University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, September 15, 1971
By FRANK SLOVER
Sold to the Highest Bidder
The chant of the local auction...
I've got a box of stuff here. I don't know what-alls in it. They toss in that lamp and we'll sell it all together.
"Who'll give me five dollars for all this? Do I hear five?"
Or, more specifically, the small local auction...
Has its own melody which rises from prosaic beginnings to become a lifting pies for the bidders to ruin themselves on the rocks of used merchandise that have done the wrong. He's proud.
We got two and now three.
Who'll say three? Two and now
three, the two and now four. I
four, the two and now four,
four, the two and now four,
four, the two and now four,
I'm bip three, who'll say
I am bip three, who'll say
now four. Threechinahow
and now four. Who'll gimme four? Do
I hear four? Sold it to you for
eight.
Hand me that little beauty and we'll sell it.
A little slower than in the famed auctions in halls like the Museum, the presses over a sale驻 on the lawn of a house in a small town (Blink we have missed 4) or on the grounds near an old farm
The summer seems the ideal time for auctions as the crowd tends toward and away from the bidding room, and tests the merchandise and gossips. The winter, however, does little to stifle auction atmosphere.
According to Jerry Stricker,
which has been the weekly
auction, Gardner for year "On even the coldest
night, we have a pretty good
weather."
Striicker's attendance has increased steadily since he opened his business, and many renting his barn and if prices are any indication, local sales in the region are popular. The number of sales, however, seems to be being reduced.
"There aren't as many sales now as when I started in the business, and the auctioneer who works in the Ottawa area. "I started on the 16th day of February in 1933 and sold it on the 28th day of August in 1923."
MYERS IS ONE of the few auctioneers who piles his trade full-time ("1 milk a cow once in a while") without a sideline. He runs a weekly livestock auction in his barn with other members of his brother Howard and Howard's son, Harold, who still works sales
as a sideline and seems destined to follow in the family footsteps. Skillier Skiles, a Lawrence auctioneer who has been in the industry for 30 years, "serious about it" since the '40s, he said that thought certain auctions, such as those for household items and real estate were more pleniful but that the ones he had diminished in recent years.
MY THEORY is that all the big guys have gobbled up all the little guys, "he said. As a result, many big businesses out of business in terms of their assets and go out of business or owners of small farms once did.
Because of the changing conditions, Skies said he would advise a young auctioneer to buy some of his own real estate or purebred cattle.
CERTAINLY, there is every opportunity for an auctioneer to make good as the number and price of the items over the years. There are car auctions and antique auctions. The police auction their unclaimed, recovered goods and produce are sold at auction.
These highly organized sales lack the informality and friendliness of the local sale. There is a tendency to be daring, around a sunny yard,
looking through boxes of bric-a-brac for some hidden treasure, or sitting in a grassy field with those American culinary delights—homemade pies, chip dogs and chicken nuggets—to be served at a church or 4-H group that has set up a little restaurant in the barn or garage.
LOCAL AUCTIONS are either liquidations or estate sales and take place either at the premises owned by the owner, or house hired to dispose of the goods. The weekly auctions are held on Thursdays and liquidations with the owners bring items they wish to sell to the auction house during the
According to Skiles, about 50 per cent of his sales are estate auctions and they are the most popular.
At an estate sale, the customers know that everything will be sold with no reserve bids (a price beneath which the owner will not sell his goods). Also, estate goods are likely to be in demand since the owner is not around to help the best for himself.
"There's any old saying," he said, "that a dead man's sale brings the most money."
"AND IT'S usually true," he added.
OLATHE AUCTION
lawyer hands him the key and leaves, the logging in, the advertising, and other details to the auctioneer. For service Skiles said that the normal charge was around 15 per hour, and sales the percentage might be.
EVERY SALE has its own
categories, into the
categories of someone
away or dying but often they
more interesting than the objects
The auction at the Waverley Hotel in Waverly was notable because it was so widely advertised, perhaps, because the merchant had to the expectations aroused by the advertising. The Saturday sale must have been the best thing ever to happen to the owner of the local antique shop, a pleasant humble bubbled happily all afternoon.
The rumor at the sale was that the two men who had purchased the old hotel, which had been closed for 20 years, from the company were dealers and had taken the best goods for themselves.
A fancy spinet piano went for $1,500 to number 39, which means that the owner bought it back for himself.
"NUMBER 99 is always my number," said Jack Lindsey, the auctioneer from La Cygne, whose the auction business for 32 years.
Lindsay said that he took his percentage on reserve bids or when the owner bought back his own goods. Some auctioneers, like Sakes and Myers, do not take their commissions and tend to stay from reserve bids as being from the concept of an auction.
Miss Hattie Gould, one of the Amiin sisters, was at the auction house when the sale had to bid on her sister's prayer book to keep it in the
Kansan Staff Photos by Hank Young
"My father's people and we have been in and out of here since the 1800s," she reminisced.
