News & Views

Auctioneers are regularly engaged by sellers to market and sell their personal or real property. Such marketing involves describing the property adequately so that potential bidders become engaged/interested.

However, what if an auction advertisement said, “Buy this at auction and ski down the hill from your back door,” or “Buy this at auction with a short walk to camp at a state park,” or the like? Other than possible fair housing violations for using “ski” and “walk” (disability,) can a seller or auctioneer essentially guarantee the future?

We have taught classes on auctioneers and ethics for over 10 years. During those classes, we ask the question if the public perceives auctioneers as ethical.

The data we share in our classes suggests the general public probably thinks auctioneers are on the whole … less than ethical. Very similar occupations to auctioneers rank about 17% on the USA Today, Gallup Organization, CNN“Honesty and Ethical” annual poll.

In a series of recent simulcast auctions, I served as one of two auctioneers (bid callers) with over 600 online bidders and as many as 150 live bidders participating. It was indeed a pleasure working with Mark Younger and his staff helping our client sell over 3,300 lots.

I suppose I’m possibly a connoisseur of less-than-common (unusual, odd, possibly even crazy) auction terms and conditions. Of note, I saw the following words of art somewhere and grabbed it to talk about here.

"Auction/auctioneer has the right to terminate any contract between auction/auctioneer and consignor/seller for any reason, up to and including the actual sale and during the auction sale event as well for any reason. The auction/auctioneer can also refuse bids from any individual upon his sole discretion"