2008 Florida Auctioneers Association Advertising Contest Winner

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:29:30 -0500

Orlando, Florida – AWE Auctions & Appraisals, LLC received a coveted award at the annual awards ceremony with the Florida Auctioneer’s Association, Orlando, Florida.

Each year, professional auction firms from across the state of Florida display their professional works in multiple categories in the advertising and marketing competition. A panel of independent judges carefully review each entry and award grand champions.

AWE Auctions & Appraisals was recognized as a 2008 Annual State Convention Advertising Contest Winner. "We are greatly honored for the recognition from industry piers. More importantly, this award provides a sneak preview to our future clients on the quality, integrity, and effectiveness, of our advertising and marketing prowess. This is important affirmation that AWE Auctions & Appraisals can produce the results that our clients have grown to expect." Principal Auctioneer, Michael Saylor said.

Heirs of Farms Often Inherit a Fight

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:20:01 -0400

In North Carolina's hotbeds of suburban growth, heirs of large tracts of land often face tough choices -- keeping their family inheritance intact or selling to developers.

Sometimes, the decisions can tear families apart.

Steven Ray, 58, knows this well. He no longer speaks much to several siblings after they argued over the division of his father's estate, including farms in Wake and Granville counties. Ray said he had always been more attached to the land than his siblings were. "I've walked it, stepped it, farmed it. I've rolled every rock over on it," he said. "They didn't have any blood, sweat and tears in it."

Jimmy Narron, a Smithfield estate planning lawyer and Johnston County farmer, said he has dealt with similarly sticky situations in countless farm transfers across Eastern North Carolina.

Problems stem from people not writing wills or, worse yet, parents trying to "marry" their children together in land or business partnerships, Narron said. People cling to the notion that all their children will get along. They won't, he said, and even if they do, there's a good chance their spouses won't. "It did not work for Cain and Abel," Narron said he tells clients almost daily. "It didn't work in Shakespeare or the Bible, and it ain't going to work for you." The other problem with land transfers is this: Equal does not always mean fair.

Most people want to deal with their children equally. But same-sized tracts can hold wildly different values depending on such factors as how flood-prone, rocky or close to the road each piece is, said Tom Steele, real property chair of the N.C. Bar Association. In North Carolina, land is increasingly getting busted up.

"We're an older state," said Guido van der Hoeven, an N.C. State University agricultural economics specialist, who has seen farmers' deeds dating back to King George. "We've had land handed down more times. We've got smaller tracts of land." But the biggest trend making estate planning more necessary, especially in the Triangle, is the enormous upward pressure on land values. Many land-rich, cash-poor farmers may have spent their whole life scratching out a modest living, van der Hoeven said. When they find out they're suddenly millionaires -- at least on paper -- it's a lot to wrap their heads around, he said.

Hefty estate taxes incurred after a person dies, along with zooming property taxes, can push heirs to sell the land. Raised on the land

Ray has never wanted to let go of any part of his family's land. To him, the land represents everything his parents worked for. His grandfather died when his father was 14, leaving the family destitute. Years later, when Ray's great grandfather's estate went up for auction on the courthouse steps in Raleigh, Ray's father borrowed money from three different sources to buy the 140 acres.

Today, Ray still lives on a 22-acre portion of the family's original homestead, around the intersection of Old Creedmoor and Creedmoor roads in Wake County, just south of Falls Lake. Ray maintains a horse farm on it and tends a vegetable garden, with squash, okra, corn and beans. He's also trying to save the home his great-grandfather built there in 1875. Ray grew up in the home; his father lived in it until his death. It is dilapidated, but people still stop by at times to draw pictures of it, Ray said.

The baby in the family, Ray also helped his parents on the farm longest of any of the five children. "They almost had to chase me away," Ray joked.

Ray worked side by side with his father, plowing fields of cotton, tobacco and corn -- first with mules and, later, with tractors. Ray also milked cows, raised pigs and fed chickens. He farmed with them full time until he was 24 and continued part time while working as a welder until his father retired from farming in 1982. In addition to the family's 140-acre farm in Wake County, Ray helped his father farm a 155-acre tract about 11 miles away in Granville County. His mother had bought the land after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1970s condemned a separate 185-acre family farm in Wake County for the Falls Lake reservoir project.