"Prices are going up in auctions faster than in the stores," he said. "People have more money to spend."
THE PRICES did seem good. According to Lindsey, the current economic recession has done little to hurt the auction business
Skills theorized that the rise in prices he has seen in the past is due to a reduction in flatation which caused buyers to look to used goods as the price
SOME THINGS go extra high. There seems to be a passion for the glass and adjectives "cernin" or "depersonalize" to describe a piece for sale results in an antique that can be labeled antiquity will bring a good price. Often old goods are not antiques but curioses items' or pieces
"Those antiques are only worth what you can get for them," Myers said. "There's no real market for them."
"HE STILL has to find someone who'll really give him $50 for the coin." Skiles concluded.
Skills said that to be an antique the object should be at least 100 years old. He tried to describe that by saying, "The example of a coin collector who says that one of his coins is worth $2 because that's the price in he
Are there still bargains to be had at auctions? Of course there are.
Skiles says, "I figure if you got something cheaper than you thought it'd have to pay, then you'd right to say you got a bargain."
THE PRICES seem to even out in the long runs. Some goods go for below what anyone would want and some for what seem unreasonable prices.
"Some people get all excited and bid more than they'd pay at the store for something." Strickler said. "A lot of people buy things in bulk because of the goods. We always knock down a couple of items pretty quickly every week to make sure that there are some bargains."
Almost every auction especially the regular sales, have
'I figure if you get something cheaper than you thought you'd have to pay, then you've got the right to say you got a bargain.'
some sort of floor set on the prices by the presence of antique and used goods dealers. If a house has one or two rooms with little to no work for twice what he paid, he will, naturally, buy it. Round it up as much hard to sell to anybody a few years ago, now go for $60 and up depending on the condition of the table and the size and nature of the room.
THE ATTRACTION of the auction goes beyond just the chance for bargain.
"It's a place to go." Skiles said, a "friendly get-to-gether where you see people you haven't seen for a while.
"Maybe 50 per cent come to visit and 50 per cent come to buy."
Most auctioneers have a following. Striker sees the same person every day, Lindsay Myers and Skalaes chat familiar crowd at every sale. If an auctioneer is good and builds a house for you, you can familiarize themselves with his mannersism and chant More important, they trust him and know that he is willing to vertisement with "These goods are in exceptional condition" that they won't drive for an hour or so and will be seen during the bidding he will tell the customers whether an item is cracked, serrated or in some other way.
UNLESS A sale is advertised "without reserve" the auctioneer can refuse to sell an item unless the bidding goes high enough. In a news article, a buyer had written that she was interested and placed beneath a candlesick
This practice also was known as "dumb bidding" and is unquestionably one of the biggest reasons they say they like to sell what they have. When there is a reserve, most auctioneers will set the reserve price or just below it.
Now, the highest bidders take the goods whenever the auctioneer reaches a deal and "knocks down" a sale. Some of the ancient procedures made a purchaser out of an item he had been before an inch of candle burned or went out, a sandglass ran out or a running boy reached his
IN A "DUTCH auction" the bid is started high and lowered by bit until someone makes his bid and becomes the buver.
"Puffing"—when the seller or his agent bids on property to raise its price—is illegal under
English common law and renders a sale violable. In this country the practice, also known as 'by-bidding', is usually tolerated to the extent that the owner can sell goods from being sacrificed.
OF COURSE, the auctioneer will try to get the highest price he can afford; but he doesn't successfully he needs at least two bidders and when two or more want it badly enough the price is right. So the auctioneer cries the sale.
Each auctioneer has his own style of chant, which becomes his chief mark of identification. In his book, *The chant was important to get higher prices*. He learned his style from an auction school in Chicago and learned the contrary to what many people believe, the object of the chant is not confuse the audience. The chant must keep it as simple as possible.
"The main words they teach you to use," Stricker said, "are dollar, 'but and now' and they teach you to learn that you can learn to build a rhythm."
THE RULES FOR A buyer at an auction are almost common since most buyers worry about scratching little worry about scratching your property. The procedures are informal and friendly enough that this kind of pressure never
Some points to remember
Get there early and look over the goods for imperfections. Check completely; look in drawers and behind and under chains. If something needs attention, figure that into your bidding.
Ask yourself if you know what you're buying and whether it's worth the money you're ready to pay for it.
Don't buy something just because it's a bargain. Can you use it?
If you can use it, estimate its retail value and set your estimate. Remember, you get no guarantee at an auction (although the auctioneer may guarantee that moving will work when he sells it).
The auctioneer will try to start the bid as high as he can to save money. He asks for $50 at the outset doesn't mean the bid won't start
Remember, there's no real rush to buy. Once you catch the auction bug you'll be seeing a lot of sales.