Hi, my name is Walt. I’m an auctioneer with 25 years of experience in the auction business and licensed in the state of MA. I own Quick Auction Service, a company that specializes in building and running custom auctions, I’m also the webmaster of my own site and have been on eBay for 8 years. Besides eBay, the types of auctions I run most frequently are antiques and on-site estate auctions, although I’ve run everything from business overstock auctions to charity & special event auctions.

I enjoy sharing my knowledge and stories of the auction business. My goal for article is to help folks get the absolute most out of their auction experience.

Whether your fresh out of the package or a seasoned dealer I think I can offer something in this article to help you with your auciton adventures.

There may be as many reasons to attend auctions as there are types of auctions to attend. Maybe you want to attend an auction to buy items for re-sale on eBay, or some other market. Maybe you want to furnish your home with wonderful antiques, or you want to furnish your home as inexpensively without sacrificing quality.Some folks are just looking for a fun night out. With a little perseverance all these things are possible.

There are antiques and estate auctions, auto auctions, overstock auctions, absolute and no reserve auctions, real estate auctions, specialty auctions where only one genre of items are sold, tailgate auctions, live auctions, online auctions, sealed bid auctions, silent auctions, charity and fund raising auctions and many more.

Can you really buy for pennies on the dollar at an auction? You bet! Many times I’ve seen folks buy and re-sell at the same auction on the same night for a good profit, although be advised, this should only be done after the auction is over.

There are a lot of ways to find an auction, but here are some tips on how to find and attend the best ones.

Visit the genre of shops in the area that apply to the type of auction you want to attend. IE: If your looking for a good antique auction to attend, stop in the local antiques shops and ask for what there are for good auctions in the area. Sounds obvious right? But listen to what they don’t say as well as what they do say. Oftentimes when a dealer speaks poorly about an auction he or she attends, it may be likely that they are trying to keep a good thing secret. Think for a moment, why would a dealer keep attending a lousy auction?

Newspaper ads: I personally like to find ads in the classified ad section rather than flashy display ads. Flashy ads are usually indicative of an auction that will be high priced, may have reserves, (a set price on an item), and usually an enormous crowd. While any auction can be profitable to attend, it is usually best to steer clear of the glitzy ones, at least for the beginner.

Here’s the minimum you want to find out before you go. If there is a phone number in the ad, call and ask for the terms of the sale. What forms of payment do they accept? Is it an absolute auction? An absolute auction is one that has no minimum or reserve bids on items. These are the best auctions to attend! Is there a buyers premium? A buyers premium is like a tax that everyone who makes purchases at that auction must pay above the winning bid price. Most auctions these days do charge a buyers premium, 10% is not unreasonable but I feel much more than that is greedy, and the auctioneer that charges over 10% is counting on most bidders not doing the extra math as the bids quicken in pace.

A fair auction will have ample time to inspect the merchandise, usually at least 2 or 3 hours. Find out when inspection starts and make sure to attend! Never attend an auction if you can’t make the inspection, not unless your prepared to gamble. Most auctioneers sell at a rate of about 100 items per hour, which is why they sell “as is”. They simply don’t have the time to give a detailed description of all the items. Since almost all items at auction are sold AS IS, there are sure to be some damaged, refinished, fake and incomplete items at any given auction. Beware of any auctions that offer very little or no inspection time.

Good auctions will usually have 150 to 400 lots. A lot may be one item or a group of items. The exception to this are specialty auctions, auto auctions, real estate auctions etc.

When you attend your first sale, take note of the 1/2 dozen or so dealers that buy the most often. See if you can find out about other area auctions they attend.

When you do find an excellent auction, attend it as often as possible. By frequenting good sales, you help increase the bottom line of that business. It’s difficult for many auctioneers to keep the quality of merchandise consistent, so good attendance certainly helps. And when an auctioneer gets to know you as a buyer, he/she will go out of the way to accommodate you, to keep you coming back.

Perhaps you are a small business person, and you are like me; when you hear a politician tell us they are for us little guys, you just cringe. It appears to me after decades of watching their lips move that they could care less about us, and would rather continue to get their campaign war chests filled by their large corporate lobbyist piggy banks. Okay, let’s talk.You see, there was an interesting article in Reuters on February 1, 2016 titled; “U.S. small business borrowing sank in 2015: PayNet,” by Ann Saphir. The article stated:”What started as a full gallop in 2015 is barely trotting along now, said Bill Phelan, President of PayNet; “We are barely replacing worn-out assets here.” Small Company borrowing is a key barometer of growth because it is the little firms that tend to do much of the hiring that fuels economic growth. Lending slowed sharply to small businesses in mining and agriculture, as well as in wholesale trade, transportation and construction, the figures showed. Texas was particularly hard hit.”So, what’s the Obama Administration’s answer to this vexing problem, oh something typical of the way they run things and adjust their economic data (like employment figures) just change the definition of “Small Business” for instance there was an article in Government Executive online news on January 29, 2016 titled; “SBA Finalizes New Business Size Standards,” written by Charles S. Clark which stated:”The new size standards will enable nearly 1,650 more businesses in those industries to obtain or retain small company status; will give federal agencies a larger pool of smaller companies from which to choose for their procurement programs; and will make more small businesses eligible for SBA’s loan programs,” SBA said in a release.”Okay but, smaller companies do not want to borrow money, why? They don’t trust the system, the future, the economy, this administration, or future regulations due to a socialist population base mindset and evil-one percent hatred motif, nor would I as a former franchisor. This new size standard change would include businesses over 150 employees and the “SBA estimates that more than 8,400 additional businesses will gain small business status under the adjusted size standards and become eligible for SBA’s financial and federal government procurement programs,” the agency said. “These changes can possibly lead to $150 million to $200 million in additional federal contracts and 80 additional loans, totaling about $30 million, to small businesses.”Great news right, well not so fast. You see, these larger firms will get Federal Contracts that small businesses, real ones cannot get, meaning fewer mom and pop businesses getting money from the Federal Government in our ever increasing government-run economy, not free-market run economy. This is no solution, this is just stupidity worsening the real problem is search of political expediency. Please consider all this and think on it.