Internet Auctions Hot Topic At National Auctioneers Convention
July 20, 2010
The 61st National Association of Auctioneers (NAA) Convention was held last week in Greensboro, North Carolina. Over 1,000 attendees from across the United States were represented along with some auctioneers from South Africa and Ireland.
There is no better way to network with fellow auctioneers to find out which methods are working and which are not. Online auctions were certainly the most talked about topic. There are many auctioneers who have not delved into, and do not want any part of this increasingly growing method. Others are studying this method and have tried incorporating online auctions on a small scale.
Bottom line, the consensus tells us online auctions are here to stay! You know what they say, “If you don’t change with the times, you get left behind.” I believe there is a balance between respecting tradition and embracing change. The auction industry has, for so many years, been a relatively untouched method of marketing. As the world watched the birth of the Internet, auctioneers now have to make decisions about the way they conduct business and future business platforms. There will always be a place for the live auction. The questions is, will Internet auctions eventually outnumber the live auction setting?
As an astute colleague of mine stated, “In the future, there will be fewer auctioneers; however, the ones that remain will be doing more auctions.”
