We're continuing to comment on the letter this month, and I promised to address the question of what's wrong and why. What's Wrong To get a view of some of what's wrong with some auctions, but certainly not all, and to refresh our memory, let's excerpt a few lines from Richard's letter. Those that tried to operate in an honest manner are either losing money or have gone out of business. In other words, sellers expect strong prices for their goods, so auctioneers have to generate these prices to keep the sellers coming back with more to sell, even if the auctioneers have to tunnel under the bedrock of law and ethics to do it. Richard hit it on the head.
Sellers do exert a lot of pressure on auctioneers to meet their selling goals.
Money is at the root of the problem and fuels the expectations for higher amounts for sellers and auctioneers alike and drives them to do what they do. For the honest auctioneers this means they have to work smarter, harder, and more efficiently to get the results and realize the margins they need to achieve. For the less than honest practitioners, the drive for money and profit invites them to ignore and break the rules as necessary to increase the bottom line. No one hopes more than I that the auction industry does succeed and auctioneers prosper. An auction that includes illegal and unethical practices is an auction in which someone in the selling equation is being wrongfully damaged.