Mart Price Tracker

A mart auctioneers job is to sell the item, it's not to value it or vet potential customers. They take the bids and aim to get the price up to the seller's satisfaction. It's up to the mart management to ascertain if someone is able to pay there bill or come to some arrangement. If the management isn't satisfied that someone is going to be able to come up with payment then they have to take appropriate action, be it asking them to desist from bidding, instructing the auctioneer not to take there bid ect.

Once a lot is sold by the auctioneer the clerk records the price, buyer's name and any relevant details about the lot (perhaps an announced defect, calving details etc. There's usually 2 sets of records, a paper copy of sales sheets and an electronic version on a laptop. This information is forwarded to the office where it's compiled and available for settling up the accounts and so on. It's no secret to the office staff who's buyers name is put down for each lot sold. The information is coming in in almost real time as each lot is auctioned. You would think that someone would spot that X client is doing a lot of business today and he's not a regular customer.

Usually in any mart I work in that would set alarm bells ringing after awhile to "scope him" out and see what his history was like. If he's a cattle man then there's always someone that will know him or know someone that would find out. Oftentimes if there from a different part of the country a phone call to there own local marts is a good way to find out what there prior history is like. If the answers aren't favorable then calling the person in question into the hallway or the back office for a chat about there intentions is often the next step.

As regards thing's getting messy between the mart and the seller in such situations there isn't much grounds for issue most of the time. If the auctioneer turns around to me in the seller's box having opened the beast himself at say €900 and went on to €1000 then I'm within my rights to accept the price, whether or not he has a client at that price isn't my business it's between him and his employer. However if I instructed him to open the lot at X price or in the above scenario try for €1050 then it's usually a different story and he'll either achieve the price or turn around at let's say €1020 and tell you there's no one up and no sale. If the auctioneer gets caught with a lot because he was polling on himself unknown to the seller or the buyer turns out to be experiencing cash crisis that's the auctioneers and marts problem but the seller is entitled to the hammer price.

I think it would open a lot of lads eye's if they seen what went on after the sale is over in a lot of cases. There's often another sale of sorts in the canteen, office or yard afterwards, I take this beast off you and the mart is caught with another one if you're interested and maybe they'll charge no buyers commission on it or give you €50 luck off it seeing as you've bought a few and are taking them out of a hole. You'll often see lads that spend the whole day signing across at one another around the ring and giving guff and they'll all be eating a feed at the one table in the canteen in the evening. Someone needs 1 more to fill out a job and will give the other lad €20 profit on his 1 or I'll return the favor some other day. Yes some lads would burn each other but there's lots have a sort of peace and work through each other some of the time. Just because X buys him around the ring doesn't mean it's his lorry he'll be going up on in the evening.