The Excellent Adventure: Day 6

I was bidder 41 today in honor of my
boy Kurt who is doing the double!
Indy 500 and Coke 600 baby!

Google Hangouts is a great tool!  I was able to video chat with my family last night which was a nice treat.  The quality was excellent and there was no delay.  If y'all ever read that Google and Wal-Mart are going to merge, run for the hills.  The robot army will surely soon follow.

Today was spent looking at more law. We specifically looked at bidder registration and the documents associated with it.  It seems to be a trivial process, but if you were to ever have a non-paying bidder it is a document that will save you a lot of heartache.  Ever been to an auction and wondered why you had to sign in?  You're basically signing a contract.  You are agreeing to the terms of the sale, that the Auctioneer is in charge and that if you bid, you will pay.  We also looked at the contracts and documents that you would have with a consignor. Again CYA.  It is to make sure that the seller understands the commission structure, that his item might not bring a million dollars and that the auctioneer is acting on his behalf.  It is actually Georgia law that auction contracts be in writing. It helps avoid any confusion and keeps everyone on the same page. The auction business is very heavily regulated in Georgia.  I think that's a good thing.  It builds trust and lends credibility with the public.

Of course, we practiced our number brackets again today. Before you can master an auctioneer's chant, you must first understand the numbers and how to move them. It sounds easy. It sounded easy to me too.  Counting by quarters and halves. How hard could that be? Well once you get into it and try to pick up some speed it gets rather difficult. The single and double digits are not too bad. Once I add a third digit, the hundreds, my tongue begins to get a little fat.  Give it a try. One of our exercises today was going from 500 to 2,500 by 25s.  Not so bad going up but we also have to do all of our exercises backwards.  Why backwards? Suppose you are trying to find the opening bid and you start at 500 but no one bites. Then you have to start working backwards until someone does. You will probably get back to 500, but you might have to start at 350 to get there. You move down 25, 50 or 75 at a time to find the first bid.  As I was doing my numbers today I caught myself chanting them. Others did it too.  That is supposed to come later, but it just happens magically. Almost subconsciously. It is an interesting phenomenon that our teacher says happens to most students. Maybe our class is ahead of the game.

I was able to get down to the river again today. The park is actually the site of an old lock and dam.  Not much of it remains, but it makes for a beautiful scenery. There were several people fishing for striper. Maybe later in the week I can wet a hook too.  Dinner tonight was high naught!  Top Ramen and another peanut butter and honey sandwich.  The Ramen noodles tasted like this morning's blueberry oatmeal which was eaten from the same bowl. Interesting combination.  I'm actually going out to eat tomorrow night. Primarily because it will be raining again, but we will also be going on another field trip. This time we are going to a public auction held in the evening. I'm looking forward to eating and hanging out with some of my classmates. They're all interesting and good folks from different walks of life.  I know that we will all be helping each other once we get into the business.

Today was hump day.  Not only for the week, but for the school as well.  I know that Mamma Bear will be glad to know that ;-)

Y'all take it easy,

Alex