[tubesrule]

I think everyone needs to realize what goes into putting this show on. Everyone working the show volunteers to do this and spends days helping out before the show. While a "simple" change may or may not have an impact on the outcome, there are few changes that would be simple.

In the weeks leading up to the auction, Larry spends days starting to get the ETF's sets out and stacked into rows. This year when we arrived a few days before the auction, we spent an entire day taking pallets out of the semi-trailer and putting ETF stuff that was in the auction area back into the trailer. The next day was spent shuffling things around a bit but mostly getting the bid sheets in order and handling new stuff as it arrived. That lasted until 10PM Friday night. This is only partially what goes on to get ready.

The two main comments I've seen here are people not getting recognized by Dave and set ordering.

To the first one, each one of us on auction day has a job to do, and we try to help Dave out by spotting bidders. There was a comment about how other auction houses handle this, and I also have been to many top tier auctions. In them they have bidders assistants spread out through the crowd to latch on to bidders and make sure the auctioneer gets their bids, usually by literally screaming. We don't have this and never will. It is the bidders job to make Dave aware of their bid. Moving your hand slowly to shoulder height in a sea of people isn't going to do it. Loudly calling out your bid and making sure you get acknowledged is your job as a bidder. If you didn't get recognized, you didn't do your job.

On set ordering, perhaps some of the people who thought the order was inappropriate could volunteer to come down on Thursday next year and give us a hand moving literally thousands of pounds of tv's. We can use the help!

There are certainly things we can change after our first year with this new format and welcome positive discussion. We have already discussed having a projector at the front and carrying a camera around as the auction progresses so no one has to leave their seat. (in theory) Keeping everyone seated would go a long way to making sure bidders are recognized, that is if EVERYONE follows this and doesn't stand up. In the end, we need more willing bodies to do lots of grunt work if we are to make any major changes.