Try thinking outside the box to keep people bidding in-person rather than online.

by Trey Nosrac

The word auction is derived (like most words in European languages) from Latin. It comes from the Latin phrase augeō, which means ‘I increase’ or ‘I augment.’ Auctions have a long history, with some recorded as early as 500 B.C.

We are in the home stretch of the yearling sales season. In-person auctions continue to thrive, but like every business, it is a shifting battlefield. Most of us enjoy being at Harrisburg, Lexington, and other yearling venues where our sanity wrestles with our enthusiasm. The familiar sights, sounds, and faces combine to create a unique experience.

The beautiful yearlings in the stalls have never lost a race, and optimism is in the air. We furrow our brows and feign expertise when handlers walk a horse out for inspection. Making a case for every yearling that steps onto the stage is easy for us. “Sold for $68,000. Sold for $100,000. Sold for $50,000.” All day, you listen to the drone of the auctioneer’s voice until suddenly, some of us go into an auction fever, and our $15,000 limit melts away like a snow cone dropped on a hot sidewalk.

However, the new kids on the yearling sales block are the auctions via the internet. In many other fields, online auctions are growing ever more popular. Online auctions are convenient and economical to host, and in today’s world, speed and convenience are tremendous benefits. Online auctions allow buyers to log on, place bids, and pay on one website. Customers can shop and click, just like Amazon. But, just like Amazon shopping, you lose those personal experiences like chatting with a groom or having a yearling look deep into your eyes.

The new kid, who fits in our hand, makes customers choose. Do you prefer viewing a college football game in person versus watching it on television? It’s the same game but different. Like a football game, we ask ourselves if it is worth the drive, the parking, the hassle, or the hotel. Or should we open a beer and fire up the flatscreen?

Old habits are hard to break in harness racing. While online bidding supplements our live yearling auctions, at this moment in time, buyers of “yearling” harness racehorses do not seem to be racing enthusiastically into online shopping and bidding (online auctions for older horses are a different story).

We have a few years before online yearling purchases dominate in-person sales. But rest assured, as thousands of businesses can sadly attest, the internet does not sleep. Neither should in-person horse auctions.

Allow me to offer a few unsolicited and perhaps ridiculous thoughts regarding in-person yearling sales; suggestions that may go against long-standing practices and principles of goading buyers to raise their hands for our new crops of four-footed warriors. Making our yearling auctions more of an event could help hold off the creep of cyberspace.

Since COVID-19 started, I have only attended two in-person yearling auctions. The culprits of expense, travel, and time kept me home. These are difficult to avoid. But another culprit was in play; tedium. Except for the horses, each yearling sale is much like last years and the years before. What would push me back to live auctions? New stuff, new adventures, cash inducements, and new experiments.

Auction companies could experiment with new concepts, maybe a sealed auction bid for yearling Hip #144. The seller sets a floor price, say $25,000. At the beginning of the day, bidders can submit a single bid in a sealed envelope on this yearling. The highest bidder wins. After 143 sells in the traditional style, the auction company brings out yearling #144 and opens the sealed envelopes. What a refreshing change of pace. I would enjoy this.

For my taste, selling about a hundred yearlings each day is plenty. Give each horse additional time on the stage. Let the auction people explain more, especially information not in the catalog. Every consignor should be able to submit a few sentences of additional marketing for the online salespeople to read. What’s the rush?

Ease up on the ancient practice of talking faster than the radio disclaimers of the side effects from hucksters selling medicine. This rapid chanting makes me nervous and intimidates me from bidding. Of course, lighting the fire is the goal of an auctioneer, but wouldn’t it be great to find an occasional chill auctioneer or a female auctioneer?

As both a buyer and seller at OnGait, I love to watch the auction clock countdown to zero, where if a last-second bid comes in, the countdown clock flashes and resets to 30 seconds. We once were involved in one of these transactions that lasted at least 15 minutes after the first rest. What fun, and the ticking clock was a terrific dramatic device.

Have a siren that goes off at random intervals. A cheer goes up from the audience. The siren means that the horse on the stage or walking up to the sales stage will sell as usual. However, the successful siren buyer will receive 10 per cent off the sales price (paid by the sales company).

There are many ways to sell horses at auction. Our auctions do not have to be the same: horse after horse, chant after chant. If you want to lure people into the sales arena and keep them bidding, give them a show and mix it up with some raffles and fun stuff. Keep the live sales events fun and hopping and put on a show. Offer them financial incentives for attendance.

Stale is easy. Fresh is fun. Without drama and deals, the old customers will age out, and the marketplace will gravitate to clicking and buying online. The internet is difficult to thwart, but a sales “event” is one place live auctions can keep their edge.

After hemming and hawing, my sloth-like behavior found me at home for the sales this year. Suppose a sales company advertised a few free yearling giveaways, an experiment in silent bidding where people bid by pushing a buzzer in their hand, a drawing for discounts after buying a yearling, or a celebrity auctioneer.

Trey will be in the building willing to catch the fever.