Different approach by an auctioneer...have you seen this in your area?

One chain of 2 locations does it this way.

The property manager has a list of what the defaulted lkr "owner" owes in back rent and fees.
Apparently this is used to determine what a satisfactory starting bid would be.

The auctioneer says something like "I'll start this unit at $35".  This totally amazed the old-timers and the new people didn't know what to think, but no one was saying boo.

Finally I said "5 dollars". She shot me a look that would sink a battleship and she wouldn't accept the bid.
Someone then said "10 dollars" and she took the bid. Ended up selling the unit for $35.

Five lockers. She started 2 at $100 each and worked her way down $5 at a time. Each of them sold for $70.

On one of them there was just the one bid of $70 and I thought the guy could have had it for less...maybe in the $50 range.

Anyway, I don't car for that approach myself.

See post below for a similar auction and feel free to jump in.

In a similar situation another auctioneer asks out loud of his assistant "How much are we owed on this unit?"

The helper might say $627.  Fortunately the auctioneer (property owner) doesn't start the bidding at that, but he does start it at say $300 or so.  Then, like the other person, he has to go down until someone bites and it might go up a bit or stay at the first bid.  Strange to me, but works for them. They've each done it a couple of times, but as those auctions only happen about twice a year it's always a surprise. (2 locations in first post owned by same fellow; auction mentioned in this post is a separate location not related to the first 2 in any way).

That has happend here to, what most of us regular do then is ask him what the number of the next locker is, and we walk of towards the next locker. Leaving the auctioneer with only newbies who are not bidding.

This makes them ask pretty fast if there is any opening bids. LOL most times then he will get a 10 or 20 dollar bid.
But this is not something that happends often.

I've only ran across that one time.  The Auctioneer would not start any bidding below 25 bucks, and he shut the door on a number of units and did not sell them at all.  And the weird thing was, once he got a $25 bid on a locker, he would not sell it for the $25.00!  Unless he got one more bid over and above the $25, he shut the door on that unit too.  I think there were 11 units up that day, and he did not sell five.  I wanted this one locker, and another one of the bidders caught on and bid the $25, and then I won it for $30.  Then, a couple of lockers later, I returned the favor to him!  Weird auction!

Teacher...neat story. Your catching on about half way through was great!

One of the two I talked about did the door closing thing the first time I ran into her too. How stupid can you get. She could have had $25 (or whatever) AND  the locker cleaned out too. As I recall she held on to it until the next auction (6 months later?) and it sold in the $25 area. What an idiot.

There is a little more to that story too.  I ended up buying five lockers that day.  I was in the office, and the owner of the facility was there, and he was all pissed off at the auctioneer when he found out there were bids and he didn't sell them!  I ended up talking to the owner when the auctioneer left, and he GAVE me the other four units on the condition I clean them all out.  It was well worth it!  Also, this same facility is having another auction in a week and a half, but this time, it will be a different auctioneer!

I havn't been to many auctions where the auctioneer was like that but do sometimes see them try to start bidding high, we all just sit there in silence til he starts reasonably low or eventually like someone else in this thread said someoen just shouts out something like $5 or $10 and they normally start the bidding there if not let it go at that price. We as the bidders set prices not the auctioneer.

Working for a auctioneer, I can tell you why this is done...to try and save your voice...
if you have let's say 10 units and you have been doing auctions for years, you kinda
know what the unit will bring...you may start a $100 because the crowd also know what it's worth
and if you get a bite at $100 and it sells for $250...you don't have to "call" so far ie: "saving your voice"

It's easier on your "voice" to go from $100 to $250, than to start a $1.00 and still have to "call"
all the way to $250.....make sense now?

Working for a auctioneer, I can tell you why this is done...to try and save your voice...
if you have let's say 10 units and you have been doing auctions for years, you kinda
know what the unit will bring...you may start a $100 because the crowd also know what it's worth
and if you get a bite at $100 and it sells for $250...you don't have to "call" so far ie: "saving your voice"

It's easier on your "voice" to go from $100 to $250, than to start a $1.00 and still have to "call"
all the way to $250.....make sense now?

To a certain extent yes, and even the better auctioneers we have here will TRY to start an auction high and go from there, but to start a junker at $100 is different than starting a really good locker at $200. The regular buyers know what a locker might go for and will play along to a certain extent. You would have to see this woman in action to understand what a fruitcake she is. Beleive me she's not doing it to save her voice.