Listing Specialist. As involved as we are with the National Auctioneers Association (NAA) and not ever hearing of such a course or designation, we decided to search it out as any responsible skeptic would.

It seems that Auction Listing Specialist is a course offered by a Delaware company called Auction Work at Home. It looks to be an instructional course for eBay users, not auctioneers. From what we can tell, the concept is that the service farms out to its members the labor for creating eBay listings and processing the sales and rebates on merchandise sold.

Skimming through the extremely long information page that describes the service, you can find an asking price of $197. You’ll also see warnings at the end of the page about how the price will soon go up substantially, how there are very limited time benefits available for those who sign up immediately and how today is probably the final day before they reach their limit. It seems there are only so many people who can take the course, though the material advertises elsewhere how over 1,000 people have already taken the course. Smart money says that the page hasn’t changed in some time and won’t for some time.

You’ll see the claim that “this is the only certified program in the world for auction listing…”. We think that the program isn’t so much for auction listings but rather for eBay listings. While eBay uses competitive bidding for some of the listings there and can technically be described as an auction marketplace, auctions are rapidly becoming a minority of selling methods on eBay, and calling an eBay training service an Auction Listing Specialist course seems like it might open the door for some people to mistakenly assume that the course is for auctioneers instead of eBay users.

We couldn’t find in the offer materials the name of the person or agency who certified the program and didn’t certify any other programs. While it’s the first and only eBay listing program we’ve seen, we haven’t look very hard for any others. We know for a fact that the Auction Technology Specialist (ATS) course offered by the National Auctioneers Association is a course certified by the NAA Educational Institute and that it does a good job instructing auctioneers how to do a good job listing items for real auctions. It is the only technology and auction listing course offered by the National Auctioneers Association.

The business model description includes references to a fixed profit of something like $13 per listing. This information suggests that each listing would have a fixed price or a minimum, which means that the listings wouldn’t really be auctions anyway. If the listings are truly auctions, the business model would have to ensure that at least $13 profit was made on each item, but capping the payments to the person listing the items means that any additional profit, based on the sales price less the cost of goods sold and less eBay’s commissions, wouldn’t go to that person.

The materials also reference processing rebates. We’ve purchased items from eBay that have had the bar codes cut off and now wonder if such products might have originated from services such as this one.

All in all, this program makes many claims and statements that deserve a skeptical investigation. It may be a viable and profitable enterprise, but we’ve studied it enough to know two things. If we wanted to be more educated about listing items on eBay, we’d visit the eBay Learning Center. If we wanted to learn how to be better at listing items for auctions, we’d take the Auction Technology Specialist course offered by the NAA.

UPDATE: After this post was published, I tried to close the tabs. Two JavaScript pop-ups prevented me from doing so. One pop-up offered an additional $50 discount which brought the price down to $147 and the other strongly encouraged me not to leave. I’m still not gong to say this service is a scam, but if it isn’t then why does it employ the same JavaScript pop-ups commonly used by scam sites?

AuctioneerTech featured in January edition of Auctioneer magazine

In our minds, one of the best of the many benefits of being a member of the National Auctioneers Association is the Auctioneer magazine, a monthly periodical that is filled with information about auctions and auctioneers. Articles from NAA officers keep members briefed on the association. Articles from guest writers and other regular columns keep members informed about the industry.

Pages 26 and 27 of the January 2009 issue feature an article about AuctioneerTech and this author written by Hannes Combest, NAA Chief Executive Officer. If you’re a member, don’t forget that you can login to the members section of auctioneers.org to view the magazine even if you haven’t yet received yours in the mail.

Auctioneers educate consumers with launch of Auction Answers

The National Auctioneers Association has recently posted Auction Answers on its home page. The document is a PDF with answers to many common questions, such as “What is the auctioneer really saying?” and “Why sell at auction?” Auction Answers originated in partnership with USA Today and its semiweekly feature, Auction Showcase, which advertises auctions from around the country.

