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Tech changes hit auction houses – TheChronicleHerald.ca


Halifax auction house owners say the practise of bidding for items has changed a lot in recent decades, both for those who run the auction houses and those looking to score a great deal.

“Technology, to put it in a nutshell,” said Brian Barker, who’s been an auctioneer for 44 years.

Barker knows all the ins and outs of auctions and how they work. While he’s co-owned Mariner Auctions with his son for the past eight years, he spent more than three decades running art auctions aboard cruise ships.

While he began noticing a shift toward using computers about 30 years ago — for things like clerking and accounting — Mariner Auctions began focusing more on online bidding four years ago.

“I remember when I first started, everything was done by hand. There were no computers involved at all. Everything from registering, to getting your bidder’s number, to cashing out at the end of the day, to getting a report for your consignors, everything was done by hand,” he said.

“And now today everything is on computers, with the odd exception.”

More and more people are participating in online auctions, said Barker, choosing to bid with clicks instead of raised hands.

He believes the trend boils down to convenience.

“I think from a buyer or collector’s point of view, it’s the convenience of being able to stay at home and do other things, not spend four or five hours sitting in an auction hall,” he said.

“And for those who only might want to buy one or two items, they don’t have to sit all day.”

The people who attend their live auctions tend to skew predominantly between 40 and 60 years old, while the online buyers are usually about 20 to 40, Barker estimates. But he said people of all ages do participate in both kinds of auctions.

Before people started taking part in online auctions, Barker said Mariner Auctions used to hold live auctions three to four times a month. But in recent years, the auction house started holding live auctions just once a month, with online auctions being held three to four times a week.

Despite the proliferation of online bidding, Barker describes himself as “old school,” saying he enjoys the adrenaline of running a live auction: using a microphone, interacting with the crowd, and being able to see the buyers face-to-face.

Still, he’s not bucking the online trend.

“There’s a huge increase in business with it being more accessible to the public,” he said.

“Certainly, a much greater percentage of our sales is online as opposed to a live auction. And even when we do a live auction, a much higher percentage is sold online rather than to the people in the crowd at the auction hall.”

Mariner Auctions occupies a 7,600-square-metre facility in Dartmouth, which includes two auction halls and some storage areas for the goods, which are largely acquired through estates and returned items from big box retailers.

The business is always expanding, said Barker, with another 900-square-metre building currently being renovated for a customer service area. The business is also looking for more staff.

“We’ve created a monster here,” he laughed, attributing the growth in business to increased online sales.

He added that there are several reasons why someone might prefer to take part in an auction instead of going to a store.

“Getting a deal is one, but finding the unusual, the rare, those kind of items you can’t usually find,” he said.

When it comes to online versus live auctions, Darren Godbout has the best of both worlds.

He owns two Halifax-area auction houses: Viewbid Auctions, which runs four to five online auctions a week, and Auction Advantage, which holds live auctions once a month.

Godbout said he’s also noticed a shift to more people bidding online in recent years. He started Viewbid, Nova Scotia’s first online-only auction house, about six years ago when he realized more people were going online.

“Same as Amazon or anything else: everything’s moving online,” he said. “It’s convenience.”

While they’re separate companies, Auction Advantage and Viewbid work closely together. Whenever Auction Advantage holds a live auction, Viewbid users can also place bids for the live auction items online.

The auction houses are among only a handful in Nova Scotia that hold licences to be able to sell vehicles, trailers, and off-highway vehicles to the general public, according to their websites.

Godbout said he believes more and more people will continue to move to online auctions.

“It’s a good thing. With a live auction, you have to be there on a specific day. And with everybody’s busy lives, the online (auction) kind of assists people,” he said.

“You can bid at night, you can bid 24-7, anytime’s convenient to put a bid in. It’s not like you have to be in a certain place in a certain time or you’re going to miss out.”





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