Auction Chants

We were flipping through channels and ran across an auction of used cars and trucks on a local channel. I was surprised to hear the old-fashioned auctioneer’s chant – you know – where he is calling out numbers in a sing-song voice that is basically mumbling and you have no idea what he said until he yells “sold” and points at some poor hapless chap who was scratching his ear.

I had no idea that auctions were still conducted this way. And mostly I was wondering WHY they would still be conducted this way! So I looked up Auctioneering on the internet and found that there are Auctioneering Schools where you can develop and perfect your very own “chant” – as if this is a desirable thing! They focus on technique, voice control and ‘effectiveness’ and describe “little rhyming devices and shortcuts to keep their chants simple but interesting.” Effective? Interesting? Hmmmmm. They suggest that good bid callers “blend art and entertainment.” Evidently the assumption is made that this is necessary to keep buyers interested and the auction moving along. Could that be?

Or maybe this is one of those situations in which a method is passed on from one practitioner to the next and there is never any input from someone outside the “profession,” if you will, supporting its effectiveness. A practice goes on in perpetuity whether it makes sense to anyone other than the “perpetrator.”

I offer final proof of my argument: Used car salesmen and their “wheelin’ and dealin’.” ArghhhhhhH!