“Auctions fascinate consumers. They’re not only entertaining and fun, but also a great place to buy and sell goods and assets,” said NAA President Randy Wells. “For many, auctions can be intimidating and confusing at times. The goal of Auction Answers is to clear up much of the confusion surrounding auctions, such as terminology and its process. We want every bidder to be prepared to bid on auction day and feel comfortable when they raise their bid paddle.”

In addition to launching Auction Answers, the NAA recently made available from its website a link to the NAA Auction Newsroom. This site offers links to news articles related to the auction industry. There are already several ways to get news about the industry, most revolving around setting a notification using Google Alerts or Google News. What makes the NAA Auction Newsroom different is that the NAA has already filtered the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and eliminated all the non-relevant articles relating to eBay and other celebrity or non-professional auctions that would turn up in a search but not be related to the auction industry. “This is a very exciting tool because prior to this we could not replicate new stories due to copyright restrictions,” wrote Chris Longly, Director of Public Affairs and Communications for NAA, in an email. “I would add that members can place this link on their business website as well as another avenue to promote auctions.” Longly said the NAA Auction Newsroom would be featured in January’s Auctioneer magazine, so keep an eye out for yours in the mail if you’re a member of the NAA.

Over a quarter-trillion dollars in goods and services sold at auction in 2007, and it’s great to see the NAA take a leading role in evangelizing the auction method of marketing. We’ve mentioned previously some of the great educational offerings from the association, and we’ll be talking more about the USA Today Auction Showcase very soon.

Darron Meares

AuctioneerTech – Joining me today for the second in the Auctioneer Interview Series is my friend Darron Meares, CAI, GPPA. Darron is Chief Operating Officer, auctioneer and lead asset appraiser for the Meares Auction Group. He is also a member of both the National Auctioneers Association and the South Carolina Auctioneers Association boards of directors. Good evening, Darron, thank you for joining me.

Darron Meares – Hey, Aaron, how are you? I appreciate the invite and I don’t know if I’ve ever had that good of an introduction anywhere.

AT – Well, introduce yourself to us. Tell us a little about your yourself and your background and how you came to be an auctioneer.

DM – Well, my name is Darron Meares. I am the Chief Operating Officer, now, of the Meares Auction Group. We had a little bit of a change in our company here lately and I don’t know if I’ve moved up the ladder or down the ladder, but still. I started in the auction business full time about six years ago. I’ve been in it all my life. My dad started a company in 1972. I think I worked my first auction about 1977-1978 running bid cards, the clerking tickets, things like that. I think I moved up from there to concession stand and then on up the ladder and I finally said, “Look, it’s time for me to get up in front of the crowd.” So, one of the first auctions he let me ring was with Ivan Broadwell and the PTL auctions. If you remember Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, that was probably one of the first auctions I stood on stage in front of a large crowd and I was probably 10 or 11 years old. I traveled the country with the NAA. Probably my first convention was Las Vegas, 1981, and then Houston and on down the line. Being from an auctioneer family, my parents followed the NAA and the South Carolina association, and throughout the time in the profession I have been able to meet, greet and work with a good number of the leaders in our profession and I appreciate the opportunity that everyone has given to me to serve on the auctioneer boards in South Carolina as well as the national association. Other than that, I just do everything that I can to advance the auction profession and try to find new ways to advance our company and the profession. I teach a lot of CE seminars. As a matter of fact, I’m leaving November 20 to go to Cabo San Lucas to speak at the Industrial Auctioneers Association convention, so I do a good bit of traveling. My wife doesn’t like that part, but I think I’m setting a firm foundation for the next generation of auctioneers coming up.

Wonderful. What kind of firm is Meares Auction Group and what kind of assets do you specialize in?
Well, the Meares Auction Group is an umbrella for three companies. We have Meares Auctions Inc. which specializes in estates and collectibles, namely coin and firearm collections. We do a little bit of commercial and industrial. The second part of that company is headed up by my father, Larry Meares. That is Meares Land and Auction Company. And then we all join forces for Southeastern School of Auctioneering. It’s the only full-time auction school in South Carolina.

