In Minnesota, auction start times have traditionally been scheduled for 10:00 a.m. A few years ago, we moved our start times to 9:30 a.m. We thought it might help us get a jump on the competitors in the area – especially on days when there are numerous auctions in the local area.
At today’s auction, we again experimented with the start time. Rather than go with the traditional start time of 10, we went with a start time of 8:30 a.m. It was a bit scary because we didn’t know if people would get out of bed so early on a Saturday morning. Well, by 7:30 it was obvious we were misguided in our assumption that people wouldn’t be raring to go at 8:30. Quite the opposite was true. We had over 200 numbers out before we started the auction at 8:30.
By early afternoon, I was conducting a very unscientific poll of bidders to see what they thought about the early start time. Much to my happiness, and somewhat surprise, the early start time received many positive comments. They mostly centered on buyers being able to come to the auction spend most of the auction there, and still be home by 1 or 2:00 p.m.
I’m hoping that we learn from this lesson, and make a decision as a company to move our auction start times to earlier in the morning. There are a few cold snowy days in the winter that would prevent winter days from starting so early. However, there is no reason the other 8 months can’t be spent starting auctions early in the morning.
On a related note, we held a real estate open house a few weeks back that ran from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. The open house time also received great reviews. Perhaps, at the initial urging of our clients, we have stumbled onto a concept that might help fight the 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. mass exodus that seems to happen at most auctions.