Over the weekend we (Belhorn Auction Services) conducted our final live pottery auction of the calendar year 2009. Looking back over 2009 the one consistent throughout the year has been both buyer and sellers concern about the economy and its effect on the pottery market specifically and the antiques market generally.  Despite the economy we saw good to great results on nearly all of the lots in the auction. While I would like to attribute it entirely to our expert marketing the fact remains that the pottery market, for a majority of lines and styles, is stable if not as robust as it was in the golden days earlier in this decade. The recession that we currently find ourselves in only highlights and accelerates the preexisting trends in these markets.  As auctioneers we are on the front lines of the market. Regardless of what we sell, a well conducted and marketed auction will realize market prices and from auction to auction will reveal general and sometimes detailed trends.

It is easy to get too high on strong prices and too low when items don’t meet expectations. I am as much a victim as anyone. However what is critical for auctioneers to understand is that we are unable to manufacture demand and despite our powers of persuasion we are powerless to create a market where one does not exists or brow beat people into spending. Rather the auctioneer is most effective when he or she is an educator. First educating and managing the expectations of the seller about the reality of the market and what are reasonable expectations. Second auctioneers must educate the buyers on the unique and desirable qualities of a given lot and facilitating their purchase with information and service. Third and often critical to new business is educating the public through prices realized. Our newest contributor to the Auctioneer Channel, Machinery Pete, is a master at highlighting the true nature of the market based on open and honest prices.

As much as we like to deny it tastes, styles and times change. The collapse in the Victorian furniture market is a perfect example.  The desires and demand of an entire nation and collecting public changed and while we all may wish that this table or that piece would bring what it did 20 years ago the demand simply is not there. Technology and manufacturing also render entire categories of personal property and machinery obsolete and near worthless. Like the winds at sea we are both victims and beneficiaries. As auctioneers our most endearing and useful skill might be helping sellers navigate good times and bad.