Family quarrel erupts

For years after his father's 1997 death, Ray tried to stave off his four siblings from selling the Granville County farm. His father had once said he'd be willing to leave that tract to Ray to farm, but never changed his will. Ray's brother, Charles Ray of Raleigh, said the Granville farm held less sentimental value because by the time their parents had bought the tract, most of the children had already left for jobs in the city or started their own families. Income from renting the land to other farmers was tiny compared to property taxes. And most of the siblings didn't want to be responsible for its upkeep. "If you're not close to something you rent, it gets torn up," Charles Ray, 62, said. Steven Ray offered his siblings $50,000 for their share of the Granville farm, sister Brenda Barbee, 66, said. "That was an insult," said Barbee, who had felt shortchanged by previous property divisions.

Steven Ray got an attorney. His siblings did, too. Both sides headed to court. "I got depressed about it," Ray said.
I
n 2004, Ray grew tired of the fighting, gave in, and the siblings sold the property. Now, Ray regrets it. He hopes similar disputes won't arise in the future. Fight on the horizon?

About five years ago, maternal aunt Geraldine C. Elliott, 85, who lives about a mile from Ray, began giving an interest in an 80-acre tract, which she had inherited, to her nieces and nephews as a gift. She didn't want to sell the wooded lot to developers, she said, not the way her youngest brother had sold a nearby 150-acre tract to developers for $3.5 million. The land sprouted Ethan's Glen, a subdivision that is selling homes in the $575,000 to $872,000 range. "I don't like it," Elliott said of the new subdivisions. "I want some trees, open space and wildlife. The first thing they do is strip the land of every tree." But she's not so sure what her nieces and nephews will do with the land she's giving them jointly -- if they'll amicably hold together one of the last vestiges of her family's farmland or let it stir up another family feud.

Charles Ray thinks it's sad he no longer speaks with his brother Steven. He wishes more people near death simply spelled out their wishes, leaving each person exactly what they wanted to give them, without leaving the ambiguity that can create lifelong rifts between siblings. Steven Ray thinks it's sad, too. His father loved the land, but he couldn't stand seeing his children bicker either. "He didn't like any conflicts at all," Ray said. ESTATE PLANNING TIPS WAYS TO AVOID BITTER FIGHTS OVER INHERITED PROPERTY

- Accept that it's not always possible to divide things equally. You could try to avoid disputes, for instance, by leaving one child cash and other assets and another child land, says estate planning lawyer Jimmy Narron of Smithfield.

- Leave specific instructions for how an executor should divide land. For instance, ask your executor to commission a survey after your death and give the northern half of a property to one child and the southern half to the other, Narron said. STRATEGIES FOR MINIMIZING TAXES ON INHERITED LAND
- Take advantage of all estate tax exemptions. Currently, estates worth $2 million or less are exempt from federal estate taxes of up to 45 percent (the exemption increases to $3.5 million in 2009). If both spouses take advantage of their exemptions, the family can double what can be passed on tax-free.

- Time your death wisely. Just kidding. Currently, the estate tax is scheduled to fall to zero percent in 2010, before rising to a maximum of 55 percent in 2011 with a $1-million exemption. But no one in the tax community thinks that will actually happen, Narron said. Last year, the Senate voted 97-1 to extend the 2009 estate tax levels through 2012.

- Minimize the appraised value of your property.

- Hire an appraiser to lower the valuation of your property.

- Consult a lawyer about putting your land into a trust.

- Put a conservation easement on your land. Congress recently re-approved tax incentives for this, but be sure you're willing to permanently restrict development on your land before you commit.

- Find ways to keep the land in the present-use value tax program, which levies significantly lower property taxes on farms and woodland. Otherwise, you could owe hefty taxes.

GIVING PROPERTY AWAY WHILE YOU'RE STILL ALIVE Under IRS rules, you can give away up to $12,000 a year per person without triggering up to 45 percent in gift taxes. With land, the donor can slowly deed an interest in a property to others.

