6
at fast talking
by Karen Kroesche
“I’ll go two and a half, two
and a half, will you give two and
a half, willyoumakeit two and a
half, two andahalf, willyouta-
keittwoandahalf, willyoumakeit-
twoandahalf, two and a half
dollar bid. ”
The words roll off the an
nouncer’s lips so rapidly they
aren’t discernable. “Now five,
will you go five, willyoutakeit
five, now five, five dollars, wil-
lyougofivewillyoumakeitfivewil-
lyoumakeitfivewillyoutakeitfive,
five dollar bid. Now make it ten,
willyougo ten...”
Auctioneer A.L. “Buck” Bu
chanan II is at it again, selling
and talking and selling some
more.
The excitement is conta
gious, and auction fever
spreads rapidly, as even the
most passive bystanders are
transformed effortlessly into ac
tive participants.
Buchanan is dressed head-
to-toe in typical western attire,
and sports a dark handlebar
moustache which curls around
the corners of his mouth and
punctuates his every word.
The auctioneer plays with his
crowd, pitting one bidder
against the other. His jokes are
appreciated by his “friends and
naaaybers,” as he frequently
refers to them — a group as di
versified as the merchandise be
ing sold. His colorful descrip
tions of the items up for bid are
peppered with sincerity and
“good ol’ boy” style.
“Now, we plugged this
sander in and it makes some
noise, but we’re not real sure
about the motion,” Buchanan
tells the crowd.
“Kind of like my wife,” one
buyer retorts. Everyone laughs,
including his wife.
The auction is underway in a
dimly-lit building at 200 S. Main
in downtown Bryan that once
housed the Howell & Co.
Wholesale Grocers. More than
120 people fill the unaircondi-
tioned first floor, sitting attenti
vely in old wooden church
pews, or leaning casually
against the nearest piece of fur
niture — until it is sold.
The pace is quick, and many
a brow is dampened with per
spiration. But a friendly spirit of
competition pervades the hu
mid air, as each buyer bids on
his own personal treasure.
The objects up for bid range
from Lazy Boys to lawn mow
ers, from pianos to plumbing
fixtures. With 318 items to sell
in three hours or less, Bu
work,” Buchanan explains. “So
l decided just to get my own li
cense and go at it myself.
“It’s a very, very, very com
petitive business, and it’s real
hard to build,” he emphasizes.
“There are a lot of good auc
tioneers out there. ”
Buchanan says he has been
holding local auctions for the
last four years, but it is still nec-
A building in downtown Bryan which once housed Ho
well and Co. Wholesale Groceries is now home to some
of auctioneer A.L “Buck” Buchanan II’s sales.
chanan has his work cut out for
him.
For some, the job would
seem hectic, or frustrating at
best. But for this auctioneer, it’s
a way of life.
“I’ll sell just about anything,”
Buchanan says with a twinkle in
his eye. “I do it for a living. This
is all I do.
“I’ve kind of been a scav
enger, in a way, ever since I was
old enough to walk,” Buchanan
begins matter-of-factly. “I’m
doing what comes natural to
me, more or less.”
He says he became inter
ested in auctioneering about
eight years ago when he and his
father would hold promotional
auctions twice a year at their
feed store.
“When I was seriously think
ing about getting into the busi
ness, I checked in with a few
people, and I couldn’t find the
essary for him to go out and
“beat the bushes” looking for
business. He says he relies
largely on word of mouth and
recommendations from friends.
“I talk auction to everybody
... and I follow up on everything
that I hear,” he explains. “The
jobs aren’t that easy to find. ”
Buchanan says he keeps an
eye out for businesses in trouble
that might need to have a bank
ruptcy auction, and he also
keeps in touch with attorneys in
the event that they need an
auctioneer to host an estate
sale.
“I really knock on doors for
the business,” he says.
To leam the tricks of the
trade, Buchanan says he at
tended a local school for auc
tioneers. It was there that he
learned to count — auction
style. He says that there are 186
printed filler words that auc
tioneers use between the num
bers, and adds that some an
nouncers even tell stories
between bids.
“You try to develop a rhythm
to your chant,” he explains,
adding that consistency is a key
factor.
Buchanan takes most of his
merchandise on a consignment
basis — he receives a percent
age of the amount that each
item brings in. His job is to sell
things on behalf of his clients,
and it is a job that he seems to
take extremely seriously.
“A good auctioneer is sup
posed to have clarity, he’s sup
posed to have rhythm, he’s
supposed to be able to rep
resent the product,” he says. “I
work with selling the product for
the seller. That’s my job.”
Buchanan occasionally has
help from his audience in selling
a product, as was the case at his
most recent auction. An upright
piano was the item up for bid,
and the auctioneer asked the
audience if anyone would like
to demonstrate its quality. One
good-natured bidder, urged on
by his wife, sat down cautiously
at the keyboard and then effort
lessly let go with a boogie-woo
gie ragtime tune. The piano
sold for $375.
“I was fortunate that that guy
got up and played the piano. It
was a classic act,” Buchanan re
flects later. “It was really great.
And that helped the product. ”
This mild-mannered auc
tioneer says he’s careful to tell it
like it is at an auction, pointing
out any flaws in the merchan
dise that he is aware of.
“If it’s a broken lamp, I’m
going to sell it as a broken
lamp,” he explains. “I don’t
want to disillusion anybody that
way. Hopefully my reputation
will carry further as selling good
merchandise.”
However, Buchanan em
phasizes that one of the key
principles of auctions is the im
plicit understanding that all
sales are final.
“Auctions are as is, where is,
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