Well, I tell you that was something that grew out of the CAI class that you and I attended. We had had some discussions about some directions with the company and some things like that and one of the biggest things that I had seen in our area is the benefit, fundraising and charity auctions. The bow tie came along with the southern gentleman, which I don’t know how well I fit that bill, but, still, the southern part works. I went ahead and said, and most people that know me know that I’m a little bit different from the crowd, so with everybody wearing long-neck ties I decided to go a different route and pull some of the southern roots out and learn to tie a bow tie, thanks to my wife, and start wearing those. The Bowtie Benefits end of it came about because I needed a catchy title and bowtiebenefits.com was available on the web and I just added those two together. My goal for 2008 was 10 benefit auctions. So far this year I have either booked or conducted 22. One of my favorite events I look back on was the Gary Player Invitational. Gary Player, the professional golfer, moved his golf course design devision to Greenville, South Carolina. I had a chance to work with him this summer and they hired me to become their auctioneer for 2008 and 2009 and possibly 2010. So we’ve grown by leaps and bounds, there’s no doubt about it, and I love every minute of it.

Boy, it sounds like it. With all of these different venues that you are pursuing, I’m sure that you are not the only one involved. It’s great that you come from a family business. What are some ways that you keep your sales associates and your auction managers and everybody on the same page in collaboration and communication with each other?

Well, I believe in weekly staff meetings. There are some people that don’t believe in meetings. You know, they say that if you meet for 30 minutes in house you save an hour in the field. You meet an hour in house you save up to three hours in the field. So, I believe that if everyone is on the same page with the meeting schedule and we keep a standard operating procedure in place for different facets of the company, everybody’s on the same page. One of the things that we’ve instituted is, even though if somebody comes up and says, “Hey, I’ve got to have this auction right now”, we don’t do anything until we’ve meet at the weekly staff meeting. We bring proposals to the table, we talk about marketing, we talk about the structure of the auction – inside, outside, online, on-site, whatever it is – and everybody has a chance to voice their opinion. One thing that I like to make sure of is that anybody can voice their opinion. Now, of course, some people won’t do it. Some people like me do it more often, but everyone has a chance to do it in an open, non-threatening atmosphere where if somebody comes up with something off the wall, absolutely, let’s try it. If it’s something we’ve done in the past that hasn’t worked, we’ll bring it up and say, “Hey that didn’t work” and we’ll tweak it a little bit. But I think to keep everybody on the page you have to have standard operating procedures written down that everybody can look at and follow.

What are some of the main ways that you handle the marketing for your events? What are your favorite marketing venues? What are some things you have tried that have worked and some things that you probably won’t try again in the near soon?

Well, one that I will not try again is a billboard. It did not work for us. We got a little bit of traffic here and there to the website, a couple of phone calls – but nothing like a billboard should do. A billboard is mainly a reminder. You drive that venue every day, and – just say it’s on a main thoroughfare to somebody’s work – they see it, they see it, they see it – well, bam, it disappears. Literally and figuratively it’s still there, but in their mind it’s disappeared. It’s blended into the landscape and they don’t see it anymore. Of course – you and I have talked about this many times – the Internet. That is one of our biggest advertising medium that we use. You can stretch a dollar further…that the best way to stretch a dollar. If you got marketing dollars – just say you throw out a thousand dollar marketing campaign – you’ve got the Internet and various sources on there that are absolutely free. Craigslist is one. We advertise on realbird.com for some of our real estate auctions. I think it’s a $89-$99 dollars a year for as many listings you can put on it. The cool thing about RealBird is you take those listings and it gives you the HTML code to paste into Craigslist so that you don’t have a text Craigslist listing, you can have a RealBird flyer into your Craigslist listing. eNeighborhoods is coming up big for researching real estate neighborhoods and demographics. RealBird has a section on there that they can pull the school district information and things like that. eBay – the $150 classified listings – has worked for us. There are a thousand other websites out there that we’ve used from time to time. The AuctionServices email blast of one of the big ones that we’ve used for our collections when they’ve been online through Proxibid. We’ve also used the Proxibid slider adds that appear on the Proxibid homepage. We’ve done that and we’ve had good traffic from there. I’m trying to think. Email blasts, definitely. We try to send out at least one week. I like the way – there’s a company out there and of course I’m not going to hawk companies that don’t use – but there’s a company out there that always sends out an email blast that says there’s still time to register for you know, whatever event it is. I think that pretty cool and I’ve sort of tweaked that just a little bit, you know, registration’s open for this auction. Marketing with email. If you do it the right way and you use the first couple of lines of text that appear in Outlook and Zimbra and Eudora and however many client you have out there, that first couple of lines is the most important because that’s your attention grabbing part. You know, I could go on and on and on about this, but I don’t want to go too far because I’m teaching part of this in CAI II this year and I don’t want to go too far with it.