PROS: The law favors donors with lots of beneficiaries. Keeping a single deed versus subdividing the property can also save on surveying and appraisal bills and help keep the lot large enough to qualify for present-use value property tax rates.

CONS: Any beneficiary has the right to pull his or her share out immediately after receiving the gift, says lawyer John K. Cook of Wake Forest. Some lawyers recommend family LLCs as an option to maintain more control over gifts to heirs. North Carolina is also one of only four states with its own gift tax. Rather than having a $1 million lifetime exemption beyond the $12,000 per person annual exemption as in the federal system, the state only allows a $100,000 lifetime exemption for ancestors and descendants. State lawmakers are considering a change to make the North Carolina gift tax more like the federal gift tax.

The Tyranny of the Heirloom

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:22:31 -0400

By JOYCE WADLER

Published: June 26, 2008

MELODIE BRYANT, a New York City composer, never wanted the portrait of her Uncle Ivins.There were many things she did want, when her mother moved from an elegant 2,500-square-foot apartment in Los Angeles to a far smaller place in Manhattan, but plenty of others that she didn't, though she ended up with them anyway: the mirrored Victorian vanity with tiny drawers that replaced a sturdy bureau with room for her socks, underwear and sweaters; the little armchair, mild as a timid 19th-century housemaid in a faded dress, that had survived the San Francisco earthquake but was too small to serve as a comfortable reading chair.

Once that was in her Chelsea apartment, ''there was no room for a reading chair,'' says Ms. Bryant, who is 59 and looks like the can-do, bandana-wearing women in World War II posters. ''It's like a Chinese puzzle in my house -- you have to think three steps ahead.''

Then there was Uncle Ivins (who was actually a great-great-great-uncle, Ms. Bryant says).

''This guy has all the family traits,'' Ms. Bryant says. ''He's got the big honker, he's got the baby-fine hair. Nobody else wanted Ivins. I didn't want him either. But I could not let him go to some estate sale. I took him home and I was very, very careful when I placed him in the truck. I didn't want to pull some passive-aggressive move.''

Nonetheless, an accident occurred; the arm of a rocker ripped through the canvas.

''It cost me $3,000,'' Ms. Bryant says. Why so much money on something she hated?

''He's a relative,'' Ms. Bryant says. ''He's family.''

Here is the problem with family furnishings: they are never simply stuff. As hard as it may be to dispose of a piece of furniture you bought with the fellow who turned out to be your ex-husband, it is far more difficult to get rid of a piece bequeathed to you by a member of a previous generation, which carries with it not only your memories, but his or hers as well.

Even today, when so many people favor simple, modern décor, turning your back on a grandmother's tea set or ornate settee can feel like betrayal. Admit to your family you're thinking of getting rid of such a piece and you're likely to kick off a family opera, with crescendoing wails of ''How could you?'' Quite likely, you'll be torturing yourself with the same question.

Ambivalence and guilt, it seems, are central elements of furniture inheritance, the anchoring pieces around which everything is organized, like the sofa in a living room. Barry Lubetkin, a psychologist and the director of the Institute for Behavior Therapy in Manhattan, has observed this in a number of patients living with inherited furniture they hate. It's an unhealthy setup, in which people become ''slaves to inanimate objects,'' he says. ''Once you're defining it as something you can't get rid of, you're not in control of your life or your home.''

There are many reasons it happens, he adds, including simple nostalgia. But it is also often connected to a primal anxiety: the fear of disappointing one's parents.

Sell the Armoire, Break Mom's Heart

Bonnie Barrett Stretch, 67, a contributing editor to ARTnews magazine who lives in Brooklyn, felt burdened by pieces of her dead mother's high-quality furniture.

''I felt responsible for them -- my mother had taken such good care of them, so naturally I had to, or I wouldn't be a good daughter,'' she says. ''I guess my relationship with the furniture was something like my relationship with her; I was never sure that I was good enough.''

Not that holding on to inherited things against your better judgment is always about guilt. For many people, holding on to the furnishings they grew up with creates a soothing sense of continuum -- a connection that can become even more powerful after a death. Sometimes an inheritor will go so far as to recreate an original tableau from childhood.

