One of the oldest closes in selling is :-
“Buy now while stocks last”
For Auction House Christie’s ( founded in 1766) the promotion of the sale No
6,934 was duplicate posters from the
London Transport Museum archives werebeing
sold in aid of this not for Profit organisation at South Kensington.
The copy in the mini publicity card promoting the sale read
 |
"A train every 90 seconds"
A lot sold every 90 seconds at the
Posters with Purpose Auction
at Christies , South Kensington |
“… never to be
repeated opportunity to acquire iconic Underground Posters from the archives of
the London Transport museum.” ( buy now while etc.…in other words)
The Coleridge gallery in their South Kensington Rooms on the
Brompton Road was the venue for the sale.
The pulpit-like rostrum was placed
centrally at the far end.
To the right was a desk ‘manned’ by a row of beautiful ladies
managing the telephone bids.
Nearest to the rostrum was the on line bidding desk
although the auctioneer mainly used the monitor mid way above the audience.
This enables the auctioneer to maintain more eye contact with bidders in the
room.
To the left of the rostrum was a desk where the confirmation
paperwork was received and entered on a pc.
Usually on line auctions are rather remote and lacking in
personality but in this auction it was subtly orchestrated by the auctioneer to
the four different bidding audiences i.e. The absent bidders who had left bids with her,
bidders via the internet, bidders placing bids via the telephone and those in
the room itself.
The auction was a little delayed due to a queue at reception registering .
So a little after 11 o’clock wearing a stunning
purple dress the auctioneer mounted the steps to the rostrum set up her radio
mike and welcomed everybody in the room plus the over one hundred on-line bidders.
“ Christies are proud to be entrusted with running the
auction for the museum....”
To the front above the rostrum either side were TV monitors.
To the right the 'lots' were displayed and to the left were the prices of the bids
in pounds sterling, US dollars, Euros, Swiss Francs and Roubles.
The selling job of an auctioneer requires many skills. She
was like an orchestral conductor multi tasking like crazy. A confident,
friendly and clear and authoritative voice is key.
Although never making bidders feel hassled she needed to
keep things pacey. On average each lot took around 90 seconds on average to sell. Yet
there were 300 lots to sell so she did not hang about.
Ironically Lot No
5 “90 seconds per train” by Abram
Games 1914-96 was sold in a little over that time for £3,200 to an on-line bidder.
She noted in the summary of each sale the final bid and recorded winning bid details by sum and the bidder’s paddle
number.
Bidder in the room had paddle numbers. Some on made for the
job - ones presumably by regulars and others written on show cards.
The ladies on the
telephone desk raised numbered paddles but the
numbers used by the online bidders were referred to as their paddle
number although here we were in virtual reality domain.
The auctioneer also needs to build rapport with the various
bidding audiences. Here are some of her calls..
“I have on line …”
“ I have interest here with me my absent bidder”
“ My interest on the book for this lot”
“In the room…”
She would encourage those in the room with
“ I have two bids here at ..”
“ Shall we go up/on
“Bid here in the front / aisle/ at the back”
“One more might do it”
“ You look unsure… we can wait there’s no hurry..”
“I’ll take whatever you’ll give me”
“Bid with my gentleman”
“ With Nicolette then ( telephone bidding representative)”
“ Against you in the room/ on line “
“in the room at .. it’s not yours on –line”
“There it is then at..”
“ I am selling at.. (hammer)"
“It’s yours / Sold to you – Thank you"
“Paddle number…
Her role is obviously to do well for all concerned to get
the primary client 0in this case the museum) a good price but also for the various bidders. In
particular when she had a reserve limit by an absent bidder she would start at
a lower price.
Clear use of body language communicated to the room where
the bids lay.
Her eye contact in the room had to fix with bidders as well as
look around the room and the on-bidders screen bids.
Her eyebrows were also
effectively and expressively used.
Although you might think that a set of Underground Poster
from London’s tube would interest mainly Londoners- bids came across the country
from London e.g. Ringwood, Stratford upon Avon but also from France, from the USA -
New York , Illinois, Massachusetts and
Abu Dhabi in the time I was in the room.
Courtesy was given to all in the room with thank-yous for
winning bidders.
I was not able to stay beyond the first 100 lots but I guess
the sale would have finished mid afternoon
when a call of “ come in Sale No 6934- your time is up!”
Passing through the gallery on the way out on the forthcoming James Bond auction ( 50 years) the theme - "Nobody does it better " came into my head.
Nobody has done it better than Christies since 1766.!
