What do we do?

This morning, an acquaintance and Facebook Friend, Aaron Traffas (an auctioneer from Kansas) shared this quote:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

I was thinking about this while on an auction site this morning, and made an abbreviated list of some of the things that I've done in my work, in just the past few days.  While I haven't had to set a bone, or butcher a hog lately, the partial and recent list includes:

• A real estate closing
• Title search in another county's courthouse
• Sold a car
• Sold the contents of a home
• Carpentry work
• Loaded furniture
• Taken pictures
• Invoicing
• Collecting
• Banking
• Create & place ads
• Created a catalog
• Consult with prospective clients
• Settled with a Seller for an auction
• Taken orders
• Given orders
• Coordinate with a trucking company
• Filed forms with IRS
• Worked on an industry association project

That's just a partial list for me, but I don't think it is too far removed from what any auctioneer does over the course of a day or two.  (Note:  this list doesn't include the honey-do's from home!)

We are all busy, and lots of us have many talents, and multiple required tasks.  As an Auctioneer, I'm tasked with solving problems.  And there's a wide range of problems that need solving, and an even wider range of capabilities are required.   

Can we help you?

Take a look at www.jrdixonauctions.com and check out the upcoming auctions!

Rafe

https://www.jrdixonauctions.com/

https://www.jrdixonauctions.com/

https://www.jrdixonauctions.com/

New Year, New Happenings

Welcome to 2019!

We all have big plans for the year, don't we?  It's always good to "start fresh".  One of my plans for the year is what you are reading.  Yep, I'm going to try my hand at blogging.  I'll probably touch on lots of subjects, but since I'm an Auctioneer, and this is on my business web page, it'll mostly be about auctions.

Let's start with a question that I get asked regularly:

"What's the reserve?"

The flabbergasted look on someone's face when I answer that there is no reserve is actually pretty funny.  They just don't get it when I tell them that the seller desires to sell the item, and has chosen to use an auction to do so.

Many of our auctions have no minimum bid requirements.  This applies to real estate as well as personal property!  The Seller's goal is to sell, rather than appraise!  So, with that end in mind, they have decided to sell with no reserve, or "absolute"  which is auctioneer lingo for selling to the highest bidder, regardless of price.

We do sometimes have a reserve that we have to meet.  Things like mortgages that have to be paid off, or a lien, etc. sometimes require it.  That's when it is our job to really dig deep and figure out if an auction will work for the seller. Frankly, if we have a "No Sale" then we've wasted the Seller's time & money, the Bidder's time & money, as well as our own.  A No Sale doesn't do any of us much good.  So if we don't feel pretty good about the auction resulting in a sale and commerce taking place, then we'll be the first ones to tell our Seller, and make recommendations for alternate paths.

I'm convinced that any successful Auctioneer has a reputation earned, at least in part, due to making the sale, as opposed to having a No Sale.  After all, what auctioneer wants a No Sale?  We sell.  End of story.

Any auction that we conduct has been carefully vetted regarding reserves.  Really, we'd prefer to not have a reserve, but if we're in a situation where it is required, we put a lot of thought and research into the item;  if we don't think we'll get it sold at the reserve or higher, then we won't offer it at auction.

In the event that there is a reserve, sometimes it will be disclosed, sometimes it will be confidential, depending on our Seller's wishes, after our consultation.  After all, we do work for the Seller!

Take a look at our upcoming auctions at jrdixonauctions.com

Till next time!

Rafe