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MurraysMutts

MurraysMutts

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So I've seen a few things recently that make wonder when it's time to retire from auctioneering.

Things such as...
Forgetting who the last bidder is/was.
(Basically forgetting who bought the animal)

Selling animals b4 the bidding has stopped.
(Isnt the object to get the best dollar for the product)
I've seen several times the auction begins and there will be a bid but b4 anyone else can bid the barn owner yells SOLD!
Ridiculous IMO...

Just plain not paying attention to the bidders.
(Folks hollar a bid.. HEY Or whatever. Who said that?)
That one always cracks me up!

These things happen frequently at one place. I like the guy, dont get me wrong.
But he dont call auctions anywhere else because of these things I think.

Whatchall think?
See stuff like that anywhere else?
Perhaps this is part of why this lil sale does not attract a lot of business.
 
callmefence said:
Seen it at a few auctions. Pay close attention and you might notice the auctioneer and a couple of the buyers in the stands seem to be doing a lot of texting...
Click to expand...
No way this ol boy could pull that off...
Like I said. Hes got a hard enough time remembering who bid.
Small place. Not usually more than 20 or 30 people there. 500 head would be a big sale
 
I've seen a lot of questionable stuff over the years. Years ago I was at yards and had bought two lots of cows and bid on the two next lots but the owner of the yards at that time was sitting next to the auctioneer and and instead of taking my bid he pointed to someone on the other side and it the cows were immediately knocked off to them. I thought it was odd because logic would say that if I had bought the previous ones that I would be at least a possibility of bidding on the next ones. The cows were all from a dispersal and i had bought the first cows which happened to be BWF, the cows that they didnt take my bid on were solid black, I figured they may have had a made up deal before and somebody wanted those black cows.
There is also a regular occurrence with another auctioneer, that he must be used to only order buyers buying calves at the regular sales. He seldom sees the random bids from farmers in the arena.
 
Auctioneer calling bids and sparrow falls dead out of the rafters into the ring. His son, also an auctioneer, looks over at him and says,
"Dad, I think our best bidder just died!"
 
The Auctioneer works for the seller not the buyer. There is a heck of a lot going on during a cattle auction that most farmers have no clue about. Sale barns are all crooked, ever heard the phrase "liar liar cattle buyer" . The good sale barns are just better at it than the ones with bad reputations.

The bred cow sale I was at last night was hot. The Auctioneer, sale manager, and both ring men were catching bids at one point. Pretty easy to miss a bid when things are going that fast.

I think to become a really good buyer in the stands a person needs to work at a barn for a while. You learn so much behind the scenes. Then you can pick up on the subtle tricks while watching the sale.

When I first got my auctioneers license the auctioneer that taught me the business side of selling would have me close my eyes and only listen to him catching bids. All I had to do was chant. For a young guy starting out it can be overwhelming trying to keep it all straight.

Some auctioneers get used to selling to professional buyers. Tobacco auctioneers and cattle auctioneers sell extremely fast. You as the buyer can't sit there and debate in your mind if that's the right price or not.
 
SBMF 2015 said:
The Auctioneer works for the seller not the buyer. There is a heck of a lot going on during a cattle auction that most farmers have no clue about. Sale barns are all crooked, ever heard the phrase "liar liar cattle buyer" . The good sale barns are just better at it than the ones with bad reputations.

The bred cow sale I was at last night was hot. The Auctioneer, sale manager, and both ring men were catching bids at one point. Pretty easy to miss a bid when things are going that fast.

I think to become a really good buyer in the stands a person needs to work at a barn for a while. You learn so much behind the scenes. Then you can pick up on the subtle tricks while watching the sale.

When I first got my auctioneers license the auctioneer that taught me the business side of selling would have me close my eyes and only listen to him catching bids. All I had to do was chant. For a young guy starting out it can be overwhelming trying to keep it all straight.

Some auctioneers get used to selling to professional buyers. Tobacco auctioneers and cattle auctioneers sell extremely fast. You as the buyer can't sit there and debate in your mind if that's the right price or not.
Click to expand...
I grew up going to cattle sales all around the area frequently. A good family friend was an order buyer and for a while a stockyard owner. I know that there are a lot of inner workings that that I don't know of. I agree I can sure see where being an auctioneer would be a difficult job trying to keep it all straight and moving fast.
When I am bidding, I don't want to make the starting bid. I wait until it gets backed down and then jump in. For me personally at that point when I start bidding, I'm in until I'm not. I can fully understand if a bid is missed when somebody tries to bid right at the last millisecond.
I still believe that there are plenty of tricks to the trade. and who is or is not part of it depends on the individuals. I think that most of the yards that I sell and buy through are managed pretty straight.
 
I set my buy price and No more. May get what I am after, may not. The auctioneer knows not to look my
way until the 3rd bid or so. Everybody needs to develop their own plan of attack..
 
Ky hills said:
When I am bidding, I don't want to make the starting bid. I wait until it gets backed down and then jump in.
Click to expand...
At this bred cow sale last night all the average quality cows were started at basically .50-.55/lb. 1,400-50lb cows got started at $700 ect. If no wanted them the packers bought them. I bet on that 400 cow sale they only backed up on a dozen or so. They had 3 packer buyers there, they held the base price fairly high.

I could start another thread on sale barn tricks. Lol!
 
The same buyer purchases my calves on behalf of a processor. The processor and sale barn have a complete spreadsheet, including all shots, etc. of my calves. The buyer & auctioneer text when my calves come through and I leave with a big smile.
 
Ky hills said:
I grew up going to cattle sales all around the area frequently. A good family friend was an order buyer and for a while a stockyard owner. I know that there are a lot of inner workings that that I don't know of. I agree I can sure see where being an auctioneer would be a difficult job trying to keep it all straight and moving fast.
When I am bidding, I don't want to make the starting bid. I wait until it gets backed down and then jump in. For me personally at that point when I start bidding, I'm in until I'm not. I can fully understand if a bid is missed when somebody tries to bid right at the last millisecond.
Click to expand...
Some auctions start cattle where you can get in and bid rather than waiting to back up. I have seen some auctioneers send a message about slow bidding by missing your bid. Get in and run to your preset price.
 
BC said:
Some auctions start cattle where you can get in and bid rather than waiting to back up. I have seen some auctioneers send a message about slow bidding by missing your bid. Get in and run to your preset price.
Click to expand...
There really isn't enough time to be slow about bidding, once a starting bid is made. Its a split second decision bid or not because it will knocked off. I have been a spectator at a small yards, where the auctioneer would actually tell people to make their bids quick. Used to be a yards that spent quite a bit of time trying to get more bids.
 

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