No worries there. What’s your position on on on print and traditional advertising – newspapers and direct mail – is that something that you continue to pursue? Are you reducing its importance?

Reducing it. Absolutely reducing it, and I’ll tell you this. What we found is – and you look at some of the [unknown] that are out there for print media – every everything in print media’s going down right now because people are looking more and more to their emails. You know if you carry a Blackberry or a Treo or an iPhone – something that gathers emails – you’re going to look at that and use that as a marketing tool more often than print. Now one thing that we have done, we sort of tweaked our print a little bit. We have an advertising contract with one of our newspapers here in the area and we go ahead and, you know, block off X amount of dollars per year so that we get a better rate. Problem with that is, you get a better rate per line but that means you got put in more lines to make that goal. Well, what we did, we looked into it a little bit further and found that the newspaper also does two magazines, they do fifteen different publications, four more newspapers – so what we’ve done is used our advertising contract to advertise in other areas. There’s an ad…it’s a 2×3 ad in a Wednesday paper in our main paper and it gives you a display ad for one day that you can put pictures, a whole lot more information in than any classified ad. So we’ve reduced it but we tweaked it a little bit. Postcards? We were doing the 5 1/2 by 11 size colossal post cards. We reduced those to the 8 ½ by 5 ½, and now we’ve gone all the way down to the postcard rate postcards and we get gang runs of those and send those out for $70-$80. And everything that we do, we drive it back to the electronic media. Everything that we do has our website at least two time on there so that it drives it right back to that media and we’re getting 15 to 20 to 30 new email addresses on our list every week because of things that we’re doing to drive people right back to it. I’ll tell you another thing I did at the auctions. I went out and did Vista Print – they give you 250 free business cards. I think it costs you about $7 or $8 to ship them to you or something like that. Well, anyway, we put our website on there. For free auction updates, login, put your email address on and we give those out. Another thing we do, we drop those in box lots at the auctions, in drawers in furniture just so that people will pick them up and login to our email. So to go back and answer the question, we still use print because of the age demographic here in our area, but we’ve reduced it.

You bet. Whenever you advertise, there’s always a desired action that you’re trying to get the reader to perform, and I’m squarely on your side where that action isn’t maybe necessarily anymore to come to the auction, it’s to go to the website to get more information because it’s so much cheaper to put the details on the website and use the more expensive traditional media to drive them there and to use it as lead generation for the website. Until recently, Darron, you maintained your own website. You relatively recently launched a new one. Who does it now and what prompted the switch?

Well, AuctionServices does it now. I went ahead and I gave it up. That was my baby for a while and it got to the point to where I wanted to keep up with everybody else in their websites and put some more out there and all of this. Well, I went ahead and I learned FrontPage. Well, FrontPage didn’t do what I wanted it to do, so I thought about buying Dreamweaver. Well, with the learning curve and things like that I decided not to. So with my Apple I used iWeb. I put something up, it looked good, but I still didn’t really want to maintain it. So what I’ve done is I’ve pretty much given it all over to Rick and his crew with AuctionServices. They maintain it. If I’ve got any changes I just shoot them an email, they change it. Based on the cost structure that we put in place, you know, any major changes of course we pay for those – but we went through and said this is what we want, build us a beta, let us look at it. They hit the nail on the head and it was what we wanted. Well, the main reason behind it is that you have to look at two things. You have to look at your time and your money and you got to figure out which one’s more important. Well right now, with me running the company and trying to take it in a different direction, my time is more valuable right now so I would rather go ahead and put the put the money in it, put the investment in it, and then take my time and put it elsewhere to replace that money and grow the company.

