Auctions: Inner workings: Chapter 9
Auctions: The Ego factors.To be successful at auctions, one has to dump all emotions at the door. Don't walk into an auction with any emotional baggage. Sounds simple...doesn't it? Hmmmm.
If you have been following these posts, recall what I wrote earlier. People will be pawing, touching, feeling and crawling over everything and anything they can get their hands on. You will be amazed at the number of people at an auction site. And this thought is bound to go through your mind..."are all these folks going to be bidding against me?" Relax....for Iam going to tell you stuff..noone else will...
1) 90% of this...this mass of humanity are "tire kickers". These folks have a lot in common. Just like at a rock concert, most in the crowd are rock music lovers. At an auction site, these are what I call "auction junkies".
An anatomy of an auction junkie.
An auction junkie is a guy who loves to attend auctions. Doesn't matter what kind of an auction, as long as it's an auction. Sometimes in the past, this auction junkie got lucky or heard a story from one of his buddies....And the story goes something like this...
The lucky junkie was at an auction. Noone bid on this item...and the junkie got it for a couple of bucks. He brought it back home and sold it for a 100 bucks. You can actually see the guy drooling, as he tells this story. So...with this hope burning in his chest..the junkie attends every auction he can...hoping to repeat this success. This addiction is like the gambling bug.
Guys will actually take off from work...to attend an auction...miles from their homes. They will drive all night, if they have to....never thinking about how much time, loss of work, loss of income etc this trip is costing them. The thrill of the auction is well worth it to them and wild horses wouldn't keep them away.
These folks come in all shapes and sizes, but they are easy to spot..to the trained eye.
You have nothing to fear from this horde.
Now, let's talk about the other 10%. Out of this 10%, half are members of the auction team. That leaves you with about 5%. These are the real buyers. This is your competition.
Let's take this a step further. Let's say there are a 1,000 guys at this auction. We have established by the process of elimination that only 50 guys out of this bunch are serious buyers. Let's also say that all you are interested in, is the plastic strapping machine. Now out of these 50 serious buyers, only 10% may be interested in this plastic bander. That means you have 5 guys that will bid on this item. You have already done your homework and established the highest amount you will bid on this item. So have the other 5 guys. But, each one will have established a different value in his mind. Some will have established a higher value, some will have established a lower value than yours.
Keeping the above points in mind, you now realise that the "horde" is just back ground noise. Ignore it. Let the mob do its thing. Now, here is what's going to happen...
Once the bidding begins:
Bidding begins:
99% of the time the auctioneer will start out at $2,000 dollars...who will give me $2,000 dollars....He then will lower the bid price..till someone opens the bid. 99% of the time noone is going to bid. The bid keeps going down. Around the machine, the horde is in a frenzy. People start to push and shove....each one trying to get as close to the machine as possible. Remember, out of all these people only 5 are real buyers. The rest are there to get their "fix".
As the bid gets down to $100 dollars....the horde goes nuts. They smell blood...you can actually see guys start to drool....some start to twist and turn...strange expressions appear on their faces. At this point in time, the crowd is in the grips of mass hysteria. While all this "madness" is going on, the auctioneer whips up the crowd even more...
"Come on folks..You all know this is a steal..." He keeps egging the crowd...acting disgusted..throwing his hat down...waving his arms around....and the crowd loves it.
The bidding is down to $10 dollars!!!! For heavens sake!! $10 dollars!!!
While all this is going on the real buyers are standing "apart". (Not always...but most of the time). It is easy to spot the real buyers. They are calm as can be...poker faces..no readable expressions...relaxed.
At this price of $10 dollars, one member of the horde raises his hand....either timidly or rather energetically....and the bidding starts...You can see the whites of the bid opener's eye balls....he has almost lost all bladder control....and bowel control is about to go...This loss of bodily functions is transmitted to the rest of the crowd either chemically or by scent....Iam not too sure..but transmitted it is!!
Bids up to $15....Someone shouts $151/2.....and slowly the bidding starts to inch up.
By now it is utter chaos. Hopes, dreams of getting a steal are still very much alive. But the bidding keeps going higher and higher. You can actually see which members of the horde had a $20 dollars expectation....and once the bidding exceeds the $ 20 dollar level, you can see a bunch of them literally deflate. Their faces get this "long faced" look...shoulders droop..eye balls rotate back in home position...and now the crowd starts to concentrate on the remaining bidders. At each $10 dollar increment in the bidding process a certain percentage of the horde "deflates" and the noise level drops correspondingly. Once the bid reaches a $100 dollar level, 90% of this horde is out of the picture. This horde came with one expectation, and one expectation alone...to buy stuff at one cent on the dollar or less.
Now the bids start to go up in hundred dollar increments...100....200....300 dollars etc. It is at this point you hear $500 dollars!!...Hello??? Hello?? Who said that?
All heads turn....and this guy standing as far away from this horde as possible...is the one...who bid $500 dollars. And just like magic, all murmering, all itching and other assorted psychotic motions cease. Now the real bidding starts...the first half was nothing more than an elaborate staged play. To get the juices flowing...
At this point there may be only 3 guys left....and one of these 3 is going to be the high bidder.
Meanwhile the horde has recovered and is clawing its way to the next item on the auction block. And this scenario is repeated all over....again and again.
