I like charity auctions, I admit it, they are fun.
I get to act like a combination of a stand-up comedian and a clown and get paid while I do some good for someone else.
I get to act like a combination of a stand-up comedian and a clown and get paid while I do some good for someone else.
I do not have thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to help someone with, but I can get others with that kind of money to show up and give it someone who needs help. I can have them laughing while they reach for their wallets. It is a fun job. Usually when someone calls an auctioneer it is not happy days, this is particularly true of charity auctions, someone is sick, someone has died, some tragedy has occurred, or else someone wants to fight a horrible disease. But, the auction can be a blast, it is a large crowd coming together to give, there is power there, just waiting for the auctioneer to tap into it. Dynamite, electricity, a dam holding back a tide of giving, one push in the right spot and the flood starts and when it happens it is a magical thing.
The people at a charity auction almost to a person come because they care (OK, a few of them are drug there kicking and screaming by their spouse) but, buy by in large they came because they want to help.
My job as the auctioneer is to get out of the way and let them do what they came to do. It is the best time I get to have as an auctioneer when it happens. I once sold a cool package where a group of 4 could tour a local firehouse and the fire museum, eat lunch with the fire fighters, then ride to the local fireworks display on the back of the firetruck and watch the show, then ride back to the firehouse on the firetruck. A woman with a small boy was bidding against another woman to my far right. At about $180 the woman with the small boy dropped out as she had reached her limit. The little boy looked crestfallen. Another bidder got into the mix, she was seated just to the right of the woman with the boy who had just dropped out. The bidding intensified and went up to $425 when the woman in the corner dropped out. When I handed the package to the winning bidder she turned and handed it to the woman setting next to her (the one with the little boy). The wining bidder didn't know this woman, she just wanted to make the boy happy! His face lit up like a Christmas Tree. People come to a charity auction to give, they are generous people, it is our job as charity auctioneers to give them the gentle nudge they need to do what they came to do.