What software, Darron, are you using to clerk your auctions?

Auction Flex. We’re using Auction Flex now. We started with it after the convention in San Diego.

We’ll I won’t press you too hard about it as the last podcast episode was the interview with Brandon Harker who makes Auction Flex and you can find that at auctioneertech.com/auction-podcast or just go to AuctioneerTech and click on the links. But I am curious to know from you, as a user of Auction Flex, what were a few of the aspects that influenced your choice and what do you feel are its biggest strengths and what do you wish it would do better?

Well, a little history. Back in about ’82-’83 we started with CUS with one of their first systems. We started using it. We moved forward. We outgrew it. Now, of course, these programs have evolved, but at that point we outgrew it, went to another system. Wound up 10 years ago, I guess, with MAXA from JBS. We outgrew it and wanted something that had a little more expandability to it and actually we started talking with Brandon and Kris with Auction Flex in Madison, Wisconsin, I guess four conventions back, and trying to kick around some ideas and things like that. Well, we got to the point, we said, you know, it’s time for us to move on, we want a Windows-based system. I loved the DOS aspect of MAXA because it was a stable platform, there’s no doubt about that. But, this way we can go in and have the, you know if we decide to do multi-par, it’s on there. If we decide to catalog a different way, it’s on there. We can do the PDF catalogs and things like that are built into the system. The radios have been upgraded. We’ve got a hand-held unit we use now to clerk the auctions, and we’ve got a taller antenna mounted on our trailer now, on our clerking trailer, that allows us to move around with a handheld. So, positives? The Windows. I like the way it interacts with Windows, and I can go from from Excel and some other programs right back into it. The expandability – the ability to have a handheld. There’s a couple of cons. There’s a lot of updates that have come out here recently and, you know with each new update something changes on the interface and my clerks and cashiers have to go back in and relearn part of that and, you know, figure out what that new update is. They do a good job sending out a book, the problem is all of my support staff are not as computer literate as I am and it takes them a little bit longer and they have a steeper learning curve to to get to the point to pick up on those updates. I’m trying to think. That’s about the negative that I have seen here lately. Now I know updates are generally to make the program better to respond to a request from auctioneers, things like that, but I think that it could be expanded out, you know, two or three months or four or five months out before new update comes out. Other than that, we’ve been very happy with it. Customer service is very happy. What I wish it would do? To be honest it’s almost like the human brain. They say you use 20% of it. I would say we probably use 20 to 30, 40% of the software. There’s plenty more expandability that we haven’t tapped into yet. So at this point, I don’t know what else it would do or what else I would want it to do differently.

So you’re pretty happy with it.

Yeah, oh, absolutely.

So what then kinds of Internet bidding platforms do you use and what types of Internet bidding – as far as pre-auction only or Internet only or real time – have you used and will continue to use and how has the Internet bidding affected your business?

Well, I’ll tell you this. Proxibid is the only Internet bidding that we’ve used – of course outside of eBay. We were power sellers on eBay at one point and, you know, we went to – about five years ago, I guess, Proxibid had done an auction here in the area with another company and stopped by and justed asked us about it. We jumped on board and we’ve actually done – I believe we’ve done over 100 auctions on Proxibid now. Mainly we do live, online bidding, like we did today. I call it a hybrid where we started out with prebidding and then moved to the live platform. We did a coin auction today, about 300 lots on there. Now one thing that I have introduced a little bit in the past three or four months, I’ve been doing more than timed auctions on there for some of the ones where we don’t want to devote a full crew to  run a live auction so we’ve done timed. Another thing that I’ve done – well, actually, you and I both did – with the CAI fun auction. Putting it online, that was actually the first live benefit and fundraising auction that I had done on Proxibid and since then I’ve done three live, Internet auctions for benefits and fundraisers and I’ve got several timed auctions that we are adding to the mix now with some of the benefits of fundraisers. I’ve got an article coming out – should be in the next month or so – about how to use online bidding to sell the items that may not have sold at a silent auction in a fundraising auction. I’ve just seen that that has been a key to our business. We’re directly between Atlanta and Charlotte on I-85 corridor and we’re about 20 minutes south of Greenville, which is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The problem is, we’re in one of those areas that everybody says, “you can’t get there from here.” So even though we are really closer than people think, we don’t have as many people that come in the door. So we have to drive our marketing to get people in our door. So the Internet allows us to pull in bidders from all over the country. We’ve had bidders from Italy, Belize, Germany, Canada, Mexico – one or two more countries I can’t think of now – but that has been a key to us because, you know with real estate you look at location, location, location – well ours is country, country, country and people don’t really want come out to where our building is. We’ve been here since 1972 so we don’t really want to spend the money to move so we spend the money to do the Internet auctions and bring the people to us. I think the last coin auction we did – not the one today, but the one we did a couple weeks ago – I think we shipped to 26 different states. So that is the key to us using the Internet and it’s been a big push to our business.

