THE HARDEST AUCTION

by Deb Weidenhamer

Every auctioneer has their favorite auctions and those than make them cringe. For myself, as an auctioneer and as the president of an auction firm, I find the most challenging auctions are estate auctions.

Estate auctions are difficult because of the emotions generated in wrapping up a person’s life. The auctioneer has to deal with family members who are both emotionally upset and often unfamiliar with the action process. The survivors may have unresolved issues with the decedent and even more unresolved issues with remaining family members. People who cannot get along under normal circumstances can turn into real monsters with disputes about what will be sold, what the reserves will be, and who will get to withheld items from the sale. I’ve learned to watch for the warning signs of feuding relatives and will avoid booking an auction that has the signs of degenerating into a war. If we do book an estate auction, we contractually require a single-family member be selected to make all decisions about how the auction will be conducted. Inability to settle on a single leader is a sure sign the family will be difficult to with which to conduct business.

Once against my strongest advice, one of our firm's auctioneers decided to personally call an estate auction that our company had declined to work. It had all of the danger signs of a feuding family even during the first sales call. A week prior to the auction, multiple family members were calling the auctioneer with various complaints. Two days prior to the auction, lawyers began to call with demands to cancel the auction or threatening lawsuits if the auction was not executed exactly to their client’s liking. The auction itself had two armed guards to prevent the six family members from attacking each other. The auctioneer survived a very contentious auction day and luckily no legal action resulted. The auctioneer’s commission was not nearly sufficient to cover the headache unless you factor in the value of a lesson learned.

Sometimes the best way to handle a feuding family is to talk them out of having a traditional estate auction and help them set up a "monopoly money" auction. All of the family members are given an equal amount of play money and they use their share of play money to bid upon the items on which they place the highest value. They can then keep, sell, or consign to auction the items they have purchased. Without any real money changing hands, the only way an auctioneer can get paid is to charge a flat fee. However, it is likely that when the idea of a "monopoly money" auction is presented, the family will see no further reason to engage an auctioneer. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because "monopoly money" auctions usually lack sufficient pre-auction setup, which often results in vicious post-auction disputes.

The hardest part of an estate auction sales call is sometimes having to talk the family out of having an auction. People usually have an over-inflated idea of when their items are worth and this is even more so the case when people have an emotional attachment to the items being auctioned. Often the estate will just not bring enough money to justify an on-site auction because of the high level of set-up to properly prepare the estate for sale.

However, we do try to offer families a number of alternatives to traditional estate auctions. If the estate has a burdensome setup, we will instruct the family on how to do the auction set-up and then will perform the auction for a reduced fee. If the estate only contains a few high-value items, we will suggest some items be consigned to a regular consignment auction and the remainder of the estate sold in a yard sale or given to charity for a tax write-off. If the estate consists of highly specialized collectibles, tools, or hobby items, which will require extensive research, and a family member is already an expert in the subject, we may suggest the family prepare the descriptions for posting on the Internet. We then handle the posting, collection, and shipping for a reduced fee.

This emotional environment of an estate sale must be dealt with even in those situations where no one has actually died. Many elderly people will have an "estate" sale when they move into a smaller home or into managed care. It is very difficult for these people to give up the possessions of a lifetime and many of the same contentious issues will arise amongst other family members. When doing these "estate" auctions we will first determine if the elderly family member is capable of being in charge of the auction and if not, we will insist that a single family member be designated to make decisions. We encourage the elderly family member to review the auction setup prior to the preview to say goodbye to their possessions and to identify any remaining items they may insist on pulling from the auction. We then strongly encourage the elderly family member to not attend the actual auction because of the emotional stress it will cause.

Estate auctions can also present thorny ethical challenges. A family member asks you to dispose of a dozen boxes of "worthless" old clothes. A cursory search reveals several boxes filled with highly collectable beaded dresses from the 1920’s. The family has given you their trash for disposal but you have a contract requiring you to represent their best interests. The family’s ignorance regarding the contents of an estate can also sorely test the honesty of your employees. An employee setting up an estate sale might find jewelry that no one knows anything about and will likely not miss. Or they may be sorting through a box of "junk" and find an item only a collector will recognize as valuable. The employee might even ask the family if they can purchase the "junk" item for a token sum, reinforcing the family's perception the item does not have significant value.

The nature of the decedent’s possessions can also present ethical challenges. You discover a huge box of pornography videos while setting up an estate. Will the family be appalled or overjoyed when you auction them off for a healthy sum of money? What do you do if you discover something extremely embarrassing in the estate like love letters from an affair or boudoir photos? Do you sell them, give them to the family, or quietly dispose of them? And what about illegal items hidden in the estate like drugs? Do you immediately call the police, give it to the family, or quietly dispose of it?

I personally find the hardest part of an estate auction is disposing of those items that were the most cherished possessions of the decedent but now have no significant value to the remaining family members. The number of families that have absolutely no interest in old letters, journals and photo albums astonishes me. I once sold hundreds of love letters written by an Army officer and his wife during the years before and during WWII because the family didn’t want them. It is hard not to feel some emotional empathy at the casual tossing aside of once cherished mementos.

In some cases when these sorts of items are being auctioned, I have personally purchased these items and found good homes for them. Local museums and libraries are often happy to receive donations of old letters and photos if they portray events or people of historical interest. An organization called The Legacy Project is currently collecting war letters from all American wars and can be contacted at WarLetters.com. Some items may be of interest to people who share a common interest or background with the decedent. I once purchased a yearbook commemorating the graduation of young Army officers from the Army Artillery school. The dog-eared yearbook was held together by a large rubber band and was obviously one of the decedents prized possessions. I purchased the yearbook for a dollar and gave it to an acquaintance that is a graduate of the modern version of the same school. In another case, a photo of mountaineers taken in the 1920’s went from the estate of one mountaineer to the office wall of another mountaineer.

Despite the emotions involved, I feel a sense of satisfaction when an estate sale is successfully wrapped up and the client is happy with the outcome. As auctioneers we serve the public by helping people though a difficult time in their lives. Our knowledge of how to best handle the process of bringing a life to a close makes the lives of our clients easier