Courtney Monroe, 42, a homemaker in Clayton, Del., has a massive mahogany sideboard in her dining room. On top of it are a silver tea set and silver candlesticks, set up in exactly the same way they were when they belonged to her grandmother and later her father, now both dead.

''I don't even like the tea set,'' Mrs. Monroe says, ''but it goes with the sideboard, because that's where it was when I grew up.''

John Simmons, a New York writer who is 59, refuses to part with a bedraggled travel bar that once belonged to his father, a charming Chicago businessman whom Mr. Simmons describes as ''a 5 o'clock cocktail man.'' After Mr. Simmons's mother died, when he was in college, he and his father often went on long road trips together. His father died when Mr. Simmons was 32.

''The outside of the case has a cheap leatherette covering and inside the vinyl has ripened to faded lemon yellow,'' Mr. Simmons wrote in a note. ''The strap and lock have fallen off. My wife once offered to buy me one just like it, but what good would that do? How could that replace my father at 5 p.m., checking into some Best Western and sending me off for ice, now that the day was done and he was ready to get smashed before dinner?''

The breakup of a childhood home, and the loss of security it represented, can be wrenching even for someone well into adulthood. When Susan Braudy's mother moved from her Philadelphia apartment to an assisted living home 14 years ago, Ms. Braudy, another New York City writer, and her partner, Joe Weintraub, rented a truck and rushed down. They brought back a large breakfront, paintings and drawings, a cocktail napkin signed by Frank Sinatra, Oriental rugs. Ms. Braudy was able to be coolly practical about some things. The breakfront, which was too large for her apartment, was given to a friend with a country house; the rugs, after inciting poor bathroom habits in her dogs, were given away to Housing Works.

But when Ms. Braudy saw them in the organization's front window, she had an emotional meltdown.

''It's terrible to see the stuff you grew up with as a child in a store window,'' she says. ''I think I had a vision of what it would be when I died and the stuff would go to Housing Works.''

But dealing with the art was more complicated. Her favorite piece, a portrait, hangs in her bedroom; the rest, which she does not care for, are hidden behind a bureau. Ask Ms. Braudy, now 66, why she cannot give them away, and you will not get a short answer. They were her father's, she'll say. He worked for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, and one day he heard that a fellow employee named Dox Thrash, who was working as a house painter, had once been a Works Progress Administration artist. Her father befriended Mr. Thrash and arranged exhibitions of his work, and Mr. Thrash gave her father artworks. One of these, she discovered, had drawing on both sides of the paper -- the artist had been that poor. Ms. Braudy's father supported and encouraged artists; he had wanted to be a writer himself, she says, maybe that's why she became one.

No Sofas Need Apply

Sometimes one simply cannot afford to be sentimental. Jill Krasny, a 26-year-old editorial assistant at Reader's Digest, left a Houston suburb for Westchester County a year ago, and is now ready to make her move to Manhattan. But when she came north, her parents, who are amicably divorced, paid the cost of shipping some of their old furniture, not all of which she is crazy about. In particular, she hates the couch. ''It's a hot red, it screams the '80s,'' she says. And it is preventing her from finding a place to live.

''If you move into a city, the first thing they ask you is if you have furniture,'' Ms. Krasny says, referring to potential roommates. ''They don't care if you're dating someone, they don't care if you're a crackhead.''

Isn't having furniture a plus in a share?

''Not having furniture is a plus in Manhattan.''

Can't she just tell her parents that?

She has tried, Ms. Krasny says, but they brush it off. Meanwhile, she's getting more stressed.

''I need to put it in storage or send it back,'' she says. ''I'm afraid to say the word 'sell,' '' she adds, though the act has crossed her mind. ''People get really sentimental over objects.''

Lois Braverman, who is the president and chief executive of the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York, a treatment center as well as one of the country's oldest training organizations for family therapists, once counseled a couple whose marriage was in crisis over inherited furniture. The husband had always preferred a sparse décor. The wife was ''an accumulator.'' This had always been a source of conflict, but when the wife's mother died, there were serious problems. ''She took everything, the dishes, the furniture, the pictures,'' Ms. Braverman says. ''The living room had an extra sofa, an extra chair. Her husband felt he was going to explode.''

