Conagher
Well-known member
Anyone attend those big monthly tractor auctions? I'm in the market for a tractor and attended one this past weekend near Tyler, TX (Noonday). Couple things I notice:
1) There were several ring men, but in particular there were two specific ring men that would trade-off with each other throughout the auction (large auction - tractors alone took almost 5 hrs). These guys would yell out 3-4 consecutive yelps, each time the auctioneer raising the bid; yet I am absolutely convinced there was no-one bidding. This was not a one-time event but happened on most of the tractors that drove through, and I watched 150+ tractors roll through. The ring man would do this while looking at one area of the bidders, or looking at the ground, or looking at the tractor, and 11 times with their back turned towards the bidders. I don't believe they could have memorized reserves for each of these tractors, nor did they have a list paper, electronic or otherwise they were consulting. Any ideas what was going on?
2) The auction company had a sign right under the auctioneer stating something to the effect that this is a reserve auction and the consigner is responsible for protecting the price of their consignment. There was never a reserve stated. So does this mean the consigner was also bidding on the equipment?
3) My registered auction number was something like 2548. I would guess over 95% of the "winning bidders" had much lower number: 28, 62, 263, 350, etc. that were buying multiple tractors. And typically they did not show a bidder card, the auctioneer and/or ring man new their numbers. Where these dealers buying, and/or protecting the price of their consignments?
I decided not to bid on anything since I obviously didn't understand what was going on. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks and have a nice day.
1) There were several ring men, but in particular there were two specific ring men that would trade-off with each other throughout the auction (large auction - tractors alone took almost 5 hrs). These guys would yell out 3-4 consecutive yelps, each time the auctioneer raising the bid; yet I am absolutely convinced there was no-one bidding. This was not a one-time event but happened on most of the tractors that drove through, and I watched 150+ tractors roll through. The ring man would do this while looking at one area of the bidders, or looking at the ground, or looking at the tractor, and 11 times with their back turned towards the bidders. I don't believe they could have memorized reserves for each of these tractors, nor did they have a list paper, electronic or otherwise they were consulting. Any ideas what was going on?
2) The auction company had a sign right under the auctioneer stating something to the effect that this is a reserve auction and the consigner is responsible for protecting the price of their consignment. There was never a reserve stated. So does this mean the consigner was also bidding on the equipment?
3) My registered auction number was something like 2548. I would guess over 95% of the "winning bidders" had much lower number: 28, 62, 263, 350, etc. that were buying multiple tractors. And typically they did not show a bidder card, the auctioneer and/or ring man new their numbers. Where these dealers buying, and/or protecting the price of their consignments?
I decided not to bid on anything since I obviously didn't understand what was going on. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks and have a nice day.