Internet, reality TV boost auction industry

People sat on the edge of their seats when it was Linzay Downs. They sat on the edge of their seats when it was Louisiana Raceway. And now, spectators sit on the edge of their seats at Brown’s Auction.
“People get really competitive,” said auctioneer Jacob Brown, who runs his auction company at the site of the former Linzay Downs horse racetrack and Louisiana Raceway drag strip. “We are moving so many things so fast. We can sell 1,000 items in just a few hours. “
“I enjoy the bid calling the most, and the crowds can get large. It’s a euphoric feeling, like being a singer or an actor or a politician giving a speech. You are at the center that day, controlling the situation.”
Brown, who followed in his father Cecil’s auctioneering footsteps, earned his auctioneer license right out of high school. He was the youngest auctioneer in the state at that time and often the youngest at auctioneering conventions.
“The average age of an auctioneer seven or eight years ago was 50 or 51,” Brown said. “Now, with the online (opportunities), they are getting much younger. There are now six or seven auctioneers in the state who are younger than me.”
The now 33-year-old auctioneer got his start in the business holding the sign stick to announce lots at his father’s auctions, and he recently found himself back there at the bottom of the career ladder.
“It’s funny,” Brown said. “They were filming the Mark Wahlberg movie ‘The Gambler’ in New Orleans, and they needed an auctioneer for a part in the movie. The part went to Dad because they were looking for someone in that age range. My dad wanted me to be in the movie too, so he asked them if I could hold the sign stick.”
“I got demoted back down to where I started,” Brown said, laughing.
These days, sign stick holding is still a job at smaller auctions, but the large, state-level auctions Brown calls for are often outfitted with big screen televisions so that bidders can see lots as items come up for bid.
Auctioneering is Brown’s full time gig, and it has been for several years.
“There’s a huge percentage of auctioneers who are second- and third -generation auctioneers,” he added.
In his 15 years as an auctioneer, Brown was named the 2010 Louisiana Auctioneers Association chair, and in 2011, he was awarded first place.
He credits today’s atmosphere of auctioneering to reality television shows and the Internet, with the latter being the biggest boost to the industry.
“Ebay did more to promote the auction world (than anything else),” Brown said. “Auctions really started growing and never stopped (after Ebay). The auction business has been steady nationally for a long time. It’s now a quarter-trillion-dollar industry, and nationally, vehicles and real estate are the things auctioned most often.”
“Internet bidding has been the biggest change for us,” he continued. “Reality shows have also raised awareness. I never thought there would be television shows about auctions. People always have a ton of questions about the auction business. The method of selling is not like it is on Ebay. An auction is action packed. We thought about doing online only, but the statistics aren’t close. There is a sense of urgency with a live auction. There’s no time to think about it.”
Brown has even had spectators show up to see an auction live in rather than tuning in for the latest episode of an auction reality show.
“They think it’s neat,” he said.
According to Brown, Louisiana is a fairly active state as far as the auctioneering business goes, and March is usually the busiest month of the year in his opinion.
People are getting their income tax checks, and bidding is more competitive, Brown said. “Vehicles really sell at income tax time.”
While one can find just about anything up for auction on Ebay -- a piece of toast nibbled on by Justin Timberlake, which went for $3,000 back in 2006, to the most expensive, a Gigayacht, which sold for $168 million that same year -- Brown specializes in heavy equipment, real estate through United Country Real Estate, business liquidations and vehicles.
“Spray rigs are big-money items,” he said. “We get farmers looking to sell equipment, repossessions from FSA (Farm Service Agency), rental companies with turnovers and items from bankruptcies. We sell a lot of Tanner Construction and LA Crane’s old equipment, too.”
Brown also sells a little of everything when it comes to calling for the Louisiana state surplus property auction, and between he and his father, they have held the contract to call the auction longer than anyone else.
“Our company has had the Louisiana State Surplus Property Auction contract off and on since 1975,” Brown said. “There’s only about five years that we didn’t have it, so I would say well over 30 years. My Dad conducted the very first Louisiana Surplus auction. He gave them the idea of liquidating the surplus assets by live auction and it’s now the largest municipal asset liquidation contract in Louisiana. It’s actually one of the largest in the country.” 
“We have auctioned everything you can imagine, old medical equipment and even the St. Charles Ferry.”
In 2010, Brown called the largest Louisiana state surplus property auction in the state’s history, and the final tally from all the items sold was $1.4 million. Brown also called for New Orleans’ largest impound auction in state history, and the final figure from that event was around $200,000, up from about $60,000 before Brown added the online platform.
In addition to live bidding, Brown also hosts an online platform for buyers to bid in the state and impound auctions as well as the auctions at his lot.
“We were one of the first auction companies in the state to do Internet bidding,” he said. “Bidders can log in and see photos of the equipment and videos of it running. They can also place bids on items prior to the start of the auction.”
“Online bidders really drive the prices on heavy equipment.”
Those dropping cash via the Internet also substantially drive up the number of bidders for Brown’s Auctions, and bids come in from buyers around the country and around the globe.
“We can have 300 to 400 people here and another 200 to 300 online,” Brown said. “We’ve shipped an excavator to Japan and other items to Mexico and the Middle East. The Middle East is our biggest buyer of CAT equipment. I have an Egyptian buyer who purchases CAT and CASE. It’s like gold there because they have lots of old and not well made equipment. It’s worth it to them to buy it and have it shipped there.”
With the advent of the Internet, Brown is also able to reach out to these distant customer bases is in a way his father never dreamed of.
“Marketing has changed,” he said. “Dad did mail outs and flyers. People had to come out here to see what they were bidding on. Now you can go to our web site and see the items, and we update the site daily. You’re not driving from far away for maybe nothing.”
Brown advised that those looking to enter today’s world of auctioneering should find a mentor and stick to selling a genre of items he or she is familiar with.
“Pick something that you know about,” he said. “It’s hard to be an expert at everything. Most new auctioneers start out doing small estate sales.”
As for his future, Brown hopes to attract more international bidders for his auctions, add reality television star to his filmography list and field the occasional phone call from people who once sat on the edge of their seats at the now-auction yard.
“I still get calls from people asking if we are ever going to reopen the drag strip,” he said.