''I really worked to help her understand how differently they saw the world,'' she continues. ''It was kinesthetic discomfort when he walked in the room and all the stuff was there, it really increased his blood pressure. She saw this as a legacy for her grandchildren and children.''

Are they still together?

''Absolutely. And even though he was the more frugal, and storage meant spending money, they put the furniture into storage. It could be in storage for the rest of their married life.''

For her part, Ms. Braverman, 57, says she taught herself to resist the tyranny of inherited stuff.

''I used to go home and visit my mother and she would say 'Are you sure you don't want the Limoges china?' '' she says. ''I would occasionally take things to please her, but eventually I got strong enough to say, Mom, it doesn't make sense for me to take them because I'm just storing them in the attic. I love you, I know you picked these things out in a loving way, but my taste is different. Why don't we think of someone in the family who would love to have these?''

My Shrink Made Me Sell It

There is no shortage out there of experts intent on helping us get past our inheritance hang-ups. For legatees whose legators are still living, Jane Hammerslough, the author of ''Dematerializing: Taming the Power of Possessions'' (Da Capo Press, 2001), feels it's important to remember that family members who are forcefully urging their possessions on their relatives don't want those items in their homes either.

''Everybody thinks everything they own is so valuable, then you find out things are really a dime a dozen,'' she says. ''EBay is kind of the great resource for those tortured by possessions, because you can see what this fabulous and rare thing is worth in a completely objective way, and separate it from, Oh, my God, I am selling my father.''

For those who are unable to risk family wrath by refusing or selling a piece, there is always a furniture facelift -- although this itself can be risky. Interior designers offer a range of tricks. Often these seem to involve high-gloss paint. James Magni, of Los Angeles, had a client who returned from a visit to her hometown in Italy with a walnut settee from her Italian Mama that just did not belong in a modern California house.

''We lacquered it in a really wonderful color, sort of a mandarin orange red, and reupholstered with a horsehair fabric, like a cowhide, that made it very hip and contemporary,'' Mr. Magni says.

Designers also seem to have no compunction about subterfuge. Joe Nye, another Los Angeles decorator, had a client whose parents gave him what Mr. Nye describes as three very ugly Erté paintings. He and the client obtained three new paintings of the same size, and when the parents arrive for one of their four visits a year, the client just does the old switcheroo.

Mr. Nye admits that he is not immune from the syndrome; he, too, owns a family piece that tortures him, ''this really kind of hideous Victorian settee.'' It belonged to his grandmother and comes from his childhood home, in Kearney, Neb. For many years it was covered with pink silk velvet fabric chosen by Mr. Nye, who is now 52, when he was 12 and redid the family living room.

''It was divine,'' he says.

So what happened?

''It lost its divineness when it landed in California.''

Mr. Nye had a car painter spray it white and then reupholstered it in white and yellow checks, which made it look fresh for a time. When he changed his décor, he tried for chic by ebonizing it and putting taupe linen fabric on it. ''It just looked like an old Victorian settee painted black with linen on it.'' It has now been exiled to his office.

''It will never live in my house,'' Mr. Nye says. ''But I can't get rid of it. I'd be guilt ridden, I'd have to increase my Zoloft.''

He has five siblings; why not give it to one of them?

Mr. Nye, a glib talker, now stumbles.

''I could, um, I just feel emotionally, um, it's taken me years of therapy to get over my relationship with my mother, it was something my mother just adored, so by giving it away, I would be breaching that healed relationship.''

Dr. Lubetkin, of the Institute for Behavior Therapy, once treated a woman who longed to get rid of an ugly bureau in her bedroom that had once belonged to her mother. He advised his patient to hire a mover to shift the bureau closer to the front door. He also led her through imagery exercises.

''It's called systemic desensitization: slowly, while in a state of relaxation, have the person imagine the fearful situation occurring, having the movers come,'' Dr. Lubetkin says. ''I also gave her an audio tape.''

What sort of things did he say on it?

