Death of an Auctioneer

I grew up in a family of auctioneers. My grandfather has been auctioneering for over thirty years, and my father has been auctioneering since he was only nineteen. In the late nineties and early two thousands, it was fairly easy to get a job as an auctioneer and to support a family on an auctioneer’s earnings. My father was independently contracted at four auto auctions per week for as long as I could remember, until 2005, when he was laid off from one of those auctions. Since then he has found is has become more and more difficult to find a job as an auctioneer, let alone keep one. Many auctioneers, especially in the auto industry, have been replaced by computers and online auctions. A great number of auto dealers are not actually present at the sales, but can buy cars by submitting an online bid, which is factored into the live auction. While this online bidding and computer auctioneering system makes buying vehicles convenient for the dealers, it has cut back the number of live auctioneers needed in the industry, which has resulted in a significant loss of jobs for auto auctioneers.

After a quick Google search, I surprisingly found more articles discussing the decline of internet auctions rather than the decreased need for live auctioneers. Wired’s James Surowiecki cites the advent of practices like sniping, the act of placing the highest bid moments before the auction closes, along with the wearing off of the novelty of bidding and buying items via auction as causes for the decline of internet auctions like on the popular ecommerce company, eBay. Most consumers have been to very few auctions, if any, and the novelty of the type of exchange is emphasized by the prevalence of benefit auctions being used to raise money for appropriate causes. My family has done more benefit auctions than I can count, and they are usually very successful.

However, Surowiecki did mention that from 80 to 85% of the used car transactions on eBay were via auction. Auctions are a popular method of buying and selling used cars between dealers because of the nature of the transaction. There is much less bartering involved than there would be were it a transaction directly between the dealers. This statistic also points to the decline in live auto auctions. Since online auctions are so convenient for dealers as well as for auction houses, like auto auction giant Manheim, many auctioneers have found themselves looking for work in another industry.

There are benefits to a live auctioneer that a computer cannot supply, however. An auctioneer is considered good or bad based on his selling percentage. The more items he sells the better an auctioneer he is considered. Much of this type of success is a result of the individual’s auctioneering style. My grandfather, for example, is a notorious jokester, and has a rapport with the dealers that enables him to harass them about refusing to bid higher on a decent car, which can have a significant impact on whether or not a car is sold. (Note: most dealers have a “floor” on their cars when sold; there is a lower limit for which a car can be sold.) Auctioneers are also very skilled in reading people. They have to be able to determine when to push a dealer to bid more, when they really are done, and when they’re bluffing. Computers can’t do any of that. 

Source: http://www.wired.com/2011/05/ff_endofauction/all/