The Chant

One of the first things people ask upon finding out that I am an auctioneer is to hear my chant. 

It goes something like this after giving a basic description of an item:  Wouldagive 90, 90, 90 now 100, 100, couldabid 110, 110, I'm lookin for 120, 120, but it goes relatively quickly.  At the beginning and at different times within the chant, the increments can go down (if there aren't any bids) or up at a different increment level if the item is hot and bids coming in swiftly.  There are many "filler" words that can be placed in between the numbers, as well as various tongue twisters and other chatter. 

Bid Calls or The Chant is the method the auctioneer uses to let the audience know where the pricing is at for a given item as well as to entertain and make the process of auctioning as interesting as possible.

The real purpose of the auction and the chant itself is for the auctioneer to get the best possible price for their client.

Some auctioneers spend a lot of time developing different chants and there are actually chant competitions. Some auctioneers have a chant that is so fast that the current amount level is virtually unintelligible but experienced auction goers are able to distinguish where the auction pricing is at and able to understand the cues given by the auctioneer.  

Just a little History of Auctions

Auctions have a long and sometimes not so pretty history.  Auctioneers sell what buyers want.

As far back as 500 B.C. women were auctioned off to be wives in Greece. Romans were known to go to auctions for estates and plunder of war.

American auctions began as early as the 1600s with crops, tools, livestock, and slaves. During the Civil War, Colonels were authorized to auction off goods from the enemy and the title of Colonel has remained a part of the auction terminology. Licensed auctioneers take the title Colonel.

The Great Depression made many auction left many people needing to have their property liquidated just to make ends meet and liquidate the assets of failing businesses.

12 ideas for silent auctions

Charity auctions are a fantastic way to help non-profits gain funds in a fun and interesting way.  Here are a dozen ideas to add to the list of possible silent auction.  For organizations that are community based, these ideas will help bring in good auction prices.

All of these would require some approval by the organizations or people involved in the gift prior to the silent auction.

1. Dinner cooked and served by the mayor 
2. Dinner and historic city tour with a city celebrity
3. Trip with the Boy/Girl Scouts 
4. Grand Marshall at a parade 
5. Theater tickets including one-time non-speaking role in a play 
6. 20 hours of manual labor (landscaping, demolition, etc.) from local company or community service group
7. Sponsorship of park bench with name on it
8. Private, insider tours of local businesses or factories
9. Year of oil changes at local shop 
   
10. 10 hours of certified mechanic work 
11. Year of car washes by local Boy/Girl Scout troop (once a month for a year)
12. 6 months of dry cleaning (work with business to determine number of garments)
13. Local florist delivers flowers monthly for 1 year

What IS the meaning of life?

The meaning of life was offered at auction and sold for $3.26 in 2000.  Sadly only eight people out of millions on earth bid on finding the truth.

The winner opted NOT to share the secret with the rest of the unpaying public. We shall each just have to discover the answer for ourselves, or wait for the next auction to come up.

A Kidney stone auction?

In 2006, William Shatner's kidney stone was sold at auction for $25,000.  The money was donated to The Habitat for Humanity to create housing for those in need.  The kidney stone was apparently quite large. Shatner said, "If you subjected it to extreme pressure, it might turn into a diamond."

GoldenPalace, the casino auctioneers known for buying and selling oddities for charity, sealed the deal with Shatner.

Most expensive car at auction...

Most car auctions are reserved for resellers of automobiles and normally aren't open to the general public. The pace of the auction is feverish as there are multiple lines of cars being auctioned at the same time. The auction callers run their calls at a mile-a-minute pace.

In 2014, a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for the most money ever sold at auction $34.65 million at Bonhams auto auctions.  Considered the holy grail of cars, Ferrari only made a total of 36 of them.  Because there are so few of them, when they do go up for sale, the sale is normally a private sale and the price of the sale generally is unverifiable, so a rare sale at auction garners a lot of excitement.

$3.2 Million Steak...

Warren Buffet has an annual luncheon that he auctions to the highest bidder. In 2014, the winner, a businessperson from Singapore paid $2.2 million for the luncheon. In 2015, the luncheon was won by a Chinese man. The 2016 bid winner paid $3.4 million for the honor.

Though the 2016 winner is an anonymous winner, Buffett did state that the winner is a female.
Winners get to bring up to 7 others to the luncheon. The luncheon is held at Smith & Wollensky steak house in Manhattan. Proceeds from the charity auction go to Glide, a charity for San Franciscan that provides food, healthcare and other services to people who are homeless, poor or struggling with substance abuse.  


I can't help wondering what a $3.2 million steak tastes like. 

Kings Underwear Doesn't Sell

A pair if Elvis Presley's reportedly stained underwear, worn while he performed a concert in 1977, failed to receive any bids at auction.

We're glad.  We know that many people have odd fetishes, but we'd prefer to stay respectful of those who have passed, and especially an American Icon and the King of Rock and Roll.  Besides, we don't see any lines in those jumpsuits...

Have Your Cake but Don't Eat It

A piece of wedding fruit cake from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip's 1947 wedding was
sold at auction in 2013 for 560 pounds, or about $744 US.

The nine foot tall, 500 pound fruit cake made with Australian fruits, brandy and rum was the centerpiece of the engagement celebration of the royals. The small piece (one of 2,000 from the original cake) up for auction is about 3.75" by 2" and has been stored for nearly seven decades in a box marked with the letters "E" and "P" and the date. Boxed with baking parchmen and a card inscribe "With the best wishes of Their Royal Highnesses The Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh."

Part of the cake was returned to Australia as a thank you for the use of the fruit. Another layer was preserved and served at the Christening of Prince Charles in 1948.

The Bieb's hair

For whatever reason, in 2011, Justin Bieber gifted talk show host and comedian with a clipping of his hair. She in turn put the snippet up for auction.  In very short order, the bids for the hair flew to $40,688.

DeGeneres donated the entire amount to The Gentle Barn organization, an animal rescue organization.

Virgin Mary Cheese Toast

In 2004, a Florida woman sold her image of the Virgin Mary depicted in a grilled cheese sandwich on Ebay for $28,000.  According to the woman, Diane Duyser, the sandwich, which she had had for 10 years, never molded.

She sold the sandwich to GoldenPalace.com, an online casino which has sold a number of items at auction. The company then put the sandwich on ebay for auction.  The item received over 1.7 Million hits before the end of the auction.

Titanic goods bring Titanic prices

In 2013, the violin that belonged to Wallace Hartley, the violinist who attempted to comfort passengers on the sinking Titanic sold at an auction in Wiltshire England for 900,000 pounds, or in U.S Dollars $1.7 million. This is the higest price of any item so far recovered from the Titanic.

None of the members of the small band of musicians who played during the sinking of the ship survived.  Hartley was found with his violin case strapped to his back.  The owner who sold the violin and the buyer who purchased it have not been identified.

The violin was authenticated in part through the use of salt deposits in the wood grains of the violin.

On the auction block...New Zealand?

It is amazing what people will try to auction.  Someone, probably as a practical joke or perhaps in protest against some governmental decision, tried to auction off the entirety of New Zealand.  In May of 2006, Ebay pulled the auction offline after the going bid price had risen to $3000Austrian from a starting bid of .01cents and 22 bids.

The Prime Minister Winston Peters said, "I don't think it's funny. I think that kind of stupidity, I'll leave to the tabloid media."

Well, I could afford to buy an island at that rate. 
(c) 2016 Nifty Groovy Auctions