'' 'It's moving day, the bell rings, there are feelings of discomfort, but you know you can cope, you know you can get through this, this is a statement of independence from your parents.' Then in the next scene, the movers are in the apartment putting those big straps on the piece. 'You begin to feel a little emotionality, there are a couple of tears, but you relax knowing you are doing the right thing. You are going to have a fabulously decorated bedroom in just a short while.' ''

He May Be Overcompensating

Dr. Lubetkin, who is 64 and married to an interior decorator, is meanwhile shackled to his own family piece. It's a cobbler's bench left to him by his father. Unable to find any other place for it, he keeps it in the kitchen of their large apartment on the Upper East Side. Sometimes he puts magazines on it.

''It doesn't go with anything in the apartment,'' he says. ''It makes no sense whatsoever and yet I've kept it because it's both interesting and he loved it. I'm not crazy about it, my wife's not crazy about it, but it's one of the last vestiges of things he's left.''

He sounds conflicted.

''If someone were to come in and offer me some money I'd sell it in a New York minute.''

In other words, the doctor would like to get rid of it, but he doesn't want to have to take the responsibility.

''Yes, clearly, there is some ambivalence.''

Melodie Bryant, who keeps her less-than-handsome Uncle Ivins on the wall opposite her bed, has dispatched any lingering ambivalence, reconciling herself to the inconveniences the family pieces have caused her. Sitting on an old red settee in her sofa-less living room, she needs only the piece itself to explain why.

This settee, she says, belonged to a well-to-do great-great-aunt named Nelly, who lived with her husband and 4-year-old daughter in Philadelphia in the early 1900s. The child died of typhoid. After her death, the couple closed the house and never returned. It remained closed for 35 years. How could Ms. Bryant ever get rid of the red settee? Get rid of the family furniture and you're sure to lose the stories, she says; you'll lose your history.

2007 Auction Industry Growth

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:59:43 -0500

Auction Industry Update

Live auction industry exceeds $270 billion in 2007
Residential real estate auction revenue increase 5.3% despite housing market downturn

Overland Park, Kan - In 2007 the gross revenue from goods and services sold at live auction grew 5.3% to $270.7 billion. In 2006, the auction industry sold $257.2 billion in goods and services at auction, an increase of 7.1% from 2005. The annual report was compiled by Morpace, Inc. on behalf of the National Auctioneers Association (NAA) which surveys auction professionals to determine the state of the industry, as well as track key auction specialties within the industry.

While traditional real estate professionals continue to face the challenges of a housing market downturn, the real estate auction market continues to be one of the fastest growing auction sectors generating $58.4 billion in 2007. Within the real estate segment (i.e. residential, land/agricultural, commercial/industrial), residential real estate auctions witnessed the largest growth, increasing 5.3% from 2006. Accounting for 32% of the total live auction industry, automobile auctions continue to be the largest sector of the industry generating $87.8 billion in sales. Charity auction revenue grew from $15.6 billion in 2006, to $16.2 billion in 2007, an increase of 4.1%. The overall number of live auctions conducted in 2007 increased by 4.6%.

"The live auction industry continues to grow at an amazing pace," said NAA president Tommy Williams, CAI. "More and more consumers are realizing the benefits of buying and selling at live auction. Consumers are now buying or selling their homes, purchasing art and antiques, or raising capital for charitable causes through auctions."

To assist consumers interested in real estate auctions, the NAA launched the first real estate auction multiple listing service (MLS) in 2007. Prospective bidders from across the world can access www.auctionmls.com to view upcoming real estate auctions ranging from residential, to farm/agricultural real estate. In addition to launching the first auction MLS, the NAA partnered with the Auction Network to develop the first 24/7 multi-media network devoted to the auction industry. Everyone from the enthusiast to the casual bidder can participate real-time in a wide variety of auctions taking place worldwide by visiting www.auctionnetwork.com.