What are some other cool and unique ways that you’re using technology to improve your business?

Image of Darron Meares

Oh, let’s see. Well, the funny thing is, and I just put my son son into bed, I work from home four days a week now. He just moved to a new school so, in doing so, my wife teaches at that school so she can’t be at home. So I said, well I’m 500 yards from the office, if they need me I can go in, so I’ll just change my schedule and I work four days from home. So, I’m doing a lot of instant messaging, MSN instant messaging, I do some iChats every so often on the Apple iChat. I’m doing a lot of emailing, doing a lot of conference calls through remote offices, GoToMeeting, Apple eMeeting – I think that’s the title – anyway…not Apple, the Adobe platform that they’ve got out now, I’ve done it with two different companies. And then e-faxing. So I’m trying to do everything I can to reduce the amount of extra hardware items that I have to buy for my home to move my office out here because one once he gets to the point where to he goes to four-year-old kindergarten then he’s going to be there all day and I’ll be able to move back to my office. But now that I’m here at home, I had to use technology to allow me to get out of the office. The funny thing about it, I communicate. I did three coin auctions – catalog and inventory – here at home and I did every bit of my email and communication through my Blackberry. I kept my computer on Excel. I didn’t turn on my email because I didn’t want it to flash up and get me distracted, so every time I got 50 items logged in, I checked my Blackberry, send email – so I did everything as a total, remote office at that point. It was cool. I liked it. I get more work done at home than I do in the office, there’s no doubt about it.

You teach at the Southeastern School of Auctioneering. You mentioned earlier how you speak at conferences, and you and I are both slated to teach at CAI this coming year. When you ran and were elected to the NAA board of directors, I remember you running on a platform of education and that was your main driver. What drives you to be so active in the auction industry and how does being active in the industry affect your business?

