livestock auction etiquette

[mekasmom]

I need to understand auction taboos.
I went to a poultry sale at the salebarn and bought 6 adult Sultan Roos. At first there were many of us bidding. I had already determined I would get one of them even if it went up to $20, so I just left my hand up as it went higher. Finally, the one guy dropped his hand and said ten dollars rather than following the auctioneer. The other one shook his head 'no', and I said $12. So I won the auction. I took one roo at that price.

I said I just wanted one, so the auctioneer started again at a quarter. It went up by a quarter a bid. I didn't bid that time at first, but they were almost ready to be sold at $4, so I suddenly raised my hand and bid. Again the other guy backed down, so I took the other five of them at that price. I had bought all 6 roosters. I wasn't about to pay twelve for one, and let someone else have them for a third of that price.

After the whole auction was over, and we were loading up our roosters and other birds, I had three different people come to me and say, "John wanted those." I hadn't really wanted all of them anyway, just one, so I said well I will sell him a couple. Back comes "john" who offers me three dollars for the roos. (I had just bid over that). I said no, but what do you have to trade. I would have traded them for a cochin hen each or auracana or anything he had. I am not that hard to get along with. But, No, he didn't want to do that. I actually only wanted one of the roosters, in fact, I gave the others to my "hen" friends so we could all get some pretty birds started in our flocks. It really wasn't a big deal to me, but at that low price I just took all the rest of them.

Apparently this "john" is some sort of a bird dealer who travels the auction circuit buying and selling poultry and livestock. And few people will ever bid against him. I think it is because they are afraid if he gets ticked off, he won't buy from them any more? I'm not sure of the reason, but I had somehow ticked him off by buying all those roosters and some blue cochins and geese by bidding them up higher than he wanted to pay. Whatever social taboo I breached, it was big enough that complete strangers were coming over to tell me "but 'john' wanted those" in a harsh whisper.

Are there some sort of livestock auction etiquette rules that I don't know about? When you go to buy hens, goats, etc, do you bid against anyone? or do you just let the chosen few take what they want without bidding against them?
I told this whole story to my friend, and she said "nobody bids against "john". They roll out the red carpet for him." I just don't understand this at all. Is it common at other auctions you have been to?

I guess in the goat auctions, nobody who sells goats ever bids against the chivo dealer either. Even if a boer comes in that is really nice that they want to add to their herd, they let him have it if he wants it. They are afraid he won't buy their products if they tick him off. Is that common in livestock auctions?

 

[EweSheep]

He is a joker if you ask me! And did he ever threatened you at any manner? If not, I would not worry about it and only bid what you think its worth or how far you are willing to go to get those birds.

Sounds like this guy is a dealer. Ignore those whispers. He does not have your name or place or address so I dont worry about it. He probably had those folks overhearing him that how bad he wanted those birds. Too bad!

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Sounds like the meat market guy here. People just don't dare bid against him. I don't exactly know why. But, yes, I have before and won. Everybody will kinda look over their shoulder to see who in the world could have bid against the meat market guy. Haha!

I wouldn't think nothing of it. That's what auctions are for.

 

[CarriBrown]

Too bad, so sad. You won those birds fair and square.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

My, my. When you go to an auction there ARE NO RULES. You bid and scam any way you can. What do you think this joker did ?
He put his hand down, was out and then had the NERVE to ask you to give him YOUR "in" at his "out". Worthless thing on two legs if you ask me.

Believe me, people are RUTHLESS when it come to an auction and you need to do the same. Heck it is part of the fun of it all.

I have even had some worthless joker take my birds out of a cage and exchange them for his. I paid for choice, he did not and I had the better birds. BOY WAS I MAD. I did not go to that auction for months and the auctioneer knew what happened, but did nothing.

YES, there are shiftless, worthless and lying jerks out there and an auction seems to bring it all out.

YOU GO, give em hell and enjoy the process !! don't let these fools play you, stand up to them and they will respect your hand the next time they see it.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

That is ridiculous! There are quite a few "meat" buyers at our auction, but if they know you want an animal for a pet, they will stop bidding against you. Sometimes if there are only one or two birds out of an entire group that I want, I will just go up to the meat buyer after and offer MORE than they paid. Only once I had a problem where the guy wanted about $12 each for a pigeon he just paid $4 for, but I just declined and that was that.

I think it was rude for the guy to offer you LESS than what you paid. If he wanted them THAT badly, he would have offered you MORE. An auction is like a game. If you want something badly enough, you bid until you are outbid. If you don't want to pay the price, you lose. You can't go to an auction expecting to get what you want if you are only willing to pay a very low price. In fact, I always keep my hopes low because its better than being disappointed.

I'm sorry you had to deal with this guy. I'm happy that you got the birds as it seems like they will have a much better life with you! Hopefully you don't have to deal with his guy again, but stick up for yourself. Unfortunately it may turn some people against you, but if you are not a regular seller than you don't have too much to lose. People can't expect to get everything they want all the time because eventually someone comes along and has the guts to stand up!

Edited for spelling errors

 

[Brick243]

Short and to the point. If "John" wanted the birds so much, all he had to do was keep bidding. You owe him nothing.

 

[Fudgie]

Well sounds like "John" has his bluff in on everyone except you! Auctions are just that. There is a starting bid and an ending bid. Things sell for way more than they are worth and way less than they are worth. The deal is YOU decide what you are willing to pay and pay it. If "Dear John" wanted those roos, I guess John should have continued bidding on them. What idiotic world are those people living in.

A few weeks ago, I had a similar incident where there was a family of goats. A momma and 3 babies. OMG they were cute and the idiotic auctioneer split the babies off of the momma and did not even give them a chance to sell together....well it ticked my Poff button and I bid on the babies and won them then I bought the momma and then I left. He was a complete jerk. I asked before the bidding started and he said give me 200 bucks and I will stop the auction. I said NO, sell em. I wanted to just do the childish thing and flip him the eagle but I bought the kids and momma and took them home. I really did not want the one boy baby but sold him for what I paid for the 2 girls so I did not get hurt. I was just fuming mad.

Our meat buyer guy is so nice. If he knows the kids are selling their 4-H projects, he bids them way up. He has even given the girls roosters and hens that they liked. Just GAVE them to the girls! In the same note, I have told him I wanted just one out of a pen that they sold the whole pen and I told him we would split the cost and he has instead told me ot just go get it out of there. Dear John and I would go a couple rounds if he tried to snucker me out of a bird that I paid more for. As a matter of fact if he wanted the bird, the cost would have been 1/6th of the total price I paid for all the roos. If he did not like that then so sorry.

 

[WriterofWords]

Sounds like "John" is the one who needs to learn a little auction etiquette! I've run into auction bullies before and I look them straight in the eye and tell them I hope they really want whatever I'm bidding on because they WILL have to beat me out for it I won't back down. I won't pay $100 for $10 chicken just to spite my face, but I will give them a run for their money. I've done it at horse auctions before too.

 

[ChickenCop]

Just to be a "smarty", go next time and wait to see what "john" bids on and jack that bid up on him!...LOL