# # #

2007 Revenue Estimates by Auction Specialty Areas - Gross Revenue (Billions)
Art, antiques & collectibles - $13.7 (+3.9%)
Automobiles - $87.8 (+0.6%)
Agricultural machinery & equipment - $18.2 (+0.7%)
Commercial and industrial machinery & equipment - $13.0 (+7.3%)
Livestock - $17.4 (+0.0%)
Land and agricultural real estate - $25.9 (+2.5%)
Commercial and industrial real estate - $15.7 (+4.2%)
Residential real estate - $16.9 (+5.3%)
Personal property - $9.7 (-3.5%)
Intellectual property - $0.2 (+5.1%)
Other (Non-Charity) - $2.2 (-1.9%)
Charity - $16.2 (+4.1%)

Auction Network Announcement

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 07:05:58 -0500

Auction Network Announces Initial Lineup

TULSA, OK - (November 12, 2007) - The Auction Network is officially broadcasting online at www.auctionnetwork.com. Production is already underway for a number of unique events featuring live interactive auctions, pre-produced auctions, and profiles of dynamic auction personalities.

"We have some fascinating auctions already on the network, so whether you click the VOD button on our site or watch the streaming video our hope is that seeing these terrific auctions will encourage NAA members to alert us to their own upcoming auction events," said Network CEO Pam McKissick. "We have the IAC, profiles of the Hall of Fame inductees, horse sales, celebrity auctions, space memorabilia, but there are so many more stories out there and we're counting on NAA members to tell us about them."

Exciting Lineup on Auction Network Prior to the first live and interactive auction on November 20, Auction Network executives have scheduled a series of pre-recorded shows allowing viewers to experience a broad range of auction entertainment.

· "Keeneland Yearling Sale 2007": A behind-the-scenes look at the world's premier thoroughbred horse auction, where monarchs and titans of the industry competitively bid millions of dollars.

· National Auctioneers Association Competitions: While you can see some of the most experienced and talented auctioneers in the world any time on Auction Network, you can also catch the next great thing on a series of shows filmed during competitions held at the National Auctioneers Association's Annual Conference and Show including Butch Booker and Camille Booker.

· "Stars For A Cause": A front-row seat for one of the biggest celebrity charity auctions of the year, as Julien's Auctions puts celebrity-autographed portraits by pop artist Nicolosi on the block to benefit the Prince's Trust and the Hollywood Museum.

· "Auction Royalty": Starting out by profiling two of the most recent inductees into the Auctioneer Hall of Fame - Cookie Lockhart and Spanky Assiter - this show gives insight into the lives of world-renowned auctioneers and the industry they lead.

· "Outer Space": A rare auction event, featuring the sale of Apollo 11 lunar pilot Buzz Aldrin's personal space memorabilia and other historic items from the Space Race era.

· "Peter Fonda": The American flag from "Easy Rider" will be up for grabs, as Peter Fonda auctions his personal movie memorabilia and visits with the Auction Network about his life and career.

· "Cattle Baron's Ball": Cindy Crawford kicks off one of Texas's biggest charity auctions at the famed Southfork Ranch in Dallas, with custom watches and luxury automobiles among the items on the block to benefit the American Cancer Society.

· South African Wine and Real Estate: Whether it be glitzy rare wine auctions or the sale of dozens of high-dollar properties in 24 hours, no one does auction quite like South Africa - and shows centered around these events will demonstrate why.

· "Gibson GuitarTown Austin": Gibson GuitarTown serves as the host for this unique event, where Julien's Auctions will sell guitars designed by music-loving celebrities like the Dixie Chicks and Billy Bob Thornton.

"The initial roster of auction programming demonstrates the depth and breadth, fun and excitement of the auction industry," said Pam McKissick, network founder and CEO. "We want our viewers to attend live auctions whenever they can because live auctions are fun. We've even created insert programming called Auction Roadtrips to let people know that if they drove to the live auction there would be lots of wonderful things to see in and around the place that auction occurs. If they can't attend in person, we want to give them a front row electronic seat to the auction by using this highly interactive, real-time bidding network."

"Now, viewers won't just see the auctions themselves but they'll also learn the stories behind the items being auctioned. You're not just going to see Peter Fonda's 'Easy Rider' flag auctioned off, you're going to hear about what that film and that flag meant to him. In South Africa, you won't just see real estate and wine auctioned. You'll see cultural reporting as well. You're going to be part of that experience," said Fontana Fitzwilson, the network's general manager.

