The Auction Chant: What is an auctioneer really saying?

Ever wonder what an auctioneer is really saying, and why they typically say it so fast? Whether you’re sitting at home watching a car auction at Scottsdale Auction Week or standing in the middle of the crowd in front of a John Deere S780 at a retirement sale, the auction chant can be hard to follow – especially if you don’t go to auctions all that frequently. What on earth are they saying, and what does it mean?

Well, at the end of the day, they’re just counting. They’re just doing it a whole lot faster than most of us can, and they’re inserting lots of words in between numbers.

That’s the short answer, at any rate.

The truth is, though, there’s a lot more to it than that. The auction chant is a carefully curated skill, and each one is unique to the auctioneer. It’s a blend of function, science, and art. Let’s break bid-calling down piece by piece.

The Function

I wasn’t kidding when I said that auctioneers get paid to count. They do. In its most base form, an auctioneer’s chat is essentially a two-part deal where the auctioneer is telling the bidders what has been bid, and what they want next. However, that would be awful monotonous for bidders to sit and listen to. Furthermore, it’d take forever because at some point in the counting, the auctioneer would end up stumbling over their words! Our tongues can only utter distinct numbers so fast, y’know? That’s where “filler words” come into play.

Auctioneer Filler Words

Filler words are important because they tie the numbers together and establish some rhythm and help market whatever they’re selling. Oftentimes, you’ll hear an auctioneer string a couple of filler words together to maintain the rhythm. Most of the time, the words are pretty easy, one-syllable words, but they can be whatever you want them to be.

Without filler words, auction chants would be awfully bland.

“One. Two. Three. Four.” And so on until the auctioneer lost count or we all got bored and left.

Filler words make it a lot easier to move quicker, too. Here’s an example using three filler words.

“One dollar bidder, now two.” The first part of the sentence is where auctioneer tells us what somebody has already bid ($1), and the second is the auctioneer asking who would give $2.

Sometimes you’ll start to hear the words start to run together or start like other words, especially as the cadence picks up speed. For instance, sometimes an auctioneer will change the word “dollar” to “dotter” because it’s easier to roll it off the tongue and maintain clarity. Try saying “dollar” five or ten times in a row as quickly as you can, and I’ll bet that by the third time, it doesn’t sound like “dollar” anymore. Now try it saying “dotter” a bunch of times real fast. If you’re anything like me, it’s easier to maintain clarity with “dotter” than it is with “dollar.”

Whether you realize it or not, we all do this on a daily basis. Sentences like “I want to ______” subconsciously become “I wanna _____” just because it rolls off the tongue more naturally, y’know?

Filler words are function, but they also tie in to the science of an auctioneer’s chant.

The Science

There’s a certain amount of science/psychology in an auctioneer’s chant, too. It’s a balance of speed, clarity, and rhythm. If an auctioneer does it right, it’ll create a sense of urgency, excitement, and a little bit of competitive spirit amongst the bidders. It’s a hard line to walk, though, and to get it right, it requires a lot of time and practice. Lots of practice.

Practice

Bid calling/chanting is a muscle. In order to keep the muscle limber, auctioneers have to practice, and they use a variety of different methods to do that. Everything from breathing exercises to number drills and tongue twisters to delivering a chant with a metronome clicking away to help establish the cadence.

The breathing exercises and the number drills are fairly straightforward. However, if you can get a few auctioneers in a room together, you’ll have lots of fun listening to them run through the Betty Botter tongue twister together.

Here’s the words. Give it a try!

At the end of the day, this may seem a little trivial, but I guarantee you that you’ll find plenty of auctioneers doing this to pass the time in the car just to keep their skills sharp. Practice is a very important part of the science of becoming a great auctioneer.

It’s more than just the mechanics of getting an auction chant together, though. There’s an art to this, too.

The Art

The art of the auction chant is where the element of showmanship becomes important. It’s something that’s hard to define, but it’s some sort of combo of charm, charisma, and humor. There’s lots of ways that this can be expressed. For some, it’s facial expressions or body language; others rely on voice inflection and witty one-liners. At some level, they’ll incorporate some of it into their on-stage presence. They all serve the same purpose, though; it communicates excitement and builds rapport with the audience.

One-liners are typically the things that people remember most. There’s plenty of tried and true one-liners that you’ll hear at an auction. However, when an auctioneer really gets into the groove, you’ll want to start paying more attention. For instance, I was listening to a Wisconsin auctioneer sell a nicely-restored Farmall Super M this morning. He was doing a fine job, but when the bidding stalled, he reminded the bidders that “Y’all ain’t even bought the paint job yet.” That one made me laugh out loud, and it instantly grabbed my attention.

Good auctioneers continue to develop this skill, and the more they do, the more they distinguish themselves from other auctioneers. They make an auction more interesting to listen to because they captivate their audience and make bidders want to bid!

Wrapping up…

Like I said earlier, there’s a lot more to an auctioneer’s chant than a bunch of unintelligible gibberish. It’s an instrumental part of what makes an auction work. Now that you understand the basics of the auction chant, you can put your ears to work and find an auction near you to listen to the real deal!

However, the auctioneer’s chant isn’t the only thing to pay attention to when you’re at an auction. There are lots of other parts of an auction that need to be there for it all to come together successfully. Stay tuned, we’ll talk about a few more of those parts down the road!