I tell you what, you start looking back and Derek Bok, the Harvard University president, said, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” And on the flip side of that, Mark Twain said, “I never let my schooling interfere with my education,” so I’m seeing it from both sides. I said that in Orlando. I said that I wanted the education classes to be in all four corners of the country so that you wouldn’t have to travel all over the world just to see an education class. The Education Institute – I don’t know if I helped with that or anything, but the Education Institute has absolutely blown that up and they’re all over the country in different places. I feel that education is the key to this industry in a lot of ways. And let’s look at it from the Millennials and generation X. If you look at that, they are going to have an advantage on technology, but a disadvantage on face-to-face. Face-to-face communication right now is not going out, but it’s slowing being faded out to text messaging, emails, IMs, cell phones, things like that. So, if you go to the midrange – I said generation X, I meant generation Y – with me generation X, I’m right in the middle. You know, I’ve got my dad who’s been in this business for thirty-something years. I’ve got some of the ones coming up behind me that are the Millennials and generation Y. I’m in the middle because I grew up with technology. My first computer was a TRS-80 back in the early ’80s, and I picked up on that. But, I’m also in the middle to where I would rather sit down and record this in your office in Kansas than doing it over the phone, because I like face-to-face communication because I can read that person and see what they’re thinking, especially in negotiations. Start looking at the other end of the spectrum. You start looking at some of the more seasoned and veteran auctioneers, they are the ones – this industry is 55 to 57 years old range on average – so they are totally in face-to-face communication. They are totally into writing hand-written notes. They’re totally into a lot of these things, which is not a bad thing because I love that part of the business. But when you start looking at the education of the technology and the speed and things like that, they’re saying “Hey, wait. I got here by doing all these other things, why do I need these?” Well, the education bridges all three of those. It’s like a string of islands that are bridged together. And if you start looking at it from that point of view, you’re going to see that education is going to pull Millennials up and tell them what they don’t know and it’s going to help the more seasoned, veteran auctioneers at the other end to pick up some of these things that the Millennials know and it’s going to move back and forth. I love the fact that I’m right in the middle of all of this because I see it from both sides and I get it from both sides, which I think is great. My dad was the first one. He said, “I don’t know why in the world you want to do an auction on Proxibid.” And I said, “Look, they’re giving the first one free. If we don’t like it, if we mess up – we’re going to do our job the way we always do it – but if it doesn’t work, who cares? We’re not out any money and we go back to where we were yesterday.” Now 100 auctions later, he’s asking me, “Hey, are we putting this one online?” So the education part of it – I don’t think you can be in this business without the education part of it. There’s a lot of people out there that say, “No I’m not getting a designation,” “I don’t need it,” “I’m at the other end of the spectrum,” or “I can’t afford it” or whatever it is. Right now – and I’m not pushing anybody into spending any money on classes – but right now, as fast as this profession is moving, as dynamic as it is – I say that it looks like an anthill from the top down – you’ve got to have some type of education or some way to communicate with the other auctioneers so that you can go in and pull what they know. The way you’ve always done it may keep you at a level. It may be a baseline. You just may be at the perfect place, you’re making enough money, you’re putting enough money back, you’re giving enough money. Whatever it is, you may be there, but the education is going to tip you over that threshold and it might put you in another direction to where you might be able to accelerate some of those and also you might be able to pay it forward for the next generation that’s coming up, whether its your family or the next generation. Obviously, I’m very much in the education end of this as you can tell. But one thing that I did, I went in and I started in college in 1990, joined a fraternity – my grades and the schools grading scale didn’t match so I went home and I started working. I said, “You know what? I can work, I can work, I can work but I want something else.” So I went back 13 years later, finished up my bachelor’s degree, and I said, “Hey, I’m on this education kick.” And I went in and I went ahead and finished my master’s because I wanted to go in and figure out what the world was doing. I wanted to know what other businesses were doing. I’m reading Richard Branson’s new book, Business Stripped Bare, and it’s talking about how he’s taken the Virgin brand out there and some of these different businesses that he’s involved in, and that’s why I’m looking at taking our business in new directions. Without the education that the NAA and the South Carolina association and some of these other places I’ve been and picked up education – without them and the education they provide, I would probably be stagnant in this industry. The problem is, as fast-moving and dynamic as this industry is, if you’re stagnant somebody’s going to step right over you like a speed bump and move right on down the line. Now, I’m not saying that this is for everybody. There’s people out there – there’s auctioneers out there that are so happy with what they’re doing – that’s great, you’ve made it. And you know you’ve made it when you can say, “I can say no to this auction and still be OK,” “I can say no to this and still be OK,” “I can go for two weeks without having an auction, I don’t have to worry about it” – you’ve made it. But there’s some of us out there that feel like we need more. We need more. And it’s almost like having a pocked guide, Success Secrets of the Super Achievers and I feel like I’m writing a chapter in that because I’m trying to move forward. But the education part in my opinion is absolutely essential to what we’re doing.

Meares Auction Group logo

Well that’s it for episode 10. Thank you very much Darron for joining me.

Not a problem!

My guest tonight was Darron Meares from Meares Auction Group, which you can visit at www.mearesauctions.com – that’s meares auctions dot com.

You’ve been listening to the Auction Podcast from AuctioneerTech. If you have suggestions, questions or comments, or are interested in being a guest, please let me know by going to www.auctioneertech.com/feedback and leaving a message. You can also post public comments about this or any other episode, as well as find show transcripts, on the auction podcast page of auctioneertech.com.

Thank you for listening. Now go sell something.