Live Auctions Begin November 20, featuring Gibson guitars and the Osbourne family

Auction Network will head to the 02 Dome in London for its first live, interactive auction, Julien's Auctions' "Gibson GuitarTown London," where rock memorabilia like a guitar inspired by music legend Paul McCartney will be available for bidding from anywhere in the world. Instructions for registering for the Gibson Guitartown London auction and previews of all the guitars for sale can be found at www.auctionnetwork.com.

On November 30 and December 1, the Auction Network will travel back across the Atlantic to Los Angeles, for one of the most anticipated celebrity auctions of the year. Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne will sell personal property from three of their homes - many of the items recognizable from their hit television show, "The Osbournes." Julien's Auctions will carry out the sale, and the event will be broadcast with live, interactive bidding capability on Auction Network. A portion of proceeds from this sale will benefit the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Foundation.

Internet Fuels Live Auction Industry

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:56:20 -0400

WAYNESBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- His chanting is rhythmic and rapid, a staccato string of numbers that quickly grows hypnotic as auctioneer Kevin Teets scans the audience, eyes darting between buyers on opposite sides of the room.

Auctioneer Kevin Teets, of Farimont, West Virginia, chants the bids.

Perched in the front row is Dave Kauffman, who has come 220 miles from Marysville, Ohio, in search of vintage, remote-control model airplanes and accessories.

Within hours, Kauffman has so many planes and parts, to be resold at flea markets and online, that it takes five trips to load his hatchback at the Greene County Fairgrounds.

"I can tell from the first sale if it's going to be a good night," he said. "Tonight was a very good night."

Although auctioneers initially considered the Internet a threat, its growth and development of searchable Web sites like AuctionZip have contributed to a boom in the live-auction industry, with one-time rivals forming partnerships that produce bigger audiences for sellers, often by simulcasting live auctions on the Web.

Buyers emboldened by success on eBay and other sites are seeking live sales in search of lower prices -- and the thrill of competing in person.

Sales of goods and services at live auctions totaled $257 billion in 2006, a surge of 7 percent over 2005.

A study for the Kansas-based National Auctioneers Association found residential real estate auctions have grown 39 percent since 2003, agricultural real estate grew 33 percent, and sales of commercial and industrial property surged 27 percent. Car auctions increased by 10.5 percent and charity auctions rose 16.5 percent.

"I don't know where the auction industry would be without the Internet," said Teets, of Fairmont, West Virginia. He turned professional three years ago and made the top 12 at the 2007 bid-calling world championships in San Diego.

"The Internet has educated the buyers. It's educated the sellers. It's opened a lot of these small sales up," said Teets, 31, who works for Joe R. Pyle Auctions of Mount Morris, Pennsylvania.

Auction Network produces Webcasts of auctions.

"The Internet has been the greatest thing that ever happened to the auction industry," said National Auctioneers Association president Tommy Williams, an Oklahoma real estate auctioneer. "It made us reinvent ourselves."

Auctioneers were slow to embrace the Internet because it was considered competition, said Ina Steiner of Natick, Massachusetts, editor of AuctionBytes, a trade publication for online merchants.

But now, even rural residents often have sufficient Web service to compete and sellers realize that customers have choices far beyond eBay. There are specialty sites like Bid4Assets for real estate and IronPlanet for construction equipment.

"General consumers, they go to sites like eBay," Steiner said. "But they might go to Google. Google's the great equalizer. If an auction site is savvy and has a listing optimized for Google, people can find them."

The intersection of live and virtual auctions promises nearly limitless opportunity, and a few companies have already found niches by pairing traditional auction houses with the online world.

Julian Ellison moved from London to New York in 1999 to launch LiveAuctioneers, a Webcasting project. In 2002, he persuaded San Francisco-based eBay to partner on live Web auctions.

At the time, eBay had 25 million users; today it boasts 275 million. Ellison has ventures with 638 auction houses worldwide and annual sales approaching $100 million.

"Shearin, who went pro in March 2006, was initially captivated by the chanting but quickly learned there's more to the business, requiring constant re-education about values, intensive marketing efforts and sophisticated people skills.

"Like so many other businesses, you get out of it what you put into it," she said. "If you really enjoy it, 50, 60 and 70 hours a week really do go by very quickly and fairly easily."