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2009-06-16

A friend recently provided me with a copy of the Tallahassee Democrat and an article that appeared relative to Coparts Auto Auctions and their business of auctioning Harley-Davidson's during these troubled times in our economy. The article went on to list all of the fantastic business acumen that Coparts was using to auction the motorcycles for the Harley-Davidson Company.  The article went into a litany of describing how Coparts was using the internet as a foundation for conducting internet auctions. Of course, the emphasis was that internet auction bidding was in fact bringing in bidders from all over the globe and this was producing better than expected prices for Harley-Davidson's  attempt  to recoup dollars on assets that had been repossessed relative to troubled financing on a particular motorcycle.  The Democrat article went on to discuss the hundreds of motorcycles that were being auctioned by online bidding. I read the article and I laughed out loud and then cried.  I felt a certain amount of pity and obvious disdain for the Tallahassee Democrat relative to how they treat the local small business community. There is no doubt, you can buy yourself a copy of the Tallahassee Democrat and still find front page coverage of the Florida State Seminoles.  You can even read the blog of  Editor, Bob Garbordi, and be convinced, or least have them attempt to convince you, that during these troubled financial times sports are a good outlet that we should all engage in fun activities relative to reducing our stress level based on the troubled economy. My reaction to all this is that the Tallahassee Democrat and Editor Bob Garbordi need to get a life.  The Coparts article was a special to the Democrat.  In newspaper language that means that the Democrat had copy space it needed to fill.  They went out on the market to subscription lists and purchased the article as filler.  What a wonderful thing to do to fill a gap in your newspaper.  Much cheaper than having to hire a reporter. This is all being done while you have a local auction company that has had a great deal of experience in not only auctioning, but auctioning motorcycles, and also has a preeminent online bidding platform that they use on a weekly basis to gather bids from all over the globe.  Yes, believe it or not, right here in North Florida, located in small little Crawfordville.  The staff at Abal Auction Real Estate have been online bidding everything from real estate to personal property since 2004. They have bidders on their online platform that represent every state in the union and all of this fluctuates on an auction-by-auction basis depending upon what they're selling.  The Abal Auction team also has the experience of knowing how to sell Harley-Davidson motorcycles which they had occasion recently to do for Sheriff Harvey as an asset sale of drug forfeitures and seized property. Based on the individual marketing plan that the company devised for Sheriff Harvey and the Wakulla County Sheriff's Department, the motorcycle sold off their internet web page to the high bidder from North Carolina.  Now, let's mention a few local ramifications as was outlined in a financial matrix memorandum to the Sheriff's Department. When you sell a motorcycle in Crawfordville, Florida to someone from North Carolina he has to come and pick it up.  That means that when he comes to retrieve it in Crawfordville, he's going to spend money in Crawfordville and North Florida based on how he arranges his schedule during the time that he's here.  We can assume that many of those dollars will be generating tax revenue based on everything from food to housing, gas and any other incidentals that the bidder may need to purchase while  here. All of this somehow seems to escape the Tallahassee Democrat and their editors.  If they were really in need of 150 or 200 words on the subject of online auctions and how often  bidding can exceed expectations on high bids then pick up the phone and invite a guest writer. How about picking up the phone and interviewing a guest writer and then producing an article based on that interview.  It certainly would go a long way towards marketing the resources of a local company that bills itself as a local company with global marketing reach. Abal Auction Real Estate has a history as a brick and mortar company of auctioning everything imaginable to bidders from all over the globe.  The company has never forgotten its home base and maintains a working relationship with a local shipping company relative to shipping everything from coins to grandfather clocks. This attitude of business partnerships helps sustain the company relative to driving business to other local businesses to help them share in revenue-producing income activities of the auction company. I've never been impressed with the Democrat or its advertising.  I think they were caught up in the same problematic scheme of most newspapers, everybody thought the fat cash cow would never go away but the internet led by the 800 pound gorilla, Google, certainly has changed the picture. In our own auction company we saw the light and rather than fight it we've addressed that by embracing the "gorilla" and trying to use its power. We have already conducted an online auction where we did no print advertising, print mailers or distribution of flyers, but merely used a pure internet advertising scheme relative to our auction. The result was we did see a blip on the screen, the auction was successful and made our client, the consignor, money.   We had nothing to show relative to a bill that had to be paid for publication and classified advertising.   I guess this is where I should be crass and thank Al Gore for inventing the Internet, what an incredible marketing tool. I just wish the Democrat would give exposure to small businesses in the area.  These are the businesses that help to make up the economy and produce the jobs that are so badly needed in our area.  Here at Abal Auction we've never had anyone from the Tallahassee Democrat contact us relative to any of our business models. The only type of contacts we get are usually those asking if we would like to place an ad, or how the ad we placed was small at the time and what we could do to increase the likelihood it would be seen.  The answer is always boxes around the ad and placing it in reverse-color image.  Wow! Now that's stuff you can really sink your teeth into, huh. My suggestion would be that the next time the Democrat needs or is lacking for words relative to auctions and the auction process of real estate and personal property that they pick up the phone and call the staff at Abal Auction Real Estate.  This is probably going to be a good place for us to insert that, yes Tallahassee Democrat, you can sell real estate by the auction method of accelerated marketing. Call if you want to know more or know how it actually works. JA   ...read more Abal Auction Real Estate News/Press Releases