The first time stepping foot inside an auction house can be a bit intimidating. Numbers are being thrown around left and right, items are being sold for thousands of dollars in less than a minute, and, most of the time, you may not even understand what the auctioneer is saying.
As for the part about fast-talking auctioneers, what sounds like a foreign language is actually done for a reason. There’s a method to the madness. Since this is such a common question among auction goers, we set out to address some common topics about how and why auctioneers talk the way they do.
The next time you’re at an auction or see an auction portrayed on television, be sure to closely listen to what is said. The words you think are just a bunch of jumbled-up syllables are actually known as the bid calling or the auctioneer chant.
Three parts make up the chant: the item’s current bid, a filler word, and the next price you can bid on. Consider this example: A chair starts out with a $5 opening bid. To take further bids, an auctioneer may say, “$5, would ya give $10?” The current bid is $5, “would ya give” is the filler word, and $10 is the next price you can bid on.
The chant is a way for auctioneers to inform bidders in the most efficient manner. It also helps grab and hold the audience’s attention, while moving the auction along with speed and pace.
Auctions can often have hundreds of lots with thousands of items to bid on. Conducting such an event in a slow manner isn’t productive for buyers or sellers. The chant allows auctioneers to move swiftly through an auction in a few hours.
The filler words between bid prices are what most people associate with an auction. The truth is, they don’t serve a functional purpose in terms of informing the audience, rather they are there to create a rhythm to the bid prices.
These words, when said fast, can be hard to understand. That’s why auctioneers call them filler words. They help carry the numbers of each bid price.
There is no rhyme or reason as to why some auctioneers choose the filler words they use. In auction school, you’re challenged to pick a filler word that rolls off your tongue the easiest. Sometimes, that can be “bid to buy,” “dollar bidder now,” or “what do you want?” Again, when said slowly, these filler words wouldn’t make the average listener think twice. But, when said fast, “bid to buy” can easily morph into “bidaby.”
A filler word isn’t always necessary. Auctioneers can change numbers without a filler to speed up an auction even more.
It’s unclear when auctioneers began using a chant to move quickly through auctions, but some references date this tradition back to the 19th century.
The use of an auction chant is generally limited to the United States, more specifically the South. Depending on the auction type, auctioneers may not use a chant, either. A high-end art auction in a more relaxed atmosphere likely will use a slower style of announcing bids and prices.
It’s important to remember while auctioneers are selling a product, they’re also tasked with keeping the audience engaged and entertained.
That’s where the chant comes into play. It’s part functional and part psychological. The auction industry is all about time and how fast you can get through bids to sell the items. The faster you can get through the figures, the more products you can auction off. More items, especially sold at higher prices, is a win for all parties.
The pace helps create a pattern of call and response, with the call being the bid and the response coming from bidders who want to make a purchase.
The speed at which auctioneers talk also helps provide a sense of urgency. Auctions are unlike traditional purchases that allow time for you to think and come to a decision. Sure, you can enter an auction with a plan and a minimum and maximum price to adhere to, but bidding on items requires quick thinking along with relying on your gut feeling.
What seems so simple on paper is part of a larger tactic that takes years to perfect. Auctioneers first learn the chant at an auction school, then put it into practice when they become an auctioneer.
To start, you generally learn six types of numbers — quarters, halves, 1s, 5s, 10s, and 2 ½ — to work on your speed. For example, if you’re learning to rattle off fives, you would begin with five and work your way up to 100 in increments of five. You say these numbers as fast as you can with the goal of saying about three numbers per second (a beginner will need much longer). Practicing this each day for a few weeks will drastically improve your speed and tempo.
Once you have the numbers down, you learn to implement filler words between various figures. Using the same figures as before — along with a filler word, such as “bee” — you would practice the chant by saying five a bee, 10 a bee, 15 a bee, and so on. Again, speed is the focus here.
If you’re interested in learning more about how auctions work or how auctioneers talk, stop by one of our in-house auctions or contact us at 405-266-2709. We update our auction schedule regularly with new events!
