I have had two online auctions of my own for embryos, pregnancies and flushes and have consigned to a few others. I know this is a little different than having live auctions for live animals but there are some similarities. As a seller, I have found them to have some excellent factors.
In both the auctions I ran, I completely set up the sale process. I was able to decide a base price under which I would rather not sell each lot. In my case I set this price at a very reasonable amount in order to try to entice bidding. I know some people start with their minimum selling price. I decided to start with a starting bid below where I hoped to end up. I have always thought that people will bid more often if they decide to start bidding.
In my online sales there is no one bidding up the buyer. The sales did have the option for a bidder to automotically put in their maximum bid so that they could come to the sale site when the sale started and place a maximum bid and not have to sit by their computer all day and watch. This is particularly good if a person is tied up in the few hours near the end of the sale and will not be near their computer. As a seller, I did not know who had placed maximum bids or what they were. I remember one particular lot where some bidders thought they were being run up as everytime they bid, there was an almost instantaneous bid higher. This happened because a bidder had put in a rather high maximum bid, and could not be around when the sale ended. He had posted a high bid as he really wanted these embryos. He purchased them for $1000 per embryo, and after the sale was done, he told me he had put a maximum bid of $1500 per embryo on them.
I still prefer live auctions the best, but I cannot attend even a fraction of the sales held these days. I think most people are far too busy these days, and it is difficult to find the time or the money sometimes to travel. As far as getting run on my bids, I have accepted the fact that it happens at live auctions and before I bid on any lot, I decide in my own mind how far I will go. If I am able to purchase the animal for less than I decided prior to the sale of this lot started, I accept it. If it sells for more, I also accept it and make another selection.
In regards to bidding on animals, I have worked many sales as a sales consultant and think I have seen most everything happen. A few years ago, I received a phone call from a breeder who was interested in buying a particular bull in a sale. He gave me a substantial bid, which I thought would certainly purchase this bull. In our conversation, he said to me, that I was to make sure that I did not buy the bull for much less than the bid that he had given me. I was a bit confused by what he meant so I asked him to explain himself better. He said, I was to make sure he did not buy the bull too cheap, as he did not think it would be good for his own bull sales, if people knew he was using cheaper priced bulls.He said that a breeder buying cheap herd sires was only a allowing people to expect some cheaper priced bulls in his own sales. Since he had given me $10,000 on the bull and also gave me flexibility to go higher if I thought a few more bids would purchase him, I was very uneasy with this situation. I asked him again exactly what his wishes were. He said that under no circumstances was I supposed to purchase this bull for less than $6000. I told him, that he was going to have to set something up himself with another person, as I was not real comfortable with running his bid, even though I had his approval. I asked him to contact another sale rep and give him a bid at which he did not want to purchase the bull and I did not want to know what this price was. When the hammer fell, I did purchase this bull for this bidder, and he sold for $8750 and as it turned out, the runner up bidder was in the seats. This is one time, I actually had a bidder who wanted to be run up if it was necessary. I am telling this story, only to point out how differently people think about these things.
Private treaty is a most people's preferred method of buying I think but I also suspect we would all go out of business if we had to rely only on private treaty sales. Personally, I think online auctions will remain a part of this business. Like has been stated in a previous post, I think it is best to know who you are dealing with and if possible have seen the cattle or have another opinion on them. It just removed some of the doubts.
