Hi! I’m the head writer’s assistant. Anne, the head writer, wants to make sure you are well informed about all the ins and outs of the auction business. In addition to our articles, there are bits of info that people attending live auctions should know and it’s my job to get them up on the site for you to read. Thanks for your interest!

 “Minutia” is a really great word. There are always some additional little pieces of information that we might want to share with you that will help you to better understand the auction business. However these pieces of information are usually not tied together into any sort of theme and are therefore not easily presented. We could have called them hints or tips but that’s not really what they are. After giving it some serious thought, we decided they were “minutia.”

• Some auction houses require two bidders in order to constitute an "auction". If only one person bids and there is no second bidder, the auctioneer or the auction house can declare that there is no bid at all. Other houses will let an item sell on only one bid believing that a bid is a bid.

• An auctioneer should always make announcements prior to the auction. The announcements should include the more important rules of the auction house. This information is usually posted in writing but it is still a good idea to have the auctioneer repeat the info at the start of the sale. Also, all announcements from the block override any previously printed material such as catalogs.

• People who want to auction items that belong solely to them are allowed to do so without benefit of an auctioneer's license. An auctioneer's license, in the states that require one, are only necessary when the items being auctioned belong to other people.

• The manner in which merchandise is presented makes a big difference in how well the merchandise is received by the audience. The careful display and cleaning of items can add many more dollars to the bottom line.

• New auctioneers who are nervous and not completely familiar with the merchandise they are auctioning can use the auction catalog, assuming there is one, as a guide. The placement of an item in the catalog, along with the words used in the description, can help a new auctioneer decide where to open up the bidding on an item. Most auction houses will automatically place their better merchandise toward the beginning of the sale. Therefore the placement of an item within the catalog gives a clue as to the item's value.

• Some higher-end auction houses will publish estimates in their catalog of the items they have up for auction. An estimate is the auction house's opinion of what they believe an item will sell for at their auction. These estimates are based on research of what similar items have sold for in the past. Sometimes the estimates are pretty close to the final selling prices; sometimes they are too high and sometimes they are too low.

• It's far from an exact science trying to determine just how many people might be interested in a particular item and just how much each of them might be willing to pay for it. That's what makes an auction so exciting, you just never know what is going to happen. Auction houses are not legally bound by the price estimates listed in their catalogs.

• Many brick and mortar auction houses have their own Internet sites that they use for marketing purposes. On these sites you may see the term "Hammer price." At one time, most auctioneers had a gavel they would bang each time they sold an item. This was called dropping the hammer. The "Hammer price" is the final amount an item sells for on the block. This price does not include any other charges such as buyer's premium or sales tax.

• Contrary to what some people think, auctioneers, auction staff members and the auction house owners are usually allowed to bid on merchandise during the auction as long as the merchandise does not belong to them. There are those who think this is illegal. The laws in each state differ but to the best of our knowledge, this is allowed in most states. The only exception we are aware of is Pennsylvania, although it's possible that there are one or two others.

• Consignors are not allowed to bid on their own items. Again the laws can vary by state but we didn't need it to be a law at our auction house. It was not allowed period. Anyone caught bidding on his or her own merchandise was warned and if they did it again, they were no longer allowed to consign to us.

• Almost all states with licensing regulations require that all advertising done by an auction house contain both the auctioneer's license number and the auction house's license number. Failure to do so will result in a fine to the auction house. There may be states that will only allow a licensed auctioneer to actually own an auction house. If that is the case, only one license number may be required. In Florida, like in many other states, a person can own an auction house without being a licensed auctioneer. In these cases, the auction house has to pay a licensed auctioneer to call the auctions for them.

• There are different laws in different states but here in Florida, when an auction house collects the money from its buyers during each auction, they must put that portion of the money they owe their consignors into an escrow account. It is from the escrow account that the auction house must pay their consignors and payment must be made within 30 days from the day the merchandise was sold. The timeframe for paying consignors can be drastically different state to state.

• In the state of Florida, it is illegal to auction firearms unless the firearms were made before 1898. Firearms must be official antiques before they can be auctioned unless the auction house has the necessary additional licensing. It is also illegal in Florida to auction tobacco products or alcohol. Again, this would require either a special license or permit. In addition, auction houses are not allowed to sell alcohol as a refreshment during an auction. Some auction houses offer wine to their customers but they are not allowed to charge money for it. It must be complimentary.

Written by Anne Benedetto, Auction House Talk
 All Rights Reserved